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Ex-top commander lashes out at White House over Iraq
Oct 13, 2007, 7:49 GMT
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Older Talkback
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The General is absolutely right but he should have said it a long time ago. The USA has lost all credibility the more so by giving its blessing to the murder of countless innocent women and children by its troops and its mercenaries!!!
It's a bit more complicated than that Paul,it is not the USA which is faulty ,but it's current neocon government that lied to it's own population with the help of the MUrdoch FOX network and the usual involved republican thinktanks which only serve as bridge from defense contractors to the state coffers .The american populzation is also victimized and made to pay trillions of dollars to pay the bill.How much is that per capita right now ?Is there any doubt the average Joe will have to pay this ?Tax breaks are for the rich only...
Bush', very old news. You've got to remember, Bush bought his high school diploma.
Time to replace the government with the American Republic. No talk, action!
Not Tonny, it's nothing like that.
Bush one redefined the proper role of the modern military in foreign policy after Johnsons Vietnam debacle: Tell them the political goal and then let them figure out how to accomplish it.
He's doing damage control. He never learned professional brinksmanship.
If he were a better leader and politician, HE would have requested the surge level troops and done what Petraeus did. He would have bucked Rummy, who had no stomoch for this war and wanted to do it on the cheap. He would have held Congress hostage by saying it can't be done with less than 250,000 troops.
That's the problem with careerists: They ALL want a shot, and compromise you and I, just like the careerists in Congress, and the one's in the White House. The dems voted for this war to advance THEIR goals, not ours.
These military careerists kiss Congress's ass and the president's ass then blame them when it doesn't go their way, instead of putting it to them at the get-go.
Now, Petraeus walks in, tells them what he needs and says 'give it to me or send me to Alaska, I don't give a f--k, but make up your minds'.
THAT is how it's done. Put the metaphoric pistol to their heads. Tell them to do it your way or get someone else.
This is another big crock coming from SP4: 'Tell them the political goal and then let them figure out how to accomplish it.'
Political goals are for politicians, not soldiers. Soldiers shoot at things. Your statement is like Walt Disney saying: 'I want a fantasy land,' and then giving a soldier a bag of hot air to build it. And IS that REALLY you, SP4? That post seems to be far too coherent, even though it is still off-base.
Those are, exactly, Colin Powell's words. Now Colin is not my favorite guy, after his little involvement with Scoot Libby's deal, but as a general, he correctly articulated the position(let me dumb it down for you):
Soldiers shoot things BECAUSE politicians TELL them to, Ted. They are, in essence, carrying out the politicians wishes.(unless you are a Kerry democrat, in which case no one really KNOWS what you want!)
The only mistake Gen. Sanchez made was to walk in like their bitch and let these vipers run over his ass. It's a VERY common mistake for careerists like him, who don't correctly understand the military's place in our government.
Ollie North was another. A nice guy, who tried to please others instead of just serve the nation. He just forgot where he was, that's all.
Walt Disney DID very much THAT! He had a vision and OTHERS accomplished it! I know: I was there!
By the way, I have been saying the dems greenlighted this war for their own selfish political reasons ever since I started posting here. Where have you been?
SP4 appears to be one of those people who has been everywhere and done everything. Let us all stand in the light of his benighted wisdom. Let us all bow before this great wiseman. Let us all tell this waste of space to eff-off.
When is the last time in memory, and mine goes back a way, Did you hear so many Generals Cry so much 'Foul'.
These men were hand picked by the administration to lead their war, these were not just rogues.
I for one, as an unknowing, unschooled, Shlep could see this comming before the beginning of 'shock and awe'. When the then comanders begged Rumsfeld for 3 times the troupes.
When 11 of the 13 national inteligence agencies said 'Hussein is not a threat to us unless we go in there'.
These are 'Patriots' that are trying to tell us something, I hope those with ears can hear.
The 'patriots' that led us into this, and derided anyone that objected to the war, can now be Proud of their efforts. The blood of the innocents is on all of us.
Nice to see SP:4 but unfortunately he is an idiot!
'All of this points to the power possessed by a superior personality. On the one hand, such a man will have a view of the real sentiments of the great mass of humanity and therefore cannot be deceived; on the other, he will impress the people so profoundly, by his mere existence and by the impact of his personality, that they will be swayed by him as the grass by the wind.
.
Another letter then I would have lost the Title banner
If I was playing a game of chess I would start pawn to king four.
with me , so far?............Try this.......good luck
WHAT IS THE GLASS BEAD GAME?
Herman Hesse's Nobel Prize Winning Novel,
The Glass Bead Game
lays the foundations for an Artistic/Conceptual Game, which integrates all fields of Human and Cosmic Knowledge through forms of Organic Universal Symbolism, expressed by its players with the Dynamic Fluidity of Music. The Glass Bead Game is, in Reality, an Age Old metaphor for what has been called, the 'Divine Lila' (Play or Game of Life). This metaphor has been expressed by every great Wisdom Tradition known to man, and its players, the Magister Ludi (Masters of the Game), use as their instruments Ancient and Modern modes of Symbolic Wisdom traditionally presented through Sacred Art, Philosophy, Magick and Cosmology. For a more detailed elaboration of our vision of the GBG, see:
THE GLASS BEAD GAME
TO: So you've never heard of the glass bead game
All that you say is true enough. But please remember that it is ALL just a game. I read Hesse back in the '60's and if i recall correctly, the protagonist grew tired of the game, saw it for what it was (a Game),withdrew, and went to live the simple life. The game could also be interpereted as a metaphor on intellectualism. Particularly the shallow intellectualism that i have seen in university professors. They know nothing but the game. They, being IN the game, have no outer view of the game or where it came from or where it leads to. They are caught by the minutia and do not see the big picture. So they think inside the box, not realizing the trap.
@ Lou. True, Lou. But to continue the metaphor, you could include all human activity. Especially the modern world of television and the net.(i won't get into politics) It is all one empty, meaningless game. Take a look at the intellectual 'prowess' of such creatures as SP4. A prime example of the meaninglessness of conditioned human behavior. People still play the game, but they have no awareness of the game, the rules, its' intent, its' meaning. The game has become their life and as a result are dead to the living of life.
All are pawns in the game. Even our leaders are nothing but pawns. The game has taken over. It is a self-sustaining illusion. And most players are are deluded.
The Glass Bead Game, indeed was a metaphor. Hesse was showing the shallow trap that is intellectualism. If you read any of his other works, such as Siddhartha, you would realise that Hesse was a spiritualist, interested in the larger values and mysteries of life. That life is something to be experienced, not shaped, controlled, manipulated to satisfy small materialistic desires. Or to be manipulated by others, to satisfy their illusionary needs. How many people, today, really enjoy the experience of being alive? Not many game-players, I'll bet.
So if I screw up at my job can I blame Bush too?
I guess this General is lying just like the rest of them. Dam General's what do they know, especially the ones that have spend time on the ground in Iraq. They all are wrong and the administration is right??? I doubt it.
Not only the army lashes out at Bush,so does the intelligence sector .A lot of CIA agants were appaled by the lack of honesty and the manipulation of information by the Bush administration .An example is the yellow cake story that everbody knew to be a falsification .Saddam Hussein never bought any uranium in Niger or anywhere else .The CIA knew this to be a blatant lie,and so did Bush and Rumsfeld ,nevertheless they served this lie to Colin Powel and tried to force it to the UN assembly ,much to the dismal of the CIA agents.If George Tennet had not been the apointed BUsh poodle ,the story would have leaked out earlier .It took a courageous ambassador to tell the truth.Of course the fine gentlemen in the White House found nothing better than to out Valerie Plane as a CIA agent for ,a ridiculous gesture .
In fact many information leading to the Iraqi invasion was obtained trough torture and proved afterwards to be completely false .That was of course to be expected .Only the most abject of human people fail to understand that victims of torture tell their 'interogators' whatever they want to hear .In case you fail to understand SP4,that means something different from the truth .It is this kind of confessions that lead to Colin Powell to make a complete fool of himself before the UN assembly .AS soon as he found out how the information was gathered he quit from the BUsh administration .I guess he valued his moral integrity more than his position,a rare example in the Bush administration busy emptying the state coffers.
It always boils down to Democrats against Republicans and neither side will give in or admit maybe the other side is in the right, so how can anything get accomplished one way or the other. Nothing could be more evident regarding this than reading this website - if it weren't so ridiculous, it would almost be funny! No one outside the Middle East will ever understand the complexities of those countries and will continue to screw up big time!
'Jack Smack
I guess this General is lying just like the rest of them.'
If that is the case Jack, you finally have something in common with someone who has served the USA.
'Dam General's what do they know, especially the ones that have spend time on the ground in Iraq.'
So that would mean that David Petraeus is correct then when he says we are making progress in Iraq and Harry Reid/you are full of s**t. I think that is rather obvious at this point.
Other reports quote Sanchez as saying that 'Iraq is a national nightmare', brought about by Bush administration incompetence and recklessness. Our blood and money has been spilled in vain, and will continue to be wasted to prop up a failed presidency. We were fools to vote for the moron, not once, but twice!
To JAK
No, it is NOT dems Vs Reps. It is about truth versus lying, thieving, manipulationg psychopaths. And JAK, the truth eventually always comes out, in spite of continual lies, cover-ups, obfuscation, mis-direction, document burning, finger pointing and chin wagging.
Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded Coalition forces in Iraq from June '03-June '04, then was forced into retirement because of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, lashed out at the Bush administration, Congress, and the Press Friday.
We'll turn to the Army Times, which isn't shy about reporting everything the ex-General had to say, and focus on the fond words he had for reporters before the MSM dumps them down the memory hole.
This is the Army Times lead paragraph:
The former top commander of forces in Iraq lambasted reporters Friday for having “agenda-driven biases” he called “a threat to democracy,” and then laid out the Bush administration and Congress for bad planning and no clear end state for the war in Iraq.
Sanchez wasn't done:
Sanchez said his career was a casualty of the Abu Ghraib scandal.
He berated the room of about 30 to 40 reporters, saying he had been portrayed as a “liar” by people who had never met him...
...He said some poor strategic decisions in Iraq had become “defeats because of the media,” and that some reporters feed from a “pigs’ trough.”
He lamented the media’s treatment of Federal Emergency Management chief Michael Brown during Hurricane Katrina. Brown resigned from FEMA after accusations that he had mishandled the hurricane...
He said the partisan politics of Congress are “killing soldiers,” and that the focus needs to be not at Capitol Hill, but in Iraq. And, he said, the media’s coverage of partisan politics was driving a wedge in democracy. He called for newspapers to run corrections more prominently and noted that television and Internet outlets often don’t run corrections at all.
Sanchez also had much to say about the Bush administration, but you'll be able to get that, endlessly from the MSM, once they finish sanitizing the rest of Sanchez's remarks.
One wonders what General Hooker would have had to say about President Lincoln and General Grant in say, 1864.
'So that would mean that David Petraeus is correct then when he says we are making progress in Iraq and Harry Reid/you are full of s**t. I think that is rather obvious at this point.'
Hey genius, I never said that General Petraeus was incorrect---it will all come out in the end, but at this time it does not look good for your side. There is still a civil war going on and we are still stuck in it loosing 'soldiers', so I guess that is OK with your type. Also genius, he never said the Harry was 'full of s**t, now you are telling a lie.
can you put your photo on here sp4?
so what else is new. Bush thought the U.S.would march into Iraq, get Sadam, and everyone would return home heros, and the Iraqi people could get on with their lives in peace. One thing went wrong - he didn't plan for the next day and the day after that, ect. Now the mess continues and gets worse, and no one has a clue on what to do - Stay and more get killed, leave and more get killed - take your pick! The Democrats think the Republicans have all the wrong ideas and vice versa - a real comedy of errors!!!
'Hey genius, I never said that General Petraeus was incorrect'
Quote: 'A group of liars, supported by a group of liars, backed by a group of liars.'
Re The Petraeus/Crocker testimony. So I guess that is another one of your lies.
'at this time it does not look good for your side'
My side? The United States and civilization against islamist terrorism?
'here is still a civil war going on and we are still stuck in it loosing 'soldiers','
We? Israel is not fighting in Iraq.
'Also genius, he never said the Harry was 'full of s**t, now you are telling a lie.'
Who is 'he'???? I am the one who said Harry Reid is full of s**t. I guess you missed out on reading comprehension when you were a 13 year old grunt in Viet Nam.... You lying sack of c*ap.
Just sit for a few minutes and think about what the hundreds of US billions spent destroying one or more countries and parts of its populations could have been used for to do something good in many areas of the world where people are desperate, children die by the thousands each year of malnutrition, etc.
I have been travelling around the world for some 35 years (for work purposes) and I can tell you all in no uncertain terms that the world is much worse than it used to be when I was a child just after the second World War. Most leaders are corrupt to the bones, incompetent, out of touch with reality and totally destructive. I should know....since I sometimes work for them!!!
I fear for our children and grandchildren and the future generations.
What a shame this Lemming didn't make these comments four years ago. For what it is worth I suppose 80 per cent of the world can say 'We told you so'.
bush started the war just so he can destroy america.
that's what commies do best,the dirty s.o.b.
And if this 'Lemming' had spoken 4 years ago, would it have made any difference to bull-headed Bush????
Anyone who thinks this is about truth, or wisdom, or some other noble endeavour is fooling themselves.
The General, most of his colleagues, all the politicians on both sides of the aisle and this president all have one, indisputable thing in common:
Their careers.
To that end, General Naive is trying to save his. The others try to save theirs. The only guy who got what he wanted told them to deliver or cut him loose. He (Petraeus) is the only one who has actually delivered something.
No, Tonny, it has nothing to do with the rest. If you think nobility actually exists on one side of the aisle (pick either one), you are a fool. Our leaders are careerists, plain and simple.
This war was about political upmanship, nothing-to-lose politics, a second term and the inevitability of the enemy. Now, the democrats are funding it, and all the talk of defunding is just talk. Even Hillary is still talking occupation, then again, when you stand for nothing, you are not required to stand for something. What a wonderful, sheeplike, constituancy she must have!
Sanchez just forgot who he was dealing with, and what the enemy actually wanted, that's all.
The right wing of this country, hate the truth. Now there will be further trash thrown at this great american.
'oh...heloo General! Yes suh, ah hava been reedin y' comments on the war...yes suh...enn lightnin, t say the least! Pity I'm out in a yeah, but...I'm sure y' all will lahnd on y' feet there son! I'll be in Carwford havin coffah with muthu sheehan if'n y' need me!'
...Yes...yess..ah knoow, ol Rummah wuz a reel pain in th ass...yes...ol Dick wuz meen...REEL meen....whah yes, thim congressmen an women are reel mean too...they's a pack o bastahds t' be surah son, take it frum mee!
...but boyh, y made jes one miss take...y' want thim t lahke ya!...Ah knooow, I unnerstand....it's a reel burdun boyh....but y' cin't be rollin ovah everah tahme they hold thit career o' yurs hostage! Jeesusah cheerahst boyh...y' a militaryah man fer god sakes! If'n y' cin't hold thim lafetahme politicians off at th pass, whats thit say boyh?
'...oooh yeah, that abu grihab mess din't hep none eithah! Ah meen all ya did wuz dress em up an stuff, but y' jes cin't be doin that sheeit anyomore...well...not...in full view anyways....oh yeah, they do it in eastern europe all th tahme at thim prisons...I suspect ol Dick did it to ol Albeeertooo ocasionally too!....no...he ain't comin back eithah boyh!'
'Genral, y' git on TV, make a fuss, tell em it wuz mah fault boyh! I'll hep ya by keepin silent, so y' cin have th rest o yur career! That's rahght...I'm here t' hep ya...an Hirry Reid, an Hillary, an ol Joe Biden...he hasn't stole any speech's lately, has he?..Yes suh, leutenent Bush is on th job suh'
'honey, who was that?'
'Oh, jes a crank call Laura...g' back t' sleep hon.'
(Now that everyone has covered the story and distorted it to meet their own ends, time for the recap)
www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-sanchez13oct13,0,5708908.s tory?coll=la-home-center
WASHINGTON — Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, who led U.S. forces in Iraq for a year after the March 2003 invasion, accused the Bush administration Friday of going to war with a 'catastrophically flawed' plan and said the United States is 'living a nightmare with no end in sight.'
Sanchez described the current troop increase in Iraq as 'a desperate attempt by the administration that has not accepted the political and economic realities of this war.'
'The administration, Congress and the entire interagency, especially the State Department, must shoulder the responsibility for this catastrophic failure, and the American people must hold them accountable,' Sanchez told military reporters and editors. 'There has been a glaring unfortunate display of incompetent strategic leadership within our national leaders.'
Sanchez lashed out specifically at the National Security Council, calling officials there negligent and incompetent, without offering details. He also blasted war policies over the last four years, which he said had stripped senior military officers of responsibility and thrust the armed services into an 'intractable position' in Iraq.
'The best we can do with this flawed approach is stave off defeat,' Sanchez said in a speech to the Military Reporters and Editors' annual conference in Arlington, Va. 'Without bipartisan cooperation, we are destined to fail. There is nothing going on in Washington that would give us hope.'
He faulted the administration for failing to 'communicate effectively that reality to the American people.'
Sanchez offered little advice about fixing military problems in Iraq. Efforts generally need more resources and skill, he said. 'From a catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan to the administration's latest surge strategy, this administration has failed to employ and synchronize its political, economic and military power,' Sanchez said.
Sanchez led Combined Joint Task Force 7 in Iraq beginning on June 15, 2003. Under his command, an insurgency erupted in Iraq, and he and other top officers were slow to respond to it, in part because of the reluctance of then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials to recognize its existence.
Some officials thought the anti-U.S. attacks would fade away after Saddam Hussein was captured in December 2003, but the insurgency intensified, with pitched battles the next spring in Najaf and Fallouja. Some analysts have argued that Sanchez had little feel for strategy and permitted commanders to use tactics that helped intensify opposition to the U.S. presence in the country.
Sanchez might be remembered most as the top general in Iraq during the period when the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuses occurred and were later revealed. Photographs of Iraqi detainees being humiliated shocked many, and provoked a reevaluation of the U.S. presence in Iraq. Some enlisted troops and Army Reserve officers were charged in the scandal, but in legal proceedings and official reviews no top commanders were deemed responsible.
Sanchez retired after officials decided not to give him a fourth star; they feared a public confirmation hearing would go badly in light of Abu Ghraib. He is now a senior mentor at the military's Joint Warfighting Center.
It was HIS show. All he had to do was tell them he wasn't going to endorse it! Anyone bother to ask him why he DID?
(This article reveals the thinking of the next likely GOP nominee. Read the entire first link, and be forewarned. Sanchez explains why policy MUST be accompanied by good strategy and execution, and Bush's problem throughout has been miserable strategy and execution, as well as consistently listening to the wrong people, by his own intent. Giuliani looks like more of the same, along with a bigger ego, were that possible. Giuliani's 'social' positions and personal history give him electability problems with the right wing, so we're seeing a big push to be hawk-in-chief. His personal reputation in NYC is also none too favorable.)
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21162326/site/newsweek/
Podhoretz is in favor of bombing Iran because of the country's unwillingness to suspend its uranium-enrichment program. He also believes America is engaged in a 'world war' with 'Islamofascism' and that Giuliani is the only man who can win it. 'I decided to join Giuliani's team because his view of the war—what I call World War IV—is very close to my own,' Podhoretz tells NEWSWEEK. (World War III, in his view, was the cold war.) 'And also because he has the qualities of a wartime leader, including a fighting spirit and a determination to win.'
Among the core consultants surrounding Giuliani: Martin Kramer, who has led an attack on U.S. Middle Eastern scholars since 9/11 for being soft on terrorism; Stephen Rosen, a hawkish professor at Harvard who advocates major new spending on defense and is close to prominent neoconservative Bill Kristol; former Wisconsin senator Bob Kasten, who often sided with the neocons during the Reagan era and was an untiring supporter of aid to Israel, and Daniel Pipes, who has advocated for the racial profiling of Muslim Americans. (He's argued that the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II was not the moral offense it's been portrayed as, though he doesn't say Muslims should suffer the same.)
(Newsweek did manage to mix up some images and profiles)
In Foreign Affairs magazine, there's a 7-page Neocon manifesto under Giuliani's name - there are lots of good points made, but Giuliani is not the President to bring it off, by his petulant temperment and overweening ego:
www.foreignaffairs.org/20070901faessay86501/rudolph-giuliani/toward-a-r ealistic-peace.html
... Giuliani said ''too much emphasis” has been placed on brokering negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
sp4 will go running to george like the titty baby he is.
you said something bad about my hero .
RE: It was HIS show. All he had to do was tell them he wasn't going to endorse it! Anyone bother to ask him why he DID?
======================
This is exactly what we expect Generals to do - obey their superiors. If ASKED for an opinion, off the record, they should give it. Otherwise, they're expected to salute and obey. Ask Shinseki what happened to someone who disagreed with Rumsfeld.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Shinseki#Tensions_with_Rumsfeld_while_Chief_ of_the_Army
The personality clash between Shinseki and Rumsfeld was well known. Shinseki had a reputation as a quiet, reserved officer, while Rumsfeld had a history of his tough questioning and 'wire-brushing' senior officers. (Barnett describes wire-brushing as 'chewing them out, typically in a public way that's demeaning to their stature. It's pinning their ears back, throwing out question after question you know they can't answer correctly and then attacking every single syllable they toss up from their defensive crouch.') Shinseki and other army officers resented Rumsfeld's rough treatment of officers, while Rumsfeld and his aides felt the military had to be challenged vigorously in order for the civilians to exercise effective control of the department and steer it in the right direction.
As [General] Newbold outlined the plan … it was clear that Rumsfeld was growing increasingly irritated. For Rumsfeld, the plan required too many troops and supplies and took far too long to execute. It was, Rumsfeld declared, the 'product of old thinking and the embodiment of everything that was wrong with the military.'
[T]he Plan . . . reflected long-standing military principles about the force levels that were needed to defeat Iraq, control a population of more than 24 million, and secure a nation the size of California with porous borders. Rumsfeld's numbers, in contrast, seemed to be pulled out of thin air. He had dismissed one of the military's long-standing plans, and suggested his own force level without any of the generals raising a cautionary flag.
(After a strong rebuff to Rice and Gates, Putin is on his way to Iran. It will be very bad news if Putin now supports their nuclear reactor. Bush has completely lost control of the situation, as Putin has made moves to insure his control in Russia, and they're economically self-sufficient at this point. Iraq has drained our ability to achieve support from our allies, at a point where it's needed for Afghanistan. Bush has worn out his welcome completely, and Putin has taken center stage. Rice is already backing off expectations for the upcoming conference. A State visit from Putin to Iran cannot be good news.)
dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pub&dt=071014&cat=international&st=int ernationald8s92vsg0&src=ap
Russia has resisted the U.S. push for stronger sanctions against Tehran and strongly warned Washington against using force in its standoff with Iran over its nuclear program. But Moscow's position is carefully hedged. It has delayed completing the plant, Iran's first, and is urging the country to comply with international controls on its nuclear activities.
Any show of support for Iran, such as a pledge by Putin to quickly complete the power plant, could embolden Iran and further cloud Russia's relations with the West.
Putin bluntly spelled out his disagreements with Washington on Wednesday, saying he saw no 'objective data' to prove Western claims that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons. And at talks Friday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, he ridiculed U.S. plans for a missile defense system in eastern Europe, supposedly to stop an Iranian attack. His bluntness appeared to shock Rice and Gates.
Putin's visit, during which he will meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and attend Tuesday's summit of Caspian Sea nations, is a first. No Kremlin leader has traveled to Iran since Josef Stalin in 1943, for a wartime summit with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Putin's trip is important for Iran even if it yields no agreements. 'It's a break in international isolation, a chance to show that Iran is an important country,' said Alexander Pikayev, a leading expert on Iran with Russia's Institute for World Economy and International relations.
'Now that everyone has covered the story and distorted it to meet their own ends, time for the recap'
No, you mean it is time for you to distort the story to meet your desire to see the USA defeated in Iraq. Face it, there is continuing progress being made there.
'Electing Giuliani would prolong the agony'
Even Hillary couldn't guarantee that there wouldn't be an American presence in Iraq at the end of her first term. The worst in Iraq is over and whomever wins the election (I wouldn't bet on Hillary because you are going to get some well timed surprises.) isn't going to be the one to throw it all away.
'Read the entire first link, and be forewarned. Sanchez explains why policy MUST be accompanied by good strategy and execution'
LOL, it's a bit late for him to be having this realization.
'as well as consistently listening to the wrong people, by his own intent.'
Like Sanchez.
' His personal reputation in NYC is also none too favorable.'
I live in New York City and saw with my own two eyes what he did. The difference between his administration and the Dinkins one was just phenomenal. Rudy turned this city around from a disaster where it took 3 hours to get down town on the subway from the upper west side, where our infrastructure was completely falling apart, where the public debt was more then the city had to sell off, where the homeless were all over the place to a financially solvent, well run, functional city. If he can do that in the mess that New York was he can manage just about anything.
'Podhoretz is in favor of bombing Iran because of the country's unwillingness to suspend its uranium-enrichment program. He also believes America is engaged in a 'world war' with 'Islamofascism' and that Giuliani is the only man who can win it.'
News flash: We ARE in a war with 'Islamofascism' and Iran is probably the most miserable regime on earth.
'by his petulant temperment[sic] and overweening ego:'
You have a hell of a nerve calling anyone else 'petulant'.
'Giuliani said ''too much emphasis” has been placed on brokering negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.'
And?
'Our next problem - Putin visiting Iran'
So just a minute ago you were whining about Podhoretz taking a hard line on Iran... Now it's Bush's fault that he is not? You are contradicting yourself again with your own BS.
'Bush has completely lost control of the situation,'
We are trying to be 'multilateral' and use the UN and EU unlike the situation in Iraq that left you permanently traumatized, poor dear. Multilateralism and relying on our allies is solving the situation...Just like it stopped the genocide in Darfur and Rwanda. See, there will be nothing 'illegal' about Iran defying the UN and blowing up Israel unlike that bad 'ol illegal removal of Saddam.
'Iraq has drained our ability to achieve support from our allies, at a point where it's needed for Afghanistan.'
Are you sure it isn't because we have enabled them to be a bunch of whining cowards since 1945?
'Bush has worn out his welcome completely, and Putin has taken center stage.'
Well, I guess you have found a leader you can get behind. Idiot.
'. A State visit from Putin to Iran cannot be good news.'
Nope, selling a doomsday device to the insane mullahs is not good news. Perhaps we should ask the Ukraine, Chechnya and Georgia if they want some of our doomsday devices...
RE: No re-cap PB, you are full of cr*p.Oct 14th, 2007 - 22:10:39
Face it, there is continuing progress being made there.
(Tell it to the patient waiting for their disease to be cured. Bush's own explanation of the surge was to provide time for the Iraqi government to achieve their own goals. It has not happened. Meanwhile, the bombings continue, and the refugee problem worsens, as well as the accompanying diseases such as cholera. 'Progress' needs to consist of more than a change in body count due in part to their holidays. We've given Maliki ample time to get his act together. The country is fracturing along tribal lines, with over Shia 100 tribes in the Basra area alone. Getting a consensus becomes more and more complex, the more time is spent. We've paid off the Sunni, and the Shia are there with their hands out. This is not 'progress', it's 'Payola'.)
dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pub&dt=071014&cat=international&st=int ernationald8s989080&src=ap
'While Baghdad and cities to the north have faced a series of deadly attacks throughout Ramadan, the numbers have been relatively low and dropped significantly with the start of Eid al-Fitr, during which Iraqis visit the graves of relatives and pack into parks to celebrate the end of a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting.
The deaths reported in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, raised the number of people killed or found dead on Saturday from a low of four to 22. That number was 16 on Friday, a dramatic drop from the 50 deaths reported a day earlier.
The number of Iraqi civilian and U.S. fatalities also dropped sharply in September as American and Iraqi officials were cautiously optimistic about the success of a security crackdown in Baghdad and surrounding areas that began in February with an influx of thousands of additional troops.
But the military has been unable to stop the spectacular car bombings and other attacks that are usually blamed on Sunni insurgents.'
=====================================================
'Electing Giuliani would prolong the agony'
Even Hillary couldn't guarantee that there wouldn't be an American presence in Iraq at the end of her first term. The worst in Iraq is over and whomever wins the election (I wouldn't bet on Hillary because you are going to get some well timed surprises.) isn't going to be the one to throw it all away.
(There will have to be some presence, but nowhere on the order of the 160,000 we see now, or even 130,000. We have that huge embassy complex to protect, amongst other bases. We are putting fixed assets in the midst of a war zone, insuring that someone must remain to protect them. The majority of the American people realize that some troop presence will be there even 10 years from now, because they don't want their son's or daughter's sacrifices to have been in vain.)
==========================
'Read the entire first link, and be forewarned. Sanchez explains why policy MUST be accompanied by good strategy and execution'
LOL, it's a bit late for him to be having this realization.
(As noted in the post you apparently did not read, Rumsfeld was not listening, and arrogantly disposed of people like Shinseki who disagreed. It's sort of like arguing with an a-hole like yourself, I imagine. The American people have seen a lot of incompetence in leadership, and they should see to it that a change is made. They've learned by now that 60 votes are required for cloture. Giuliani will cause more problems than he solves, as we've lost the support of other major powers that should have been IN OUR POCKET had a case been made in 2001 for a worldwide push against terrorism, and we'd then remained in Afghanistan, rather than seeing it become a narco-state fractured along the same tribal lines as Iraq is headed for.)
'Our next problem - Putin visiting Iran'
So just a minute ago you were whining about Podhoretz taking a hard line on Iran... Now it's Bush's fault that he is not? You are contradicting yourself again with your own BS.
(What are you trying to say through that thick fog that you inhabit? Podhoretz has been one of the chief instigators of the failed policies we live with today. Why would Giuliani see him as s sudden fount of knowledge, except to gain points with the hard right who won't support him on any other issues? Bush has no good options re Iran, and having Putin make a very rare State visit only elevates Iran's standing, and at the same time Iran's supreme leader al Khamanei is urging a boycott of Bush's peace conference, which is likely off the rails anyway, since everyone realizes that Bush and Rice cannot produce results).
www.voanews.com/english/2007-10-13-voa7.cfm
'Iran's chief religious leader is urging Arab nations to boycott an upcoming U.S.-hosted peace conference. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued the call Saturday during a sermon in Tehran. The conference next month is aimed at resolving the issue of Palestinian statehood, but Ayatollah Khamenei says the real goal is to prop up Israel, which he called the 'Zionist regime.' The cleric says previous peace conferences have been at the expense of the Palestinian people. He questioned the need for Arab states to attend the forum, since the Palestinians themselves are not taking part.'
=======================================
'Bush has completely lost control of the situation,'
Multilateralism and relying on our allies is solving the situation...
(Where is that solution happening? The British are leaving Basra for the Shia tribes to quibble over, and the Shia therefore should have every reason to stop shooting each other and work towards a political solution. They've already won control of the country. Their issue locally is control of the Basra oil revenues, and it will be up to the sheiks to maintain order Local government at work; or NOT. With the problems with Turkey, Basra should grow in importance to us as a port.)
=========================
'Iraq has drained our ability to achieve support from our allies, at a point where it's needed for Afghanistan.'
Are you sure it isn't because we have enabled them to be a bunch of whining cowards since 1945?
(I assume the 'cowards' you refer to are the NATO members - you seem to condemn everyone, so it can be hard to tell who you're talking about. Those 'cowards' provided assistance in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and the people who elect their leaders were unwilling to allow for an unlimited timeframe, as the U.S. is being asked to do. Next time we need 'a coalition of the willing', there will be a lot fewer 'willing'. This is what happens when you waste resources, and take them for granted.)
=============
Bush won't have support worldwide for a pre-emptive attack in Iran, much as the Podhoretz/Cheney 'axis' would enjoy it. Putin's visit to Iran is a signal that we won't have Russia's support; just as Bush is failing to get support for an anti-missile program in the area near Russia. I get the impression that Bush decided to go ahead with that before speaking privately to Putin, and getting some assurances of cooperation. This is more of the ego and arrogance that have marked Bush's reign, and the subsequent loss of position every single time that he tries it. Part of Giuliani's pitch is that he will seek to use diplomacy; but I don't think it's in his nature. Ask his former wives. Ask the first responders in New York. Senator Clinton did a lot more for New York than Rudy did. Now, in a blatant role-reversal, he shows up at the NRA convention 'pro-gun', and takes a cell call from his wife for some odd reason while speaking, attempting to establish his humanity. Do you want a President with his finger on the nuclear trigger, who cannot put a cell phone on 'vibrate' during an appearance?
Better Numbers
The evidence of a drop in violence in Iraq is becoming hard to dispute.
Sunday, October 14, 2007;
NEWS COVERAGE and debate about Iraq during the past couple of weeks have centered on the alleged abuses of private security firms like Blackwater USA. Getting such firms into a legal regime is vital, as we've said. But meanwhile, some seemingly important facts about the main subject of discussion last month -- whether there has been a decrease in violence in Iraq -- have gotten relatively little attention. A congressional study and several news stories in September questioned reports by the U.S. military that casualties were down. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), challenging the testimony of Gen. David H. Petraeus, asserted that 'civilian deaths have risen' during this year's surge of American forces.
A month later, there isn't much room for such debate, at least about the latest figures. In September, Iraqi civilian deaths were down 52 percent from August and 77 percent from September 2006, according to the Web site icasualties.org. The Iraqi Health Ministry and the Associated Press reported similar results. U.S. soldiers killed in action numbered 43 -- down 43 percent from August and 64 percent from May, which had the highest monthly figure so far this year. The American combat death total was the lowest since July 2006 and was one of the five lowest monthly counts since the insurgency in Iraq took off in April 2004.
During the first 12 days of October the death rates of Iraqis and Americans fell still further. So far during the Muslim month of Ramadan, which began Sept. 13 and ends this weekend, 36 U.S. soldiers have been reported as killed in hostile actions. That is remarkable given that the surge has deployed more American troops in more dangerous places and that in the past al-Qaeda has staged major offensives during Ramadan. Last year, at least 97 American troops died in combat during Ramadan. Al-Qaeda tried to step up attacks this year, U.S. commanders say -- so far, with stunningly little success.
The trend could change quickly and tragically, of course. Casualties have dropped in the past for a few weeks only to spike again. There are, however, plausible reasons for a decrease in violence. Sunni tribes in Anbar province that once fueled the insurgency have switched sides and declared war on al-Qaeda. The radical Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr ordered a cease-fire last month by his Mahdi Army. Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the top day-to-day commander in Iraq, says al-Qaeda's sanctuaries have been reduced 60 to 70 percent by the surge.
This doesn't necessarily mean the war is being won. U.S. military commanders have said that no reduction in violence will be sustainable unless Iraqis reach political solutions -- and there has been little progress on that front. Nevertheless, it's looking more and more as though those in and outside of Congress who last month were assailing Gen. Petraeus's credibility and insisting that there was no letup in Iraq's bloodshed were -- to put it simply -- wrong.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/13/AR200710130107 1.html
(It's hard to be listened to when no one respects you. The U.S. had many things going for it, once upon a time ... honorable intentions, the top military, and economic power. All are in decline. Bush has had years to step up and build up the active military, and now we resort to lower standards for inductees, including minor criminal records which were unacceptable. We are also paying massive re-up bonuses. The problem is that the contractors are earning even more).
(The legs are being cut out from under the upcoming Annapolis summit, and even Rice is backing off in terms of what can be achieved since she cannot even get a preliminary document agreed upon. I would not be surprised to see this meeting delayed, or cancelled outright. If there's one American term that the world has learned, it's 'Photo-Op').
www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.arabs14oct14,0,1723515.story
Posturing and recrimination often characterize such negotiations, but Arab capitals, including Washington's closest allies, are criticizing the November conference in Annapolis as a miscalculated photo-op by a Bush administration desperate to repair its image across the Middle East. Iran's supreme leader urged Muslim leaders yesterday not to attend the conference, saying that the meeting would hurt the Palestinians.
'Efforts are being made to once again make an imposition on the Palestinian people in the name of peace. ... The result of all conferences held in the name of peace so far have been to the detriment of the Palestinian nation,' Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in a speech marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Mustafa Alani, an analyst with the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, said the meeting is not an effort to save the Palestinians.
'It's an attempt to prop up the administration's very low standing in the Arab world,' Alani said. 'Saudi Arabia and other Washington allies will lose a lot of credibility if this is just to take part in an American show.'
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to visit the region to persuade Arab capitals to send at least ministry-level officials to the meeting. But analysts and media in the Middle East complain that Washington has not done the diplomatic legwork needed to advance peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
'Everybody knows what's at stake,' said Mohamed El-Sayed Said, an analyst with the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. 'But the conference is very mushy. It is far from certain how outstanding issues such as the Palestinian question, the Arab-Israeli peace and other concerns like Palestinian refugees will be addressed.'
The summit comes as America's allies in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan are less circumspect than they once were in criticizing U.S. policy. The Iraq war, growing Islamic extremism and the Israel-Palestinian equation are regarded as failures whose effects will agitate the region long after Bush leaves office.
Riyadh, Cairo and Amman have tried, with limited success, to stitch together a unified regional voice to overcome what they see as Washington's mistakes, which have become more pronounced against the specter of Iran's meddling influence.
The critical question around the conference from the Arab perspective is how, if at all, the U.S. can spur Israel to advance the 1993 Oslo Accords and move closer to a Palestinian state. The other issue is resolving the internal strife among the Palestinians, whose allegiances are split between President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah Party in the West Bank the radical Islamic group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The violent break between the two earlier this year reverberated across the region, lifting Hamas' stature as a defiant alternative to political parties and regimes considered by many Arabs as too close to Washington.
(more in the link itself)
'Tell it to the patient waiting for their disease to be cured.'
- In September, Iraqi civilian deaths were down 52 percent from August and 77 percent from September 2006.
-U.S. soldiers killed in action numbered 43 -- down 43 percent from August and 64 percent from May.
-The American combat death total was the lowest since July 2006 and was one of the five lowest monthly counts since the insurgency in Iraq took off in April 2004.
-in the past al-Qaeda has staged major offensives during Ramadan. Last year, at least 97 American troops died in combat during Ramadan. Al-Qaeda tried to step up attacks this year, U.S. commanders say -- so far, with stunningly little success.
Not only that, insurgent on insurgent violence has increased:
The 1920 Revolution Brigades -- a prominent Sunni militant group linked to the Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood -- has issued an irate response to recent criticisms by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and other spokesmen for Al-Qaida's 'Islamic State of Iraq.' In its statement, the 1920 Brigades dismissed these claims as 'an effort at settling a score or possibly even the product of a personal agenda.' The 1920 Revolution Brigades also issued its own set of counter-allegations, accusing Al-Qaida in Iraq of engaging in a consistent pattern of treachery, deceit, and murder.
counterterrorismblog.org/2007/10/nefa_foundation_1920_revolutio.php
And the Shiites, like the Sunnis have started to reject their thug militias:
BAGHDAD, Oct. 11 — In a number of Shiite neighborhoods across Baghdad, residents are beginning to turn away from the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia they once saw as their only protector against Sunni militants. Now they resent it as a band of street thugs without ideology.
The hardening Shiite feeling in Baghdad opens an opportunity for the American military, which has long struggled against the Mahdi Army, as American commanders rely increasingly on tribes and local leaders in their prosecution of the war....
“We thought they were soldiers defending the Shiites,” said Sayeed Sabah, a Shiite who runs a charity in the western neighborhood of Huriya. “But now we see they are youngster-killers, no more than that. People want to get rid of them.”
While the Mahdi militia still controls most Shiite neighborhoods, early evidence that Shiites are starting to oppose some parts of the militia is surfacing on American bases. Shiite sheiks, the militia’s traditional base, are beginning to contact Americans, much as Sunni tribes reached out early this year, refocusing one entire front of the war, officials said, and the number of accurate tips flowing into American bases has soared.
Shiites are “participating like they never have before,” said Maj. Mark Brady, of the Multi-National Division-Baghdad Reconciliation and Engagement Cell, which works with tribes.
“Something has got to be not right if they are going to risk calling a tips hot line or approaching a J.S.S.,” he said, referring to the Joint Security Stations, the American neighborhood mini-bases set up after the troop increase this year.
“Everything is changing,” said Ali, a businessman in the heavily Shiite neighborhood of Ur, in eastern Baghdad, who, like most of those interviewed, did not want his full name used for fear of being attacked. “Now in our area for the first time everyone say, ‘To hell with Mahdi Army.’
“Not loudly on the street, but between friends, between families. Every man, every woman, say that.”....
'This doesn't necessarily mean the war is being won. U.S. military commanders have said that no reduction in violence will be sustainable unless Iraqis reach political solutions -- and there has been little progress on that front.'
(Same thing that Sanchez is saying - in a baseball game, the score in the third inning is irrelevant. We have a LOT of innings to go in Iraq, and we've purchased the support that we have now with hard cash. Bush just wants the duct tape to hold until he's out of office. You can pay off the neighborhood gang not to trash your store, but that's not law enforcement. NONE of these groups have any lasting loyalty to the U.S., but at the moment, we at least prevent outright chaos, while polling about 80% unfavorable amongst the total population. Sanchez identified numerous problems, some of which we're past overcoming, and some which can be worked on a lot better - INCLUDING getting the Iraqi government to function. It's a very tall order, since it's a bottom-up problem of incompetence and corruption from the local levels right through the ministries to the top, but it's the core problem that has to be addressed - and it is NOT a military problem, where a better body-count does the trick).
You keep treating the wrong disease, because it's the only medicine you have available.
'he country is fracturing along tribal lines, with over Shia 100 tribes in the Basra area alone.'
LOL! you were the one advocating for the Biden amendment. Look, idiot, your 'freedom fighters' are being defeated. the last 4 heads of aL Qaeda in Iraq have had a life expectancy of about 3 weeks a piece. Your tact of 'We've given Maliki ample time to get his act together.' has already reached its expiration date as events over the past 6 weeks have roundly overtaken him. If our troops can consolidate their gains the last REAL objective left will be diminishing Iran's role in Iraq and then it will be just a matter of keeping a lid on the situation until the last of the insurgency burns itself out.
'There will have to be some presence, but nowhere on the order of the 160,000 we see now, or even 130,000. '
If the violence increases after the surge starts to pull out there is already preparations (YES, ALREADY) for a 'Son of surge' which could go well in to the next administration.
'We are putting fixed assets in the midst of a war zone, insuring that someone must remain to protect them.'
LOL... Purely coincidental... :-D
'American people realize that some troop presence will be there even 10 years from now, because they don't want their son's or daughter's sacrifices to have been in vain.'
Yes. What does that mean? Eventual achievement of our goals. In a word: victory.
'As noted in the post you apparently did not read,'
Nope, I have long since given up on your blather. This guy screwed up big time. Were I in his position I would have screamed bloody murder at the idea that we should disband the Iraqi army.
'The American people have seen a lot of incompetence in leadership, and they should see to it that a change is made. '
Yes, Rumsfeld should be fired. Oh wait...
'They've learned by now that 60 votes are required for cloture. '
Yes, had there been a 'veto proof majority' the American people would have seen defeat snatched out of the jaws of 'a fighting chance'. Congress has lower approval ratings then the president, do you think the American people are going to be asking for more of that?
'Giuliani will cause more problems than he solves,'
Giuliani didn't vote to go to war in Iraq, Mrs.Clinton did.
'as we've lost the support of other major powers that should have been IN OUR POCKET'
Spread a few greenbacks around, you will see a return to 'our pocket.'
'So just a minute ago you were whining about Podhoretz taking a hard line on Iran... Now it's Bush's fault that he is not? You are contradicting yourself again with your own BS.
(What are you trying to say through that thick fog that you inhabit? Podhoretz has been one of the chief instigators of the failed policies we live with today.)
The point you missed, which is obvious to anyone else who is still reading this garbage (Sort of like driving past an accident on the highway, eh? Cant help but take a look. Yeah, he is pretty thick headed, isn't he?) is that you are ranting against Bush for taking no action while you rant at him for potentially taking action. It is another damned if you do damed if you don't scenario.
'Bush has no good options re Iran'
When have we had 'good' options over Iran since 1979? Such is life, you take the least bad option and hope for the best.
'Multilateralism and relying on our allies is solving the situation...
(Where is that solution happening? '
I was being sarcastic, fool.
'The British are leaving Basra for the Shia tribes to quibble over'
Our 'allies'...
'I assume the 'cowards' you refer to are the NATO members '
Some of them, the ones who hide behind their 'caveats'.
'Those 'cowards' provided assistance in both Afghanistan and Iraq'
Yes, the French have been indispensable in needing to be fed in Afghanistan.
' and the people who elect their leaders were unwilling to allow for an unlimited timeframe,'
Then leave NATO.
'Next time we need 'a coalition of the willing', there will be a lot fewer 'willing'.'
It has always been the Anglo-sphere countries who have been willing to do more then the bare necessity. Meanwhile the French were selling arms to Saddam...
RE: BAGHDAD, Oct. 11 — In a number of Shiite neighborhoods across Baghdad, residents are beginning to turn away from the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia they once saw as their only protector against Sunni militants. Now they resent it as a band of street thugs without ideology.
The hardening Shiite feeling in Baghdad opens an opportunity for the American military, which has long struggled against the Mahdi Army, as American commanders rely increasingly on tribes and local leaders in their prosecution of the war....
“We thought they were soldiers defending the Shiites,” said Sayeed Sabah, a Shiite who runs a charity in the western neighborhood of Huriya. “But now we see they are youngster-killers, no more than that. People want to get rid of them.”
================
What's the solution - relying on U.S. troops?
The Mahdi Army was in large part made of up ordinary Shia who saw themselves needing to defend against the Sunni. The Shia have effectively driven the Sunni out of their areas, and the sectarian warfare has been reduced, as the Sunni turn their attention to al Qaeda, and are well paid to do it. Those remaining in the Shia militias, in a greater percentage, are people without jobs, or outright radicals who can be influenced by Iran. As part of the deal to pay off the Sunnis now battling al Qaeda, we are able to insure less infighting with the Shia. As noted in recent news, the bombings have not ceased - al Qaeda was capable of a larger per-incident death toll than the Sunni insurgents, but Iraq is hardly 'Main Street U.S.A.', especially since Ramadan is ending.
'BAGHDAD (AP) — A bomb in a parked car struck worshippers heading to a Shiite mosque Sunday in Baghdad, killing at least nine people as Iraqis celebrated a Muslim holiday, while the death toll rose to 18 in a coordinated suicide truck bombing and ambush north of the capital.'
'BAGHDAD (AP) — A bomb in a parked car went off near a police patrol in Baghdad's downtown shopping district Friday, killing four people including two policemen, the police said. The blast around noon wounded 15 people, mostly civilians, a police officer said on condition of anonymity as he was not allowed to release the information. Narby shops and cars were damaged in the explosion.'
'BAGHDAD -- The recent upswing in violence in Iraq subsided Friday as Sunni Muslims observed Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that celebrates the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, though four people were killed and dozens injured in two bomb attacks. In the first attack, a bomb planted amid toys in a horse-drawn cart killed two people and injured 20, most of them children, in the northern mostly Shiite Muslim town of Tuz Khurmatu, police Capt. Abbas Mohammed said. A suicide bomber drove the cart to a makeshift carnival where children were marking the holiday.'
==============
What's missing here is a national police force that can be trusted to replace the militias, who should have been disarmed long ago as part of the original benchmarks. THERE's your failure of the central Shia-led government, which has had years to get this done.
There are well over 100 Shia tribes in the Basra area, who will be battling over local oil revenues.
www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2007/ September/focusoniraq_September175.xml§ion=focusoniraq
'BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomber struck the police headquarters in Basra on Tuesday, killing at least three officers and wounding 20 people amid fears over the southern city’s deteriorating security situation. At least seven other people were killed in Baghdad _ six in a parked car bombing on a shopping street in eastern Baghdad, just meters (yards) away from a line of pensioners outside a local bank, the police said. Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, had been relatively peaceful for much of the war but has seen tensions rise as Shia militias battle for control of the oil-rich area. Maj. Gen. Abdul-Jalil Khalaf, Basra’s police chief, blamed Al Qaeda in Iraq for Tuesday’s attack.'
(This article details what happens when the central government DOES function)
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article2640149.ece
'The reason why the Shia militia agreed to the secret deal was that General Mohan and General Jalil had both been appointed by Baghdad. It demonstrated to the Shia power-brokers in Basra that the government was determined to play a dominant part in the politics of southern Iraq, something the leaders in Baghdad had failed to demonstrate hitherto.
It needed two strong men from out of the Basra area to bash heads together in Basra and to persuade the rival and feuding Shia militia to stop killing each other and to leave the British troops alone. So far it has worked spectacularly well, although the rocket attack on the British airbase camp outside Basra on Monday evening was evidence that not all the Shia groups are happy with the Mohan deal.'
'Same thing that Sanchez is saying -'
No. I actually posted the text of Sanchez's speech but M&C yanked it because it was transcribed in all Caps. He rails against the lying press and defeatists more then he blames others. He also says that we absolutely have to do what it takes to complete our mission in Iraq.
'We have a LOT of innings to go in Iraq,'
We are about 2/3rds there.
' You can pay off the neighborhood gang not to trash your store, but that's not law enforcement. '
LOL! No, that's appeasement, YOUR solution.
'NONE of these groups have any lasting loyalty to the U.S'
Nope, they are seeing that it is in their own best internists to cooperate though.
Getting Iraq To Work
By Jim Golby
Sunday, October 14, 2007; Page B01
Outside TIKRIT, Iraq
I'm sick of hearing about all the horrible things that happen in Iraq without ever hearing about any of the good ones. That's not because horrible things don't occur here every day; they do. I've witnessed far more death and sadness than I wish anyone ever had to see. And it's not because I believe in some left-wing media conspiracy. If I'm affiliated with a political party at all, I honestly can't remember which one it is.
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Rather, I'm sick of hearing about all the horrible things that happen in Iraq because I've been deployed here for more than 24 months since this war began, and I think I have a story to tell that's heroic, maybe even noble. It's not my story. In fact, I'm quite average, and I'm certainly not noble. But I've been blessed to serve with some amazing officers, noncommissioned officers and soldiers who have sacrificed another 15 months away from their families -- and, for once, produced something that I don't think looks all that bad, even in this desolate country.
Over the last six months, I've served at a large U.S. base in Iraq. My soldiers and I have been responsible for securing the area around the main entrance. We've played a major role in protecting thousands of soldiers and civilians who reside on the base. That's a significant accomplishment in itself, even though it's not sexy, and it has required a lot of discipline and dedication from my troops to do it so well.
But this past summer, we accomplished something else that seems to me almost unequivocally good.
In April, I began working with a group on an initiative that the U.S. government calls the IBIZ. As adept as most of us in the military are at deciphering acronyms that would befuddle the average man, we couldn't figure this one out. I think my first sergeant guessed closest, hypothesizing that it stood for 'Iraq's Big-Ass Iguana Zoo.' Unfortunately, IBIZ involves no arboreal lizards. It stands for 'Iraqi Business and Industrial Zone.'
This is an initiative intended to give Iraqi companies better access to U.S. contracts, establish security to let Iraqi companies develop, and train individual Iraqis in skills such as carpentry, plumbing and electrical work. It consists of a contracting office, two Iraqi industrial plants -- one for producing concrete and the other for crushing rock into gravel -- alongside a shipping and receiving yard and a skills training area. It also has the potential to save the U.S. government a significant amount of money by using cheaper Iraqi labor for many jobs usually performed by other contracted foreign nationals.
That's it? you say. That's all we get? Plumbers? Carpenters? I understand your frustration. It's not the stuff of a box-office hit or a gripping novel. But it's heroic. And it's noble, and I'll tell you why.
Every day, soldiers here pull duty in numerous defensive fighting positions or in guard towers, risking their lives for this idea called IBIZ. Our soldiers run the access control and security systems that screen the Iraqis and the thousands of other personnel and vehicles that come through here each week. Or they sit in up-armored Humvees and oversee contractors who construct fences or barriers around the new concrete plant and rock crusher.
And, for once, it really seems to be about Iraqi freedom.
I'm often surprised that many Iraqis still take us seriously. They see the news and listen to us lament the nearly 4,000 U.S. troops who have died while forgetting the far greater tragedy to Iraqis. I have to admit that I was shocked at what I saw when I arrived back here this year for my second tour. If the local electricity, water or sanitation systems had improved, I couldn't tell; meanwhile, the base where I was living had grown threefold and was much cozier than the two smaller bases where I had lived just 20 months earlier.
Several Iraqis I talked to at the time expressed genuine concern about how much better Americans were living in Iraq than Iraqis themselves. But then things started to change. It didn't happen as quickly as I would have liked, but some Iraqis started to see that some things might be improving for them, too.
They saw some construction begin and heard a few comments from several U.S. soldiers about 35 good jobs that would be starting near the base. Many villagers probably wrote this off as another failed U.S. promise, but the construction continued and the talk grew more concrete. Finally, the project actually opened, and nearly 100 Iraqis lined up to compete for those jobs.
For once, Iraqis see hope and money, and they want both desperately.
In the first month after the contracting office opened in June, the Iraqi contracts in the province jumped by more than 20 percent and nearly $4 million. Villagers watched two Iraqi-owned plants go up in a semi-secure area in less than two months, grabbing several enormous contracts that typically would have gone to better-positioned Turkish firms. And 35 residents from four small villages received apprenticeships for on-the-job training as carpenters, plumbers and electricians, jobs that provide lunch and a decent salary by Iraqi standards.
Now, when we tell them to expect an additional 85 jobs this winter when we expand the IBIZ skills training program to include welders, small-engine mechanics and air conditioner repairmen, Iraqis are more likely to believe us, even though it might be a different 'us' after my unit rotates out of theater.
I'm the one who receives the glowing appreciation and the e-mail invitation to lunch from an Iraqi contractor in broken English for what we've done with IBIZ, but my soldiers are the heroes. And they deserve the credit.
They're not the only ones, of course. Dozens of other officers, soldiers, civilian contractors, linguists and airmen on the base have played a crucial role in making this concept a reality. Some of them balked at it initially because they thought it too great a security risk, creating a magnet for attacks; others openly opposed it. But in the end, the idea prevailed because it was a good one. It may even turn out to be a great one.
And of course, there are the Iraqis working at or with the IBIZ themselves.
Here are some remarks sent to me recently by the Iraqi who owns one of the industrial plants:
'We and each honorable Iraqi should not forget each drop of blood that the US military dropped it for our sake to put us in right way to life and we should know that we owe much for the US people.'
Those words made me proud. At the same time, I realize that therein lies the problem. Iraqis owe much, possibly too much, to the American people and the U.S. military. The contracts are all U.S. government contracts, the security is all provided by U.S. soldiers, and the jobs are all dependent on massive U.S. military bases. If they weren't receiving U.S. support, these Iraqis wouldn't have many options. And if the U.S. presence fades, the Iraqi plumbers, carpenters and electricians will face a stark decision: leave the country with their families and their new skills, or fight so that their tribe or sect or village will get some share of the remaining oil revenue.
The IBIZ is only one small tactical victory in need of a much larger strategic or political triumph. Some scholars and foreign policy experts claim that one of the major lessons of Vietnam is that tactical victories do not equal success at the strategic or political level. They may be correct, but the politicians who quote them often fail to mention that tactical victories don't necessarily preclude strategic victories, either. Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker are courageous men who believe that we are making progress. When they say that, I believe them because I, too, can finally see some results. I just hope that the investment in projects such as IBIZ hasn't come too late to make a lasting difference.
In a few years, I'll have the opportunity to examine how we won or lost this war while I study public policy in graduate school. No doubt, I'll uncover mistakes that our government, politicians and military leaders made over the first few years. But for now, I am up far too late at night, worried about maintaining discipline and accomplishing my mission as my soldiers and I finish our tour.
As I drift off, I think of my wife and two daughters waiting at home. And I see once again the strange combination of hope and desperation in those Iraqis' eyes on that first day of work. Then I see the fatigue on many of my soldiers' faces as I pin awards on their chests. They are noble, and they are heroes. And I am immensely proud of what I did with them in Iraq last summer.
Jim Golby is an Army captain on his second tour of duty in Iraq
(Petraeus is doing a great job on a hangnail while the total situation is decaying, both inside and outside Iraq, with the refugee resettlement problem a looming crisis, unless the walls are on casters.)
www.abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3728855
Rice: Russia's Military Moves 'a Problem'
'Russia is once again indisputably the number two military power in the world, second only to the United States,' a senior U.S. official said. Russia arms sales have also increased dramatically under Putin. And when it comes to arms, the list of Russian customers reads like a who's who of U.S. adversaries, including Iran, Syria, Venezuela and Burma.
voanews.com/english/2007-10-14-voa36.cfm
Rice Expects No Breakthrough in Latest Mideast Mission
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has met with Israeli leaders at the start of her latest Mideast peace mission after warning she does not expect any breakthrough between Israel and the Palestinians.
africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnISL148719.html
Pakistan army lashes out in Waziristan as toll rises
(Now that Musharraf has won the parliamentary vote, the troops are doing their job, having undergone the indignity of having Musharraf blame THEM for the capture of their own troops.)
Over the past few months soldiers and paramilitary troops have been targeted by suicide bombers, blown up by roadside bombs, kidnapped and had their throats slit. Militants in South Waziristan humiliated the army by taking captive about 250 soldiers in late August. More than 25 were released later, but this week three were killed, and there were threats of more killings unless the army acceded to demands. Morale has suffered among security forces stationed in Waziristan.
Sick of being on the receiving end, the Pakistan army lashed back last weekend, unleashing fighter jets, helicopter gunships, artillery and ground troops on militants. The recovery of comrades' decapitated, charred corpses fuelled anger in the army, according to a senior intelligence officer. 'It was too much, We couldn't take it any more,' he said. 'That's why air power is now being used against them.' Hitherto, the army had exercised more restraint because it did not want to be seen as fighting its own people -- an accusation that is already sapping morale.
OK, Ill admit that those were a bit long, but you can not argue with the fact that there has been a turn in the momentum in the mission in Iraq in our favor. Thankfully, you and the defeat at any cost crowd were ignored when you might have actually gotten what you wanted.
'Petraeus is doing a great job on a hangnail while the total situation is decaying, both inside and outside Iraq, with the refugee resettlement problem a looming crisis, unless the walls are on casters.'
That is just a lie, the 'total situation' is undeniably improving.. You are just completely ignoring reality. As 'Proof' of ayour assertion you post something about Russian arms sales? Come on. Here:
- In September, Iraqi civilian deaths were down 52 percent from August and 77 percent from September 2006.
-U.S. soldiers killed in action numbered 43 -- down 43 percent from August and 64 percent from May.
-The American combat death total was the lowest since July 2006 and was one of the five lowest monthly counts since the insurgency in Iraq took off in April 2004.
-in the past al-Qaeda has staged major offensives during Ramadan. Last year, at least 97 American troops died in combat during Ramadan. Al-Qaeda tried to step up attacks this year, U.S. commanders say -- so far, with stunningly little success.
Again, the trend is looking positive. Much to your and your party's chagrin.
A competent and honest Iraqi central government.
Driving out the incompetent and corrupt will be the back-breaker. Everyone with any power in Iraq is out for themselves. We can claim minor victory and temporary success all day; but until this central government can achieve unity, and pass a Constitution, oil revenue laws, de-Baathification laws and the rest, it's still every Iraqi for themselves, unless they rely on local sheiks and militias.
Those capable of maintaining the country's infrastructure were largely Baathist, and the country must find a way to re-integrate those educated classes, who will be returning home to a complete loss of their property. The educated class escaped long ago, because they had the means to do so. THEY will become the backbone of the new Iraq, just as they were in the old Iraq. What's been removed is Saddam's influence, which we supported for decades, seeing Shia rule as a worse alternative, potentially energizing Iran.
That's exactly what we have now - Iranian influence. A unified Iraq will throw off that Iranian influence, and while the ordinary Iraqi looks forward to that (there's still intermarriage between Sunni and Shia in Syria, since they see themselves as Iraqi, first and foremost), getting the entire nation to behave amicably at this point, with a central government that they can trust, is a MASSIVE problem.
All the rehash of military 'pluses' lends zero towards that final solution - Petraeus himself has said that it's a POLITICAL problem. The minor successes pale in compaarison to the larger political problems that continue to fester, as the U.S. continues to pour in funds for reconstruction that's either stolen or wasted in large part, and the U.S. public just wants it to end.
We can either put a massive bandage on a sucking chest wound, or get the patient the surgery that it requires.
Your rehashing of the totality of other people's posts, without any reasoning of your own, just bores the crap out of everyone. Everyone has heard the 'good news'; yet the U.S. polls indicate that it's not having any effect on the public. Posting the same thing 20 times is also not a great way to be believed.
Without major reforms in the Iraqi government, all the good work is just wasted motion, as there's nothing in place to perpetuate the good results. Bush has done nothing but buy time since the Iraq Study Group report, and brought us back, more or less, to 2006 levels. Not a great achievement, in the total scope of things.
Look at the REAL numbers, instead of listening to these B.S. artists:
icasualties.org/oif/
Wounded by month were lower in 2006 than 2007. The average of Iraqi security forces and civilian deaths in 2006 (Jan to Sep) was (13,500 / 7) = 1,928. The same period for 2007 was (17,151 / 7) = 2,450.
U.S. deaths for the same Jan-Sep period in 2006 were 534, and in 2007 were 804.
www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/numbers/biggest-bombs/
2007 sees the worst bombings ever – and more of them
4 Oct 2007
Iraq Body Count’s research shows that 27,000 civilian deaths from violence were reported in 2006. This represents a huge increase compared to preceding years: 14,000 killed in 2005, 10,500 in 2004 and just under 12,000 in 2003 (7,000 during the actual war/invasion, and another 5,000 during the ‘peace’ that followed).
Early indications are that roughly 20,000 violent civilian deaths will be recorded for the first 9 months of 2007. By year’s end, 2007 looks to be the second-worst calendar year for violence in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, trailing only behind 2006, and still almost twice as deadly for civilians as the first year.
One measure by which 2007 quickly exceeded 2006 was in major ground-based bombing attacks which killed more than 50 civilians (and sometimes far more). Throughout all of 2006 there were 12 such attacks. Between January and April 2007 there were already 13. As of this writing, there have been 20 such attacks in 2007, claiming well over 2,000 civilian lives, with the worst-ever of these attacks occurring in August and killing over 500.
www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/numbers/baghdad-surge/
The graphs on this page are dynamic and will update as new data are analysed and added; data for the more recent periods are usually less complete and likely to show the greatest future rise.
These charts sometimes indicate a modest improvement in the security situation for ordinary Iraqis post-surge, and this is not disputed. But these charts will tend to under-represent reported violence for the more recent periods, for the reasons stated above. The observed downward trend in these charts will likely become less marked as data still in the pipeline is added (see Recent Events for as yet unprocessed data).
It is important to place the events of 2007 in context. Levels of violence reached an all-time high in the last six months of 2006. Only in comparison to that could the first half of 2007 be regarded as an improvement. Despite any efforts put into the surge, the first six months of 2007 was still the most deadly first six months for civilians of any year since the invasion.
'Driving out the incompetent and corrupt will be the back-breaker. '
That is pretty much up to the Iraqis. There seems to be a growing realization that violence as a political tool isn't going to get them to where they want to go and one of the big excuses that the al-Maliki government has been using to postpone elections. When the death squads and the terrorists are killed off or co-opted you will start to see genuine reconciliation.
'That's exactly what we have now - Iranian influence.'
That too will wane. The Kurds and Sunnis will never allow it and the Shiites will learn that Iran is an expensive ally.
' A unified Iraq will throw off that Iranian influence'
Yes. A pity M&C removed the above article. More along those lines:
www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=9804
'getting the entire nation to behave amicably at this point, with a central government that they can trust, is a MASSIVE problem.'
Again, with a general who has a head on his shoulders, who has shown up the previous ones who are none too happy about it, a more secure environment which will can lead to reconciliation is possible.
'All the rehash of military 'pluses' lends zero towards that final solution -'
LOL, you are just plain wrong. If they are slaughtering each other none of the above can progress.
' The minor successes pale in compaarison to the larger political problems that continue to fester,'
Just the opposite. The political problems pale in comparison to the mass slaughter of Iraqis by Iraqis. That is just obvious.
'and the U.S. public just wants it to end.'
Poll numbers are reversing again. Despite the medias consistent defeatist drumbeat word is getting out that the situation can yet be salvaged.
RE: Just the opposite. The political problems pale in comparison to the mass slaughter of Iraqis by Iraqis. That is just obvious.
===================================
Overall you're making some points, but the above is backwards. It should be the job of the Iraqi government to protect their citizens, and that includes the refugee number, which is growing instead of shrinking. The political situation was the point of the surge - to allow the government to govern. That's essentially a complete failure, since al-Maliki cannot control it, or the Congress.
Without a strong national police presence, it falls to the militias, and we all see how corrupt they are. We have ethnic neighborhoods in the U.S. who have to pay off local gangs, and refuse to depend on the police, so it's not an Iraq-only problem.
I'm now adjourning to watch Prime Minister's Questions on TV.
'Your rehashing of the totality of other people's posts, without any reasoning of your own, just bores the crap out of everyone'
LOL! Your propaganda and hysterics are just scintillating.
' Everyone has heard the 'good news'; yet the U.S. polls indicate that it's not having any effect on the public.'
1) Not true.
2) Even if that were the case does that mean that it is not improving in Iraq? Obviously not. You are confusing 'popular' with 'correct' again, the mark of a needy person.
'Posting the same thing 20 times is also not a great way to be believed.'
Where have I done that?
'Without major reforms in the Iraqi government, all the good work is just wasted'
Without some semblance of order and progress against the death squads and terrorists there wont be any incentive for major reforms.
'Bush has done nothing but buy time since the Iraq Study Group report'
That report was pure garbage, and time is what we need most.
'Look at the REAL numbers, instead of listening to these B.S. artists:'
The statistics that I quoted earlier were in part from the same source. Go read what I wrote before you blather about it...
'The Iraq body count numbers'
The IBC is not a legitimate source for information. Regardless, there HAS been a decrease in civilian deaths since the 'surge' started, even by their figures.
'These charts sometimes indicate a modest improvement in the security situation for ordinary Iraqis post-surge, and this is not disputed.'
Eyerolls, you are grasping at straws.
'The observed downward trend in these charts will likely become less marked as data still in the pipeline is added...'
Lets see what happens before you attempt to forecast the future. The numbers are down, way down, deal with it.
'Sounds like a shift towards reality'
Wish I could say the same for you, idiot.
'Oct 15th, 2007 - 00:57:14
RE: Just the opposite. The political problems pale in comparison to the mass slaughter of Iraqis by Iraqis. That is just obvious.
===================================
Overall you're making some points, but the above is backwards.'
Good lord, you really are out of steam. No, Politics is arguing in parliament. That is good. Slaughtering people on the streets to get your way is always worse then that. This is human life you are dismissing as irrelevant for your own partisan agenda. It is disgusting to see what lengths you will go to to make the case for retreat.
't should be the job of the Iraqi government to protect their citizens,'
As occupiers it is mostly OUR job. We are trying to get them to take a greater role.
'and that includes the refugee number, which is growing instead of shrinking.'
One thing at a time. The refugees are the least of the problems at the moment. Hopefully they will tax Iran's infrastructure to the point where it collapses.
'The political situation was the point of the surge'
No. Security was.
'Without a strong national police presence,'
Working on it.
'it falls to the militias,'
They are being rejected by the Iraqis... Progress...
'We have ethnic neighborhoods in the U.S. who have to pay off local gangs, and refuse to depend on the police,'
LOL, so why are you shrieking like a stuck pig that Iraq has some of the same problems as the most wealthy, freeist, most industrialized country in the world?
'I'm now adjourning to watch Prime Minister's Questions on TV.'
Whatever the reason, Ill take it.
'Driving out the incompetent and corrupt will be the back-breaker. '
That is pretty much up to the Iraqis. There seems to be a growing realization that violence as a political tool isn't going to get them to where they want to go and one of the big excuses that the al-Maliki government has been using to postpone elections. When the death squads and the terrorists are killed off or co-opted you will start to see genuine reconciliation.
(This is a circular argument. If there WERE a strong central government, they'd have disarmed the militias and run the place. Waiting for the dissidents to stop being dissidents is the fool's errand. They have to be displaced by a stronger force. The other problem is that the Iraqi people have no faith in al-Maliki and company, so expecting the militia to go out of business first is unrealistic. The surge was intended to give the government 'breathing room' through security; not security just for security's sake, except to try to reverse the trend of the calamity of the end of 2006's numbers which indicated how bad things were getting).
========================================================
'That's exactly what we have now - Iranian influence.'
That too will wane. The Kurds and Sunnis will never allow it and the Shiites will learn that Iran is an expensive ally.
(Correct - the Iraqis are nationalistic once the internicine warfare fades, and there's no love for the Iranians at all)
===============
'A unified Iraq will throw off that Iranian influence'
Yes. A pity M&C removed the above article. More along those lines:
www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=9804
'getting the entire nation to behave amicably at this point, with a central government that they can trust, is a MASSIVE problem.' Again, with a general who has a head on his shoulders, who has shown up the previous ones who are none too happy about it, a more secure environment which will can lead to reconciliation is possible.
(I'll give you 'possible'; but it still remains for al-Maliki to do that job, not Petraeus. That's the point you insist on stumbling over. Petraeus' work in supporting the EXISTING Sunni push against al Qaeda, and funding it, and building walled enclaves to provide shelter, does NOT in any way directly translate directly to a functional Iraqi government, based solely on whatever good the surge accomplishes.)
==================
'All the rehash of military 'pluses' lends zero towards that final solution -'
LOL, you are just plain wrong. If they are slaughtering each other none of the above can progress.
' The minor successes pale in compaarison to the larger political problems that continue to fester,'
Just the opposite. The political problems pale in comparison to the mass slaughter of Iraqis by Iraqis. That is just obvious.
(Once again, the missing ingredient is the central Baghdad government, whose job we've been doing for years. The numbers provided earlier are likely more accurate than the military is giving out (shades of Westmoreland). However competent Petraeus' forces have been - and there's zero argument as to the competence of our military - it's not going to 'create' the efficient government that they need, and seeing their own forces free of sectarian influence then showing their loyalty to Iraq as a whole. Breaking those forces down to Shia-biased for Shia areas, etc., is just creating their own militias under another name).
===================
'and the U.S. public just wants it to end.'
Poll numbers are reversing again. Despite the medias consistent defeatist drumbeat word is getting out that the situation can yet be salvaged.
(The polls rise and fall, but overall there's no 'surge' from the public in terms of changing their opinions. Your use of the term 'salvaged' is precisely what the American people see as best-possible case. Had I used that word, I'd be labelled 'defeatist' or some such nonsense).
www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm
'Do you approve or disapprove of the way Bush is handling the situation in Iraq?'
Approve 30%, Disapprove 68%
'The Bush Administration has requested nearly 190 billion dollars to fund the wars and related U.S. activities in Iraq and Afghanistan over the next year. This is about 40 billion dollars more than first estimated. Do you think Congress should approve all of this funding request, or reduce it?'
Approve 27%; Reduce 67%
'Thinking ahead to the next presidential election, do you think a Democratic or a Republican president would do a better job resolving the situation in Iraq?'
Democratic 51%; Republican 31%
RE: 'We have ethnic neighborhoods in the U.S. who have to pay off local gangs, and refuse to depend on the police,'
LOL, so why are you shrieking like a stuck pig that Iraq has some of the same problems as the most wealthy, freeist, most industrialized country in the world?
================
Sounds like you have a problem with standards. That problem of certain nationalities seeing the police as a problem, rather than a resource, is why crimes go unreported, and the conviction rate is low due to lack of witnesses. Is that REALLY the model for Iraq? People hiding in their houses, or behind walls? A central government that no one trusts to preserve their safety? A 'tolerable' risk of getting blown up? Payoffs to get anything done? Power a few hours a day?
You're stuck clutching for fragments of 'good news', while the total situation gets no better. You can focus on local deaths, while somehow missing the plight of the refugees, who are also dying of something 'subtler' than a bomb, or a bullet in the back of the head. This is a country in misery seeking relief, and Petraeus gave them Alka-Seltzer. Plop, plop, fizz, fizz.
The overall numbers are better than the end of 2006, which was a particularly bad period that validated the 'surge' approach for 6 months to not only help their own forces achieve some stability (and the public support that could come along with it); but PRIMARILY the fact was that meeting the Iraqi government's own benchmarks was the expectation; and that failed for the important ones, where U.S. military force did not impact outcome directly.
Doctor: The tests show that your cancer is advanced. You have six months to live.
Patient: But, doc, I can't pay off my medical bills in six months.
Doctor: In that case, you have six months more.
(That's what our policy has become. That, and LOL in every paragraph, as an excuse for an inability to discuss based on the facts).
www.cmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071014/OPINION/710140355/ 1027/OPINION01
The next question voters should ask: How much of the hundreds of millions of dollars American taxpayers have spent to pay for reconstruction efforts in Iraq has been used for that purpose?
Here's Judge Radhi al-Radhi, the chief of anti-corruption efforts in Iraq's government until, while he was in Washington for Justice Department training, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ousted him from his position. Maliki accused al-Rahdi of corruption and froze his assets, stranding him in the United States, David Corn of The Nation reported.
Al-Rahdi told the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee chaired by California Rep. Henry Waxman that corruption was rampant in almost every sector of Iraqi government, and little or no attempt was being made to prevent it. When his office tried, Maliki quashed prosecution attempts. His office's investigations led to the death of 31 of its employees and 12 of their family members. Some were tortured - one with an electric drill, one hung on a meat hook.
Corruption is costing the Iraqi government tens of billions of dollars, al-Rahdi said. Some of that money is being funneled to sectarian militias. Though 5 million Iraqis have fled, the government is spending the same amount on ration cards. Food and supplies never make it to their destination. Ministries are fulfilling between 2 and 5 percent of their obligations, al-Rahdi said.
Corn believes that the Bush administration is doing all it can to keep the public from knowing about the extent of Iraqi corruption and the waste of their money. To admit that Iraq's government is too corrupt to function is to admit that the surge to buy that government time was a mistake.
It seems that half of the message retired General Richard Sanchez intended to deliver missed the cut at most newsrooms, and with most bloggers. Typical among the reports of his blistering oration is the front-page treatment given by the Washington Post's Josh White, the entire first half of Snachez' speech -- found in its entirety here -- gets reduced to a single paragraph at the end of the story. Why? Well, it turns out that Sanchez considered his first target the media itself, which he blames for a large part of the problems he sees in Iraq (via Power Line, reformatted by me to normal case):
'Almost invariably, my perception is that the sensationalistic value of these assessments is what provided the edge that you seek for self agrandizement [sic] or to advance your individual quest for getting on the front page with your stories! As I understand it, your measure of worth is how many front page stories you have written and unfortunately some of you will compromise your integrity and display questionable ethics as you seek to keep America informed. This is much like the intelligence analysts whose effectiveness was measured by the number of intelligence reports he produced. For some, it seems that as long as you get a front page story there is little or no regard for the 'collateral damage' you will cause. Personal reputations have no value and you report with total impunity and are rarely held accountable for unethical conduct.
'Given the near instantaneous ability to report actions on the ground, the responsibility to accurately and truthfully report takes on an unprecedented importance. The speculative and often uninformed initial reporting that characterizes our media appears to be rapidly becoming the standard of the industry. An Arab proverb states - 'four things come not back: the spoken word, the spent arrow, the past, the neglected opportunity.' Once reported, your assessments become conventional wisdom and nearly impossible to change. Other major challenges are your willingness to be manipulated by 'high level officials' who leak stories and by lawyers who use hyperbole to strengthen their arguments. Your unwillingness to accurately and prominently correct your mistakes and your agenda driven biases contribute to this corrosive environment.
'All of these challenges combined create a media environment that does a tremendous disservice to America. Over the course of this war tactically insignificant events have become strategic defeats for America because of the tremendous power and impact of the media and by extension you the journalist. In many cases the media has unjustly destroyed the individual reputations and careers of those involved. We realize that because of the near real time reporting environment that you face it is difficult to report accurately. In my business one of our fundamental truths is that 'the first report is always wrong.' Unfortunately, in your business 'the first report' gives Americans who rely on the snippets of CNN, if you will, their 'truths' and perspectives on an issue. As a corollary to this deadline driven need to publish 'initial impressions or observations' versus objective facts there is an additional challenge for us who are the subject of your reporting. When you assume that you are correct and on the moral high ground on a story because we have not respond to questions you provided is the ultimate arrogance and distortion of ethics. One of your highly repected fellow journalists once told me that there are some amongst you who 'feed from a pig's trough.' if that is who I am dealing with then I will never respond otherwise we will both get dirty and the pig will love it. This does not mean that your story is accurate.
Given that, it seems highly ironic that the journalists covering the story attempted to cover up the acidic, biting, and mostly accurate criticisms of their own performance in this war while giving front-page treatment to Sanchez' criticisms of the political structure at the same time. If Sanchez has such credibility and standing to bring this kind of criticism to bear on Washington, why didn't the Post and other news agencies give the same level of exposure to his media criticisms as well? He basically accuses them of cynically selling out the soldiers to defeat American efforts to win the war, and made sure that those accusations came first before his assessment of the political failures, but you'd never know that from the Post.
The Post then goes on to obfuscate a key part of the second half of Sanchez' speech. While he criticizes the Bush administration in sharp terms, Sanchez blames the Democrats in equal measure. He calls out partisans on all sides for exploiting the war for their own political benefit rather than the good of the nation, and blames the lack of range for strategic options on the corrosive debate that has hamstrung the range of choices.
And most importantly, none of the press has managed to pick up on this key sequence in Sanchez' broadside at the American political establishment:
'America has no choice but to continue our efforts in Iraq. A precipitous withdrawal will unquestionably lead to chaos that would endanger the stability of the greater Middle East. If this occurs it would have significant adverse effects on the international community. Coalition and American force presence will be required at some level for the foreseeable future. Given the lack of a grand strategy we must move rapidly to minimize that force presence and allow the Iraqis maximum ability to exercise their soveriegnty in achieving a solution.
Iraq is still a vital national interest to the United States. We have a responsibility to get it right, and our political establishment needs to unite to find the grand strategy that serves that purpose rather than their own selfish desires. In fact, Sanchez made clear that the media has to do the same as well. Unfortunately, the media doesn't have the guts to report that honestly.
www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/014731.php
Is this crazy country any different than it's ever been? The Middle East is way too complicated for mere Americans to begin to understand - to surge or not to surge - it ain't working, folks! We don't need chapters of ongoing dialog to figure that out!
'America has no choice but to continue our efforts in Iraq. A precipitous withdrawal will unquestionably lead to chaos that would endanger the stability of the greater Middle East. If this occurs it would have significant adverse effects on the international community. Coalition and American force presence will be required at some level for the foreseeable future.' -General Ricardo Sanchez (Ret)
The whole speech, in Capital letters so completely inappropriate for the pages of M&C (unlike the rambling rants of idiots, anti American bigotry and racism) can be found here:
www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2007/10/018743.php
It seems that some Americans still fail to understand even the most simple things about this war .Propaganda will not win wars .THe rantings about the noble mission,brave soldiers,securing peace and freedom exist only in the brainwashed and brainwashing minds of people out of touch with the real world .It is nothing more but bad perception of a somewhat more complicated reality ;The invasion of a foreign country by a governement that used lies suc as WMD,nuclear bombs,terorism,Al Quaida to invade a country run by a brutal dictator they used to be good friends with and helped in a brutal agression war with Iran .Labeling the insurgents Al Quaida terrorists will not hel pthe problem .Have you not read the Iraqi polls,three quarters of them want you OUT ?S o please cut the sentimental stories and tell your soldiers to go back home .Start with the Blackwater mercenaries responsible for too much horror stories,also the airplanes that seem to bomb indiscriminately insurgents and civil population ,realy they do not fit in the nice propagandistic picture some of you distilled her .
I notice with dismay that while US contractors are building a massive $1BN military nuclear bunker in downtown Baghdad (Which has variously been called the 'US EMBASSY' or better still the 'US DIPLOMATIC OFFICE', lol) Iraq is just about to be hit by a major Cholera epidemic.
8000 early cases have aready been reported and this has been caused by contaminated drinking water from bomb-damaged water(70%) and sewage pipes (80%)
As Stan Laurel used to say to Oliver Hardy
........WHAT ANOTHER FINE MESS YOU'VE GOTTEN ME INTO....
It is a mess beyond belief, and it seems no one tells the real truth about any of it - probably because no one really understands this royal mess, and namely #1 - Bush!
'This is a circular argument. If there WERE a strong central government, they'd have disarmed the militias and run the place.'
There isn't, that is why it is the responsibility of the occupation... Nothing circular about it. We broke it, we bought it. See, straight line.
'Waiting for the dissidents to stop being dissidents is the fool's errand.'
Dissidents? You are calling people who blow up chlorine tanks on playgrounds 'dissidents'? They are terrorists and we are not waiting for them to stop. We are killing them which is EXACTLY what needs to happen.
'They have to be displaced by a stronger force. '
Obviously... Are you just catching on to this? Yes, they do. That is why the surge is working. The one that you passionately argued against. I love it how when you just keep on babbling you eventually make my point for me.
'The other problem is that the Iraqi people have no faith in al-Maliki and company, so expecting the militia to go out of business first is unrealistic.'
They are losing all faith in the militias as well. Read the articles I posted. Maliki will be voted out in the next election. The idea is to get the country quiet enough so the Sunnis can participate and have a vote that is genuinely reflective of the population.
'The surge was intended to give the government 'breathing room' through security; not security just for security's sake,'
It was intended to provide security first and foremost. Political progress will come out of that and it will not happen instantly. You are aware of that though, it is the last thing you can grasp on to in order to aid and abet your 'dissidents'.
'(I'll give you 'possible'; but it still remains for al-Maliki to do that job, not Petraeus.'
Or whomever replaces Maliki. Maliki was chosen by al Sader whose power has been greatly diminished by his own screw ups and the surge.
'Once again, the missing ingredient is the central Baghdad government,''
Once again, they have been blaming the lack off security for the lack of progress. Now that they have no more excuses it is time to produce or be replaced.
'The numbers provided earlier are likely more accurate than the military is giving out'
They do not contradict the fact that the casualty rate all around is declining. This is because we have someone who understands how to fight a counterinsurgency and who will win it in the end. The level of functionality or dis functionality of the Iraqi government is important but peripheral to the task at hand at the moment.
If people can go out and get food and have a good 18 hours of electricity they will be much more likely to participate in representative democracy then if they are hungry and hunkered down in their dark hovels out of fear. (How can that not be clear to you?)
' - it's not going to 'create' the efficient government that they need,'
Over and over again... 'Waaah waaah Waaah, Iraq is not a Jeffersonian democracy'. It probably won't be in our lifetimes. Your argument seems to be that since it is not going to be perfect all is lost therefore we might as well abandon the whole thing. Is US democracy perfect? Swiss democracy perfect? You have to start with thye basics, which is what we are trying to do now.
'The polls rise and fall, but overall there's no 'surge' from the public in terms of changing their opinions.'
1) There is a lag on public opinions verses outcome.
2) Polls are trending up on wanting to see thios thing to the end.
3) None of this matters as to the argument at hand. Again, you are confusing 'popularity' with 'correct or incorrect' which is a mark of fundamental insecurity.
'Your use of the term 'salvaged' is precisely what the American people see as best-possible case.'
You are forgetting that I argued against the whole thing from the start. I saw that this would be a dirty job that wasn't worth one American life. However, now that we HAVE started on this, with joint approval from the American people, the congress and the president I recognize that we must salvage a positive outcome for the USA and by extension the Iraqis. Hopefully this exercise will serve as a reminder that the military is an instrument to project force and that it is not an instrument to nation-build.
'Thinking ahead to the next presidential election, do you think a Democratic or a Republican president would do a better job resolving the situation in Iraq?''
Gee, in the middle of September, over a year away from the election... We would have had President Dukakis and Dean if that were indicative of anything.
'You're stuck clutching for fragments of 'good news', while the total situation gets no better.'
No, you are stuck clutching for fragments of bad news while the total situation improves...
That is just it. You are stuck clutching for fragments of bad news while the total situation improves... What a jerk you are.
'tonny from belgium
It seems that some Americans still fail to understand even the most simple things about this war .'
The day we listen to a surrender monkey like you is the day we slip in to the same irrelevance as you have.
...'I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a 'man' who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way...'
If you're not going to surrender, and if you're not going to win, what are you going to do ?
here drone on and on about the past and what should be done there now, but no one agrees - just like the government and politians they keep criticising. And it's still the same old story - partisan, partisan, partisan! It boils down to no good answers - stay and it's a mess, leave and it's a mess - take your pick!!!
Osama is more useful to Bush free, than captured.
If Osama had been captured in Afghanistan early on, the american public would have thought the main perpetrator of 9-11 had been brought to justice and any further spread of Bush's war would have been virtually impossible to sell to the american people.
But as long as Osama was free, Bush & Cheney could get support for what they really wanted to do ... securing the Iraqi oil resources for american oil companies in the face of an exponential increase in demand from China and other upcoming industrial nations.
(Wolf Blitzer on CNN just reported that some of the Generals are ready to 'declare victory' against al Qaeda, and General Patraeus had to go public to yank them back - the kind of ego-tripping that you see from our resident propagandist is more of the same)
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/14/AR200710140124 5.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=new
Al-Qaeda In Iraq Reported Crippled
Many Officials, However, Warn Of Its Resilience
By Thomas E. Ricks and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, October 15, 2007; Page A01
The U.S. military believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq in recent months, leading some generals to advocate a declaration of victory over the group, which the Bush administration has long described as the most lethal U.S. adversary in Iraq.
But as the White House and its military commanders plan the next phase of the war, other officials have cautioned against taking what they see as a premature step that could create strategic and political difficulties for the United States. Such a declaration could fuel criticism that the Iraq conflict has become a civil war in which U.S. combat forces should not be involved. At the same time, the intelligence community, and some in the military itself, worry about underestimating an enemy that has shown great resilience in the past.
'I think it would be premature at this point,' a senior intelligence official said of a victory declaration over AQI, as the group is known. Despite recent U.S. gains, he said, AQI retains 'the ability for surprise and for catastrophic attacks.' Earlier periods of optimism, such as immediately following the June 2006 death of AQI founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a U.S. air raid, not only proved unfounded but were followed by expanded operations by the militant organization.
There is widespread agreement that AQI has suffered major blows over the past three months. Among the indicators cited is a sharp drop in suicide bombings, the group's signature attack, from more than 60 in January to around 30 a month since July. Captures and interrogations of AQI leaders over the summer had what a senior military intelligence official called a 'cascade effect,' leading to other killings and captures. The flow of foreign fighters through Syria into Iraq has also diminished, although officials are unsure of the reason and are concerned that the broader al-Qaeda network may be diverting new recruits to Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, head of the Joint Special Operations Command's operations in Iraq, is the chief promoter of a victory declaration and believes that AQI has been all but eliminated, the military intelligence official said. But Adm. William J. Fallon, the chief of U.S. Central Command, which oversees Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, is urging restraint, the official said. The military intelligence official, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity about Iraq assessments and strategy.
Senior U.S. commanders on the ground, including Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of U.S. forces in Iraq, have long complained that Central Command, along with the CIA, is too negative in its analyses. On this issue, however, Petraeus agrees with Fallon, the military intelligence official said.
For each assessment of progress against AQI, there is a cautionary note that comes from long and often painful experience. Despite the increased killings and captures of AQI members, Odierno said, 'it only takes three people' to construct and detonate a suicide car bomb that can 'kill thousands.' The goal, he said, is to make each attack less effective and lengthen the periods between them.
Right now, said another U.S. official, who declined even to be identified by the agency he works for, the data are 'insufficient and difficult to measure.'
(from same Washington Post story - it appears that while the White House chose not to directly rebut Gen. Sanchez, the military is looking to make their own case, and is overdoing it as usual, as all propagandists do when maximizing the impact of what they're involved in directly, while completely losing track of the total picture, as Bush did on the carrier deck. The problem is taking the successful aspects of the surge and maintaining that, after handing off to the Iraqis and drawing down U.S. troops. Bear in mind that ALL Bush cares about now is his own legacy. We see the same thing with Dr. Rice's changing tone as to the success of the Annapolis meeting.)
===============
Senior U.S. commanders on the ground, including Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of U.S. forces in Iraq, have long complained that Central Command, along with the CIA, is too negative in its analyses. On this issue, however, Petraeus agrees with Fallon, the military intelligence official said.
For each assessment of progress against AQI, there is a cautionary note that comes from long and often painful experience. Despite the increased killings and captures of AQI members, Odierno said, 'it only takes three people' to construct and detonate a suicide car bomb that can 'kill thousands.' The goal, he said, is to make each attack less effective and lengthen the periods between them.
Right now, said another U.S. official, who declined even to be identified by the agency he works for, the data are 'insufficient and difficult to measure.'
'AQI is definitely taking some hits,' the official said. 'There is definite progress, and that is undeniable good news. But what we don't know is how long it will last . . . and whether it's sustainable. . . . They have withstood withering pressure for a long period of time.' Three months, he said, is not long enough to consider a trend sustainable.
Views of the extent to which AQI has been vanquished also reflect differences over the extent to which it operates independently from Osama bin Laden's central al-Qaeda organization, based in Pakistan. 'Everyone has an opinion about how franchisement of al-Qaeda works,' a senior White House official said. 'Is it through central control, or is it decentralized?' The answer to that question, the official said, affects 'your ability to determine how successfully [AQI] has been defeated or neutralized. Is it 'game over'?'
In Baghdad, the White House official said, the group's 'area of operations has been reduced quite a bit for a variety of reasons, some good and some bad.' Three years of sectarian fighting have eliminated many mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhoods. Those areas had been the most fertile and accessible places for AQI, which is composed of extremist Sunnis, to attack Shiite civilians, security forces and government officials. But the death of mixed neighborhoods also has made another Bush administration priority -- promoting political reconciliation -- more difficult.
The expanded presence of U.S. troops in combat outposts in many parts of Baghdad has also put pressure on AQI, but a major test of gains against the organization will come when the U.S. military begins to turn security in those areas over to Iraqi forces next year.
Recent suicide bombings in northern Iraq have convinced some officials that AQI has moved its operations in that direction. But the officials said they do not know whether AQI militants have permanently decamped from Baghdad and Anbar province, or whether they are merely lying low in anticipation of a U.S. departure or the failure of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to end the sectarian divisions that AQI fostered and now feeds upon.
While a victory declaration might have the 'psychological aspect' of discouraging recruitment to a perceived lost cause, the White House official said, advantages overall would be minimal. 'I recognize that there are pros to saying, 'Hey, listen, the bad guys are on the run.' ' But if AQI were later able to demonstrate residual capabilities with a series of bombings, 'even though it was temporary,' he said, 'the question becomes: How does this play out in terms of public opinion?'
(The link below is the lead to a 3-page story on the difficult of getting the Iraqi's to run their own country. Key points):
'There has been no significant progress for months,' said Tariq al-Hashimi, one of Iraq's two vice presidents and the most influential Sunni politician in the country. 'There is a shortage of goodwill from those parties who are now in the driver's seat of the country.'
Iraqi leaders say there are few signs that Maliki's government is any more willing to share power now than 15 months ago, when he unveiled a 28-point national reconciliation plan. A key proposal then was an amnesty for insurgents -- an 'olive branch,' Maliki said at the time -- to bring members of the resistance into the political fold.
But over the summer and fall of 2006, sectarian violence rose to its highest levels, driving thousands of people out of mixed neighborhoods and pushing Sunni and Shiite politicians further apart. The amnesty never materialized, nor has the reconciliation.
===========================================
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/07/AR200710070144 8.html
Reconciliation Seen Unattainable Amid Struggle for Power
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, October 8, 2007; Page A01
BAGHDAD -- For much of this year, the U.S. military strategy in Iraq has sought to reduce violence so that politicians could bring about national reconciliation, but several top Iraqi leaders say they have lost faith in that broad goal.
Iraqi leaders argue that sectarian animosity is entrenched in the structure of their government. Instead of reconciliation, they now stress alternative and perhaps more attainable goals: streamlining the government bureaucracy, placing experienced technocrats in positions of authority and improving the dismal record of providing basic services.
'I don't think there is something called reconciliation, and there will be no reconciliation as such,' said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd. 'To me, it is a very inaccurate term. This is a struggle about power.'
Humam Hamoudi, a prominent Shiite cleric and parliament member, said any future reconciliation would emerge naturally from an efficient, fair government, not through short-term political engineering among Sunnis and Shiites.
'Reconciliation should be a result and not a goal by itself,' he said. 'You should create the atmosphere for correct relationships, and not wave slogans that 'I want to reconcile with you.' '
The trees are in the way, apparently. It's normal for the military to take pride in what they're doing, and indeed, they should. They're fighting an enemy who shoots back, and plants bombs blowing up civilians.
The shame will be to see it all in vain, since the Iraqi leadership sees no sign of accepting the baton, once passed. Everyone agrees, including the military, that the Iraqi government is a total failure. Recall earlier this year when the GOP tried to get Allawi to run. Even the GOP in Congress has nothing favorable to say about al-Maliki.
The Kurds are cutting the own oil deals, and face some real problems with Turkey (no help here from the U.S. Congress who is once again bringing up Armenia, for no good reason except the push from Armenian groups in the U.S., who actually know how to lobby, whereas the Turks in the U.S. have no such power). The Kurds want their own country, and that's that.
The Sunni are fearful of not getting their share of the oil revenues, and the Shia in the south are busy scrabbling over their own oil.
There's nothing bringing this government together - that would be Bush's and Rice's job, but Rice is tied up with a peace conference that may well be postponed, and Bush no longer has the ability to make al-Maliki do his job.
The job of the U.S. public is to maintain complete perspective - the White House has been very busy managing the news since before Petraeus' testimony, as they don't want it all to come apart before the 2008 elections, as the incumbents rely on the 'good news' for their seats. Bush and Cheney, on the other hand, just want to hand this mess off and go away.
a complicated mess!!
Baghdad Police College graduates 1,500 new recruits
More than 800 volunteers from the Abu Ghraib district graduated from the Iraqi Police training program at the Baghdad Police College on September 25. The group of volunteers joined approximately 700 of their fellow Abu Ghraib residents who graduated from the school on September 20. The training at Baghdad Police College is a four-week course that includes classroom and field training in police ethics, human rights, rifle and pistol marksmanship, Iraqi Rule of Law, establishment of manning and checkpoints, personnel and vehicle searches, communications, officer safety and physical fitness. (The Advisor)
Iraqi army says kills 40 militants
Iraqi army forces killed 40 militants during operations in three northern Iraqi provinces in the previous 24 hours, the Defense Ministry said on September 30. The operations took place in the volatile provinces of Diyala, Salahuddin, and Kirkuk. Another eight people were arrested in those provinces. (Reuters)
Iraq’s Sunnis and Shi’ites sign up in Qaeda battleground
Hundreds of Sunni Arab men, and a smattering of Shi’ites, have begun signing up for local tribal police units in areas southeast of Baghdad where pitched battles were fought with al Qaeda only weeks ago. In Tuwaitha, 256 young men have joined a 'concerned citizens' group, one of the latest examples of tribal police units based on the 'Awakening' model established in western Anbar, once the most dangerous province in Iraq. Lt. Col. John Kolasheski said about 700 people had signed up for such groups across his religiously mixed area of command southeast of Baghdad, which includes pockets of al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia as well as Al Qaeda. (Reuters)
Security Situation
Disbanding Militias ‘Key To Cutting Iran Sway In Iraq’
Mahmud al-Mashhadani, Iraq’s parliament speaker, said on October 5 that disbanding Shi’ite militias will be key in reducing Iranian influence in the country. U.S. and Iraqi officials have accused Iran of smuggling sophisticated weapons to Iraqi militants fighting coalition forces. Al-Mashhadani described Iranian influence in Iraq as 'clear and present,' but said that Iraq’s parliament could only urge Tehran not to interfere. He said the ideal solution would be to disband the militias. (RFE/RL)
Detained Iranian an intelligence agent: US general
An Iranian arrested by U.S. forces in Iraq’s Kurdish region had been involved in Tehran’s intelligence operations in Iraq for more than a decade, Maj. Gen. Bergner said on October 3. 'Multiple sources' had also implicated him in providing weapons to 'Iraqi criminal elements in the service of Iran,' Maj. Gen. Bergner said. On September 20, U.S. troops raided a hotel in Sulaimaniyah in the autonomous northern autonomous region and seized Mahmudi Farhadi, claiming he was a member of the Quds Force, the covert operations arm of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards. (AFP)
Al Qaeda in Iraq
According to StrategyPage.com, 'Al Qaeda has lost half its leadership this year, and the replacements find themselves struggling just to stay alive in the face increasing activity by American and Iraqi troops. What hit the Iraqi terrorists was a perfect storm of misfortune. The years of attacks had left the Americans with a huge database of information on who the terrorists were, and how they operated. With that, the terrorists were easier to track and run down. By 2007, most of the American troops in Iraq had been there before. They were combat experienced, and this made their raids, patrols and searches more rapid, thorough and effective. Same with Iraqi troops and police. Finally, the sending of 30,000 additional American troops created a critical level of forces for running down and smashing entire terrorist networks. Each province contained several of these, and as the Summer wore on, the lights began to go out. Week by week, terrorist cells and networks went offline! . No one could reach them, and that’s because the members were either dead, or fled. Recently, al Qaeda communications have been referring to the ‘Iraq problem.’ In other words, ‘how are we going to spin our defeat in Iraq.’ Good question. The answer will soon be revealed.' (StrategyPage.com)
Stop meddling in Iraq, PM urges neighbouring states
In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Prime Minister Maliki has urged neighboring states to stop meddling in his country. Prime Minister Maliki told the United Nations that the continued flow of weapons, money and suicide bombers into his country would result in 'disastrous consequences' for the world. He urged the international community to support Iraq’s national reconciliation process to rid terrorism from the country and bring peace to the region. (ABC.net.au)
Iraq leader: U.S., Iraq share same goal
Iraq is the 'tip of the bayonet' in the fight against terror, Iraq’s prime minister said on September 24 ahead of a meeting with President Bush, stressing that the same group responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks was behind the destruction of the minarets of a revered Iraqi Shiite shrine. Those 'who destroyed the towers of the (World) Trade Center are the same as those who blew up the (Golden Mosque) in Samarra and carried out the bombings of hotels in Jordan and Algeria,' Prime Minister Maliki said. (AP)
Iraq reconciliation drive offers marriage bonus
Iraq is offering a cash bonus to married Iraqi couples from different sectarian groups in a drive to heal rifts between communities and foster reconciliation. At a ceremony in Baghdad to launch the new initiative on October 2, 250 recently married couples from across Iraq accepted awards from Sunni Arab vice President Tareq al-Hashemi. Those in mixed marriages received $1,500. Hashemi did not specify whether all couples getting married in the future would qualify for the bonuses but said there would be a program of ceremonies to celebrate mixed marriages. (Reuters)
Iraq PM rejects U.S. Congress call for federalism
Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki said on September 28 that a U.S. Senate resolution calling for the creation of separate Sunni, Shi’ite, and Kurdish federal regions in Iraq would be a disaster for his country. 'They should stand by Iraq to solidify its unity and its sovereignty,' Maliki told Iraqi state television on his flight back from the U.N. General Assembly. (Reuters)
Iraq: Reconstruction
Government allocates $25 million for Iraqi refugees abroad
The Iraqi government has earmarked $25 million for the millions of Iraqi refugees. $15 million will go to Syria where nearly 1.5 million Iraqis are seeking refuge. Jordan will get $8 million and Lebanon $2 million. (Azzaman.com)
Karbala Radio Station Challenges Traditions
A radio station in Karbala is pushing boundaries in this holy Shia city by broadcasting music and cultural programming that some clerics and leaders consider inappropriate. Originally backed by the Iraqi National Congress, a moderate party led by Ahmad Chalabi, Karbala FM launched in October 2003 from a small home in the city’s Hussein neighborhood. Karbala FM is now independent and is the most popular station in the city–particularly among its youth. Karbala FM today broadcasts from a studio in the city and runs programming for much of the day, covering everything from culture to politics to religion. Its content frequently challenges traditions, raising eyebrows in the city. (IWPR)
Hospital Project Provides Jobs
The construction site of the Basra Children’s Hospital is a hotbed of activity these days, with an average of 750 workers on the job each day, according to Navy Lt. Cmdr. Chad Lorenzana. The number of workers is likely to hit 1,000 or more a day as the project enters new phases, said Lorenzana, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Gulf Region South District resident engineer. (DefendAmerica News)
Minister hails 2008 budget
There will a large increase in funding for municipal services in Iraq in 2008, said Finance Minister Baqer al-Zubaidi as he unveiled 2008 budget. Zubaidi said 2008 budget, estimated at $42 billion, is larger than 2007 due to the increase in oil prices. This year’s budget has been estimated at $41 billion. Zubaidi made the remarks during a two-day conference in the southern city of Hilla held to discuss post-war reconstruction. (Azzaman.com)
Iraq gives Jordan additional oil discount
The Iraqi government is apparently to increase the discount on crude oil shipments to Jordan by an additional $4 in a move seen to reward Amman for its supportive stands. The countries have signed an agreement under which Iraq has pledged to meet Jordan’s energy needs. But security problems are hindering the country’s attempts to meet those needs estimated at more than 100,000 barrels a day. Under the agreement Iraq was to sell a barrel $18 minus the market price. But the new discount gives Jordan a preferential treatment of $22 below the market. (Azzaman.com)
Iraqi sacred site to be rebuilt
Reconstruction work will begin next month on a revered shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra blown up in the current conflict, U.N. cultural body UNESCO said on September 29. The al-Askari shrine, one of Iraq’s most sacred Shia sites, was partly destroyed in two attacks over two years by suspected Sunni militants. Thousands have died in sectarian violence triggered by the first attack. The rebuilding work will be carried out by a Turkish company, and is being funded mostly by the EU and UNESCO. (BBC)
'It's still...........
a complicated mess!!'
So is Manhattan..
Seriously. why are my posts being censored?
And what century are you talking about??
It sounds from the #'s reported here that Iraq is becoming the land of enchantment! Electricity is a rare commodity in Baghdad it has been reported, and accordiing to the reconstruction officials an average of 10 hrs a day is available, but residents claim that that isn't anywhere close to the truth. Before the war, they claim they received 16 to 24 hrs of power a day compared to 7.6 now. That is just one hardship among hundreds that is endured, but those aren't going to be reported by officials. And is there really any sense in rebuilding during active bombing and fighting? The rosey reports sound good if they were just the complete picture.
(Where's the article on how the Iraqi government is functioning? How about the corruption? What's it all about, Alfie? Even our State Department agrees there's a problem, in their attempt to deflect blame for hiding it.)
www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1539232220071015
Corruption is pernicious in Iraq, says U.S. official
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Corruption is a 'pernicious, endemic' problem in Iraq and the Bush administration has not covered up the issue to protect Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's fragile government, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote Tuesday on a resolution that criticizes the State Department's handling of corruption in Iraq and accuses it of hiding information about the problem for political reasons.
'The State Department is attempting to suppress any information about the extent of corruption in the Maliki government,' California Rep. Henry Waxman, a Democrat, told the House rules committee in presenting the resolution.
But State Department Iraq coordinator David Satterfield said suggestions the department was trying to cover up corruption were wrong. 'We are protecting no one in Iraq. We have made clear that this is a pernicious, endemic problem at all levels of authority in Iraq,' Satterfield told reporters in a hastily arranged conference call ahead of Tuesday's vote.
'To believe that the U.S. government is concealing vital information, some smoking gun for the sake of either the present prime minister or his government or broader aspects of the Iraq venture is simply not correct,' he added.
(Remember back when the U.S. had diplomatic influence?)
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/15/AR200710150185 6.html?hpid=topnews
Nuclear Deal With India May Be Near Collapse
Premier Cites Internal Opposition To Agreement Pushed by Bush
By Robin Wright and Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 16, 2007; Page A01
A controversial nuclear deal between the United States and India appears close to collapse after the Indian prime minister told President Bush yesterday that 'certain difficulties' will prevent India from moving forward on the pact for the foreseeable future.
The main obstacle does not involve the specific terms of the agreement but rather India's internal politics, including fears from leftist parties that India is moving too close to the United States, according to officials and experts familiar with the deal. Besieged over the past two months by growing opposition to nuclear energy cooperation with the United States, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh indicated over the weekend that he would rather save his coalition government than the nuclear pact.
The reluctance to admit that the deal is faltering contrasts with the fanfare when it was announced in 2005. R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, heralded the pact just three months ago as 'perhaps the single most important initiative that India and the United States have agreed to in the 60 years of our relationship.'
U.S. officials acknowledged deep disappointment with the abrupt decision, which they described as unexpected. Burns and other senior administration officials scrambled over the weekend to try to revive the deal. Officials said many Indian officials still want the pact to move forward.
(This typifies the Administrations attitude of letting the good news out, while holding back on the real problems. This is why the American people no longer trust Bush and Junta when they ask for something, and the puff pieces tell only a fraction of the Iraq story.)
thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-chairmen-chide-rice-on-iraq-corrupti on-2007-10-12.html
House chairmen chide Rice on Iraq corruption
By Klaus Marre
October 12, 2007
Four powerful House chairmen sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday, charging that her department has stonewalled probes into corruption in Iraq.
The corruption “may be fueling the insurgency, endangering our troops, and undermining the chances for success,” said Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and David Obey (D-Wis.), in the letter.
The quartet also expresses concern over the “refusal of State Department officials to answer questions about the extent of corruption in the government of Iraq.”
The lawmakers cited Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction; Government Accountability Office Comptroller General David Walker; and an Iraq official to support their claim that corruption has added to the woes of the war-torn country.
The chairmen accused Rice’s department of having taken steps “to suppress information about the extent of corruption within the Maliki government.” Examples included asking officials not to answer questions openly on such issues as the quality of Iraqi governance, the ability of the government to tackle corruption and the alleged suppression of probes for political reasons. The lawmakers also said that the department retroactively classified two reports on Iraqi corruption.
“It may be reasonable to classify some information containing allegations about specific individuals in the Iraqi government, but the wholesale and even retroactive classification of all information is wrong and a misuse of the official classification procedures,” the chairmen wrote.
“We urge you to reconsider these misguided directives so that we can work together to find solutions to the corruption that may well be funding attacks on our troops,” the letter said.
www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/08/africa/ME-GEN-Iraq-Najaf-Investigation.p hp
Iraqi official implicates former prime minister, top Sunni sheik in violence in Shiite holy city
BAGHDAD: Iraqi authorities said Monday a former prime minister and a hardline Sunni sheik — both opponents of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — had been implicated in clashes earlier this year between U.S. and Iraqi troops and a heavily armed cult of messianic Shiites near the holy city of Najaf.
One of the men detained in the fighting said in a videotaped confessions that former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, and the head of Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars Harith al-Dhari had contributed financially to the Soldiers of Heaven group.
The footage was broadcast at a news conference by Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the first time such allegations have been raised against Allawi and al-Dhari.
A lawmaker from Allawi's parliamentary bloc, Izzat al-Shabandar, called the accusations 'baseless' and said they were politically motivated. Allawi and al-Dhari have repeatedly chastised al-Maliki, who has been leading a shaky, strife-worn Cabinet since May 2006.
'The people who have fabricated such allegations want only to cover up the failure and the corruption al-Maliki's government,' al-Shabandar said. 'Allawi is a secular politician and in no way would he ally himself with a fundamentalist cult.'
(Here's a look at the ministries who will have to run day-to-day operations after the U.S. hands it off. There was corruption under Saddam, and likely before him - it's institutionalized. This is where U.S. taxpayer money is going for reconstruction and other purposes. The original war premise was that Iraq's oil revenues would cover the cost, not our taxpayers. Another but of the nonsense spawned by the Neocons, who completely misunderstood the risks).
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20043428/
‘Untouchable’ corruption in Iraqi agencies
Report partially faults PM’s office, says health ministry in ‘grip’ of militants
By Aram Roston and Lisa Myers
NBC News Investigative Unit
Updated: 8:56 p.m. ET July 30, 2007
Supplies and medicine in strife-torn Baghdad's overcrowded hospitals have been siphoned off and sold elsewhere for profit because of corruption in the Iraqi Ministry of Health, according to a draft U.S. government report obtained by NBC News.
The report, written by U.S. advisers to Iraq's anti-corruption agency, analyzes corruption in 12 ministries and finds devastating and grim problems. 'Corruption protected by senior members of the Iraqi government,' the report said, 'remains untouchable.'
One potential problem is in the office of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, according to the report. The report said that 'the prime minister’s office has on a number of occasions intervened on cases involving political supporters.'
An al-Maliki adviser acknowledged to NBC that the problem of corruption in Iraq is 'huge,' but denied that al-Maliki's office has intervened in investigations. He said the prime minister is working hard to minimize the problem.
The draft report obtained by NBC said the Iraqi Ministry of Health, which oversees the country's hospitals, is in the 'grip' of the Mahdi Army, the anti-American militia run by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
'Contract fraud and employee theft of medicines, food, vehicles are viewed by investigators as the greatest problems,' the report said, adding that 'military sources have reported that the Mehdi Army [sic] finances operations from diverted medicines.'
Corruption 'widespread'
In the Ministry of Oil — the most important agency for Iraq’s economy — the report said 'corruption is a major problem' when it comes to refined oil products, such as gasoline and kerosene. The report said corruption in the oil ministry is partly to blame for lines of cars stretching for miles as Iraqis wait hours to fill up their tanks.
An entire battalion of Iraqi police 'was found to be nonexistent' and corruption in the army is 'widespread,' with ghost employees and a shortage of supplies, according to the report. The report also cites alleged favoritism and selective prosecution.
The draft report cited an incident at the Ministry of Oil that implicated the Shiite minister and four other officials, including one Sunni. The other three officials were reportedly Shiites, who were 'the only ones capable of giving testimony against the minister.'
(Bush will leave, but the costs continue to build, while Ike's concern of a military-industrial complex comes true.)
In January 2006, Joseph Stiglitz, a Columbia University professor who won the Nobel Prize for economics in 2001, and Linda Bilmes, a Harvard University budget expert, released a report estimating that the cost of the war in Iraq may come to more than $2 trillion when costs associated with lifetime disability and health care for injured soldiers and the overall effect on the economy are taken into account.
www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IH04Ak04.html
WASHINGTON - In a report to US lawmakers this week (8/4/07), the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the war in Iraq could cost US taxpayers more than a trillion dollars when the long-term costs of caring for soldiers wounded in action, military and economic aid for the Iraqi government, and ongoing costs associated with the 190,000 troops stationed in Iraq are totaled up.
White House Office of Management and Budget director Mitch Daniels' 2003 estimate that the war in Iraq could cost US$50 billion to $60 billion stands in stark contrast to the $500 billion already allocated to the conflict in Iraq and reconstruction projects.
'We are now spending on these activities more than 10% of all the government's annually appropriated funds,' said Robert A Sunshine, the assistant director for budget analysis.
In Sunshine's report to Congress, he showed that in an optimistic scenario - the United States reduces its troop levels in Iraq to 30,000 by 2010 - the war will still cost taxpayers an additional $500 billion.
In a less optimistic scenario in which 75,000 US troops remain in Iraq over the next five years, the cost to the US government would total an additional $900 billion.
'This is the consequence of going to war haphazardly and without a plan,' Brian Katulis, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, told Inter Press Service (IPS). 'We're at a point where we look at how much is approved by Congress, we're at $450 billion. Then the $116 billion requested by the [George W] Bush administration puts the total at over $556 billion.
'The Vietnam War, when inflation-adjusted, cost $652 billion,' he added.
While Congressional Budget Office reports showed a gloomy outlook for US costs in Iraq, last week several of Washington's biggest defense contractors released profit reports disclosing huge growth in divisions benefiting from military contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Northrop Grumman's information and services division showed 15% growth and its electronics division 7% for the second quarter compared with the same fiscal quarter last year.
General Dynamics' combat-systems unit experienced 19% growth in sales due to continued demand for tanks and armored vehicles, while Lockheed Martin announced a 34% rise in profits to $778 million.
Lockheed's newest revenue projections are now as high as $41.75 billion.
Miriam Pemberton, research fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, told IPS that 2008 military-related appropriations are the highest they've ever been. The year 2007 was the highest before that.
'War spending continues to go on. In addition, [contractors] are cashing in on increasing military budgets that have nothing to do with the war, such as the F-22 Raptor and large-scale weapon systems. Not only has this recent quarter been profitable, they have now locked in spending that will keep those profits going,' she said.
The increase in profits by defense contractors can be correlated to only a portion of the current and predicted spending associated with the war in Iraq.
The Congressional Budget Office's report estimated that medical costs will exceed $9 billion if the US stations 30,000 troops in Iraq, but could exceed $13 billion if 75,000 troops remain in Iraq over the next several years.
Training of police and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan over the next decade is estimated to cost at least $50 billion. Estimates for rebuilding and diplomatic expenses suggest that the US government will need to spend at least $20 billion through 2017, outside of military expenses.
Costs in coming months may continue to rise as the military will require funding for the troop 'surge' and for the purchase of armored vehicles for the additional troops and to replace vehicles unsafe because of the threat posed by roadside bombs.
BAGHDAD, Oct 14 (Reuters) - A car bomb killed four people in Baghdad's northern Kadhimiya district on Sunday, police said, marring what had been a relatively violence-free Eid al-Fitr holiday for the Iraqi capital.
(10/15) BAGHDAD (AP) _ A parked car exploded near an amusement park in Baghdad on Monday, killing at least six people and wounding 25, police said.
BAGHDAD 10/15 (AP) — Suspected Shiite militiamen hit military bases with mortar rounds and sprayed machine gun fire at a Polish helicopter Monday, setting off fierce fighting that killed at least four civilians in a volatile area south of Baghdad. It was the latest flare-up of internal Shiite feuds that threaten to destabilize the oil-rich southern region and undermine U.S. progress against al-Qaida in Iraq elsewhere in the country. U.S. commanders have cited major progress in curtailing al-Qaida operations during an 8-month-old security operation, but they have been unable to stop the car bombings and suicide attacks usually attributed to the group.
(10/15) The fighting in Diwaniyah began when fighters from the Mahdi Army militia fired four mortar rounds at the main U.S. and Polish base and nine rounds at a patrol base manned mainly by Iraqis and Polish troops, an Iraqi military official said. U.S.-led forces fired back with six or seven artillery rounds, and both sides traded small-arms fire, the official said. A curfew has been imposed on four districts in the city known to be dominated by the Mahdi Army. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information, said three Iraqi civilians were killed and 21 wounded in the crossfire. A policeman, who also declined to be identified because of security concerns, said Mahdi Army fighters emerged from alleys after the mortar attack and swarmed the smaller base, which had been set up in a youth center, prompting clashes that lasted about 30 minutes. He also said U.S. attack helicopters had opened fire. The U.S. military said it was looking into the report.
(10/16) BAGHDAD -- Five Iraqi journalists were killed in three separate attacks this weekend, marking the deadliest day for reporters covering the country in a year. Four reporters for Iraqi newspapers were reported shot to death Sunday in ambushes near Kirkuk in northern Iraq. Previously reported was the death of Salih Saif Aldin, a correspondent for the Washington Post who was apparently shot to death Sunday too while on assignment in the Sadiya neighborhood of southwest Baghdad.
(10/14) - BAGHDAD: A car bomb parked near a minibus exploded Sunday, killing nine people, including three women and two boys waiting for a ride to a Shiite shrine in Baghdad, a police officer said. Thirteen people, including women and children, also were wounded in the blast at Eden Square in northwestern Baghdad. The police banned cars from the area around the shrine in the Kazimiyah district until further notice, the officer said. The worshipers were going to the shrine for the second day of Id al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. In other violence in Iraq, an Iraqi soldier was killed Sunday and four others were wounded when a roadside bomb targeted their patrol in Khan Bani Saad, just northeast of Baghdad in Diyala Province. Near the southern town of Hilla, a police officer was fatally shot by gunmen from a speeding car. Also Sunday, the police raised the casualty toll from a suicide truck bombing a day earlier in Samarra, 95 kilometers, or 60 miles, north of Baghdad. The police fatally shot a suicide bomber Saturday, but his explosives-laden fuel tanker blew up near the city police headquarters, killing 18 and wounding 27. The initial count was lower because the victims were taken to different hospitals in the area, including a U.S. military hospital, according to a police official.
but still NO mention of the major Cholera epidemic in Iraq caused by contaminated water supplies from bomb damaged water and sewage pipes.
Suspected ‘100 million dollar al-Qaeda financier’ netted in
Iraq
Iraqi and U.S. forces detained a man they believe received $100 million this summer from Al Qaeda sympathizers to hand out for terrorist operations in Iraq, the U.S. military said on October 4. 'The 100 million was what our intelligence reports indicate he has received spanning several months this year,' a U.S. military spokesman said. A statement from the military said the man, who was detained in the central Baghdad neighborhood of Al-Kindi, was suspected of handing over $50,000 a month to Al Qaeda using his leather merchant business as a front. (AFP)
100,000 U.S. troops could leave soon: Iraq president
At least 100,000 U.S. troops could return home from Iraq by the end of 2008, President Talabani said on October 7, although he proposed that several American military bases stay in Iraq. Pres. Talabani envisioned faster U.S. troop reductions than U.S. commanders have discussed in public. But he stressed that the pace of withdrawal was up to those commanders and did not explain why he foresaw a faster pullout. (Reuters)
US Military in Iraq Says 6 Terror Suspects Killed in Raids
Coalition forces killed six terrorists during operations on October 6. Four of the militants were killed south of Baghdad in an operation targeting an associate of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Two others were killed in another operation near Samarra. Nine suspects were captured in the operations, while nine others were detained in separate raids in Baghdad, Samarra and Kirkuk. (VOA)
Observations about the war
Prof. Victor Davis Hanson writes that 'Almost all the Marines and Army units I visited from Ramadi to Taji to various hot spots in Baghdad and Diyala believe there has been a sudden shift in the pulse of battlefield. Sometimes without much warning thousands of once disgruntled Sunni have turned on al Qaeda, ceased resistance, and are flocking to join government security forces and begging the Americans to stop both al Qaeda and Shiite militias. Commanders in the field are cautious. They know that if the Shiite dominated government in Baghdad stays vengeful for decades of past suffering at the hands of Sunni Baathists, the reconciliation will fail. So thousands of American officers are desperately pressuring ministries to start distributing the vast wealth of Iraq’s $80 a barrel oil revenues to Anbar and Diyala before the Sunni revert back to insurgency.' (VictorDavisHanson.com)
U.S. military says kills 37 Iraqi militants
A U.S. air strike killed about 25 suspected Iraqi militants linked to Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias on October 5 and another 12 al Qaeda fighters were killed in separate raids. U.S. troops said they were engaged in a heavy firefight west of Baquba, capital of Diyala province north of Baghdad, during a dawn raid against a commander it said was linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite Qods force. The U.S. military also said it had killed 12 suspected al Qaeda in Iraq fighters during separate strikes in Baghdad and Yusifiya on October 5. (Reuters)
US says finds list of Qaeda fighters in Iraq
The U.S. military said on October 3 that it had seized a list of some 500 Al Qaeda members recruited to fight in Iraq from the Middle East and Europe during a raid in northwest Iraq that killed eight militants. Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said the September 11 raid near Sinjar targeted a senior Al Qaeda in Iraq leader, known as Multhanna, who was killed along with seven other terrorists [see below]. (AFP)
MG Berner Press Conference
Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner said on October 3 that coalition forces continue to work with the Iraqi Security Forces to maintain pressure on Al Qaeda in Iraq by targeting their leadership, their networks, and their sanctuaries. During the month of September, 29 senior Al Qaeda in Iraq operatives were either killed or captured. Five were Emirs at the city level or higher in the Al Qaeda in Iraq leadership structure, 9 were geographical or functional cell leaders, and 11 were facilitators who supported foreign terrorist and weapons movements. During the operation involving Multhanna, U.S. forces captured multiple documents and electronic files that provided insight into Al Qaeda’s foreign terrorist operations, not only in Iraq but throughout the region. They detail the larger al-Qaeda effort to organize, coordinate, and transport foreign terrorists into Iraq and other places. The 400-plus documents, three computer hard drives, two thumb drives and eleven compact discs at the si! te revealed a list of over 500 foreign terrorists being recruited by Al Qaeda, biographies on 143 foreign terrorists who were en route to Iraq or who had already arrived, routing and the financial transactions involving the movement for each foreign terrorist, and other documents including a formal pledge from foreign terrorists who were committed to suicide operations. (MNF-Iraq.com)
Coalition Raids Kill One, Net 10 Al Qaeda in Iraq Agents
Coalition forces killed one terrorist and detained 10 suspects during a series of raids targeting Al Qaeda in Iraq in central and northern Iraq on October 2, officials reported. “Every day we’re removing terrorists from the ranks of al Qaeda in Iraq,” said Maj. Winfield Danielson, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman. “We will continue to pursue individuals who facilitate and conduct attacks against the Iraqi people.” (American Forces Press Service)
U.S. takes Anbar model to Iraqi Shiites
The violence has dropped dramatically, say U.S. commanders, in the towns surrounding Forward Operating Base Iskan in northern Babil Province, south of Baghdad. The reason, they say, is that the same approach that won success in Anbar Province, where the Marines gained support of Sunni tribesmen against Al Qaeda, is taking hold in mixed-sectarian areas. But here, Americans have enlisted Shiites frustrated with extremists from such groups as the Mahdi Army, run by Moqtada al-Sadr. Across the Euphrates River Valley, known to the military as the southern belts of Baghdad, about 14,000 Shiite and Sunni 'concerned citizens' are being paid to man checkpoints and patrol roads in an effort to prevent attacks from violent extremism of either sect. (Christian Science Monitor)
Ramadan violence falls sharply in Iraq: U.S
Violence in Iraq during Ramadan has fallen by almost 40 percent from last year, the U.S. military said on September 30, despite a warning from al Qaeda that it would increase attacks during the Muslim holy month. Rear Adm. Mark Fox said a surge of 30,000 extra troops into Iraq this year and the new tactic of moving soldiers into small combat outposts instead of 'commuting to the war' from large bases had helped bring down violence. (Reuters)
Iraq wants security deal with U.S.
Iraq wants the U.N. Security Council to extend the mandate of the 160,000-strong multinational force in Iraq only through the end of 2008, then replace it with a long-term bilateral security agreement, Foreign Ministry officials said on September 29. Aides to Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the mandate extension for the coalition, due to be discussed at the end of this year, would be 'the last extension for these forces.' Iraq would then seek a long-term, bilateral security agreement with the U.S. like the ones Washington has with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, and Egypt. (AP)
A senior Al-Qaeda leader killed in Iraq: US military
A senior leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq was killed in a U.S. air strike in Iraq, a U.S. military commander said on September 28, calling it a key loss to a group already fractured by U.S. operations. Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson identified the man as Abu Usama al-Tunisi, a Tunisian described as in line to succeed Abu Ayyub al-Masri, Al Qaeda in Iraq’s Egyptian leader. The general said the September 25 strike that killed al-Tunisi was a 'significant blow' to Al Qaeda in Iraq, which he said has been severely disrupted by U.S. operations and may now be reassessing its position in Iraq. (AFP)
‘Dragon’ Offensives Destroy al Qaeda Outposts in Dora with
Iraqi Assistance
Coalition offensives in southern Baghdad, spurred by Iraqi intelligence, have dramatically reduced Al Qaeda-inspired violence, a military commander said on September 28. “We’ve had about a 60-percent reduction in murders since we arrived and took over in March,” Army Col. Ricky Gibbs said. “That’s huge.” (American Forces Press Service)
Italy arrests Iraqi over planned attack in Iraq
Italian police arrested an Iraqi man on September 28 on suspicion of preparing an armed attack in Iraq and charged him with belonging to a group linked to Al Qaeda. A police special operations group arrested the man in Padua, northeastern Italy, and said he had bought equipment in Italy with which he planned to carry out an attack in Iraq. (Reuters)
U.S. Needs ‘Long-Term Presence’ in Iraq, Gates Says
Defense Secretary Gates told Congress on September 26 that he envisioned keeping five combat brigades in Iraq as a “long-term presence.” Secretary Gates told the Senate Appropriations Committee, “When I speak of a long-term presence, I’m thinking of a very modest U.S. presence with no permanent bases, where we can continue to go after Al Qaeda in Iraq and help the Iraqi forces.” He added that “in my head” he envisioned a force as a quarter of the current combat brigades. There are now 20 combat brigades in the country, a number that is scheduled to drop to 15 by next summer. Secretary Gates has previously expressed hope that if security conditions in the country continue to improve, force levels in Iraq could drop to 10 brigades by the end of 2008. (NY Times)
Iraqi Forces
Military forces develop ‘irreversible momentum’ in Iraq, Coalition general says
Coalition and Iraqi forces have “tactical momentum” in the country, but they need to develop “irreversible momentum,” Gen. Odierno said on October 3. Gen. Odierno said coalition and Iraqi forces have made significant progress against Al Qaeda in Iraq and are making progress against Shia extremist groups as well. (The Advisor)
Sha’ab Residents Stand Up for Security
Over the past week, nearly 600 men applied to join Sha’ab’s new volunteer security force in eastern Baghdad, a government-authorized, U.S.-funded community police force that will guard important local infrastructure sites such as offices, schools, and markets. The total force will eventually number more than 1,200. “These guys are going to work in partnership with the Iraqi police and the Iraqi national police to secure their own neighborhoods and streets and markets,” said Capt. Dennis Marshall said. (DefendAmerica News)
Besmaya now home to Iraq’s only EOD school
Iraqi Army instructors and faculty, along with selected coalition partners, were all present for the opening of Iraq’s only bomb disposal school at the Besmaya Range Complex on September 30. Two main courses taught at the school aim to prepare soldiers for anything they may encounter. The first course covers basic bomb disposal and de-mining, while the second focuses more on advanced bomb disposal and improvised explosive device defeat. (The Advisor)
What Sanchez REALLY said...
Again, I tried to post the actual text of his speech but M&C Yanked it off, probably because you whined that someone else was posting on your own private flooding 'venue'.
The Press Proved Sanchez's Point
By Jack Kelly
LtGen. Sanchez, who commanded U.S. troops in Iraq from June, 2003 to June, 2004, is the highest ranking Iraq war veteran to publicly criticize the war, so his comments were newsworthy, despite being long on adjectives and short on specifics. But this column is less about what LtGen. Sanchez had to say and more about what the journalists who covered his speech chose to report.
All the news organizations which covered his speech emphasized the caustic things he had to say about the Bush administration.
But LtGen. Sanchez was as critical of Congress and the State Department as he was of Bush administration appointees:
'The administration, Congress, the entire interagency, especially the State Department must shoulder the responsibility for this catastrophic failure, and the American people must hold them accountable,' he said. Only Josh White of the Washington Post mentioned this prominently.
Fully half of LtGen. Sanchez's speech to the Military Reporters and Editors was devoted to criticism of another influential group, a group he criticized more harshly and at greater length than he criticized the Bush administration, Congress, or the State Department. Yet Mr. White mentioned LtGen. Sanchez' criticism of this group only in the final paragraph of his lengthy story. The New York Times, the AP, UPI, and the Hearst Newspapers didn't mention it at all.
'Over the course of this war, tactically insignificant events have become strategic defeats for America because of the tremendous power and impact of the media,' LtGen. Sanchez said.
'Your measure of worth is how many front page stories you have written and unfortunately some of you will compromise your integrity,' he said. 'It seems that as long as you get a front page story there is little or no regard for the collateral damage you will cause.'
'The death knell of your ethics has been enabled by your parent organizations who have chosen to align themselves with political agendas,' LtGen. Sanchez said. 'What is clear to me is that you are perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that is destroying our country and killing our service members who are at war.'
'Your profession has...allowed external agendas to manipulate what the American public sees on tv, what they read in our newspapers and what they see on the Web,' he said. 'For some of you, just like for some of our politicians, the truth is of little or no value if it does not fit your own preconceived notions, biases and agendas... As I assess various media entities, some are unquestionably engaged in political propaganda that is uncontrolled.'
The mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib happened on LtGen. Sanchez's watch, and he came in for a great deal of criticism of how he handled the scandal. The criticism clearly stung:
'In some cases I have never even met you, yet you feel qualified to make character judgments that are communicated to the world, he told the military journalists. 'This is the worst display of journalism imaginable by those of us that are bound by a strict value of selfless service, honor and integrity... You report with total impunity and are rarely held accountable for unethical conduct.'
So perhaps LtGen. Sanchez's criticism of journalists could be dismissed as hyperbolic, and sour grapes. But the same could be said of his criticism of the Bush administration, which, in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal, chose not to promote him to full general, leading to his retirement in 2006.
But the unwillingness of the journalists who covered his speech to report his criticisms of them lends credence to LtGen. Sanchez's charge that journalists slant or omit facts in order to serve their political and personal agendas.
'Our military must embrace you for the sake of our democracy,' LtGen. Sanchez told the Military Reporters and Editors. 'But you owe them ethical journalism.'
It's a debt that has yet to be paid.
www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/10/the_press_proved_sanchezs_po in.html
Al Qaeda in trouble
There is some very good news coming from the battlefield in Iraq: The changes in U.S. military strategy instituted earlier this year by Gen. David Petraeus have been achieving remarkable success against al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Indeed, it has been so successful that military commanders are debating how severely AQI's terrorist capabilities have been damaged. Since January, the number of suicide bombings has been cut in half, from 60 down to 30 a month. U.S. commanders say that the combination of deployments of additional U.S. soldiers into what had been al Qaeda-controlled areas in Baghdad and Anbar province, as well as the recruitment of Sunnis to fight al Qaeda have made it much more difficult for terrorists to coordinate their operations. Gen. Raymond, Odierno, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, estimates that al Qaeda has seen it's capabilities 'degraded' by 60 to 70 percent since January. The situation has changed so dramatically for the better that Thomas E. Ricks and Karen DeYoung of The Washington Post published a front-page story yesterday in which they reported that the U.S. military 'believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al Qaeda in Iraq in recent months.'
Evidence is mounting that al Qaeda's thuggish behavior and brutality against civilians are turning an increasing number of Iraqis against it. Evan Kohlman, a terrorism expert who closely monitors al Qaeda for globalterroralert.com, translated a communique issued Oct. 2 by a group called Hamas in Iraq, a faction of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, a Sunni Islamist group that has taken up arms against al Qaeda and is coordinating its military operations with U.S. forces. In the communique, Hamas in Iraq denounces al Qaeda at length for its participation in the murders of Muslims, and describes in some detail how al Qaeda would launch rockets at mosques during Friday prayers and would kidnap and torture fellow Muslims. Another recent statement by the Iraqi Jihad Union described how al Qaeda attacked and killed women and children and IJU fighters, then dug up the graves of the victims and paraded through town with their mutilated corpses. (See www.nefafoundation.com).
It is this kind of behavior that is alienating Iraqis and driving an increasing number of them to join coalition forces in taking up arms against al Qaeda. And much if not all of it is directly attributable to the changes in strategy instituted by Gen. Petraeus. In this context, it was somewhat bizarre to listen to Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the former top commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, who on Friday delivered a rambling speech attacking the war and declaring that the United States cannot achieve victory. 'The best we can do with this flawed approach is stave off defeat,' he said. Asked about this, Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, recounted how, during his visits to Baghdad starting in 2003, Gen. Sanchez would insist that U.S. forces were not being overstretched, and that National Guard and Reserves were not being strained. We know now that Gen. Sanchez was badly mistaken, and it is unfortunate that he is now sniping at Gen. Petraeus, who is cleaning up the mess his predecessors' flawed military strategy helped create.
washingtontimes.com/article/20071016/EDITORIAL/110160014/1013
These are the animals the US went over to eliminate:
5:35 p.m. BAGHDAD, Iraq - The terrorist killed in Mosul yesterday has been positively identified as Abu Duha. During operations targeting al-Qaeda in Iraq, Coalition forces targeted Duha as an al-Qaeda in Iraq leader responsible for terrorist security within Mosul. Intelligence reports also indicated he was involved in the facilitation of kidnapping operations, to include transporting victims to an illegal terrorist detention facility.
Along with kidnapping, Duha and his associates were reportedly involved in weapons facilitation and coordinating attacks against Iraqi security and Coalition forces. Duha is also known to have numerous terrorist associates, including a key leader with ties to Syrian-based terrorists and the inner circle of al-Qaeda in Iraq’s senior leadership. This individual reportedly received orders directly from Abu Ayyub al Masri, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Coalition forces have recently conducted numerous successful operations in Mosul, including an air strike Oct. 8 (SEE MNF-I RELEASE A071009a, “Coalition forces kill six terrorists attempting to emplace an IED,” dated Oct. 9, 2007), which killed six terrorists after they were positively identified attempting to emplace an improvised explosive device in the road.
“Operations like this bring us one step closer to eliminating al-Qaeda in Iraq,” said Maj. Winfield Danielson, MNF-I spokesman.
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