NEW DELHI: The American army will continue to take "significant" casualties in its bid to stabilize Iraq and this will deeply divide the polity in the United States, says a former Indian envoy to Baghdad.

"A horrendous price has been paid for the invasion and occupation of Iraq," Ranjit Singh Kalha says. In spite of Iraq having attained "independence", the US, quite significantly, retains operational control of the new Iraqi army.

There is no evidence that this new army, trained and recruited by the US, can operate on its own, Kalha, who served as Indian Ambassador to Iraq during the tumultuous years from 1992 to 1994 says in a new book, "The Ultimate Prize."

"Thus for the foreseeable future, the US would have to retain and station a significant military force in Iraq in order to stabilize the situation and keep the security situation under control," he says. "Military occupation is never very easy.

The US will continue to take significant casualties, which will inevitably deeply divide polity at home," he writes. The US has suffered over 4,000 casualties in Iraq. More than 25,000 US soldiers have been injured and America has spent a whopping US 500 billion in overthrowing Saddam Hussein.

US President George W Bush has ordered an indefinite suspension in troops withdrawal from Iraq after July to enable the military to evaluate future troop reductions.

Kalha says that the present situation confronting the United States in Iraq has an uncanny resemblance to that faced by the British when they occupied the country in 1917.

He points out that in 1914, the British expected that they would be received with cordiality and that the Turkish troops would offer little resistance.