 |  |
 
October 2012
August 2012 July 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003
     |
 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! October 2, 2005 Forward MarchBy GreyhawkTigerHawk posts a report on Lt. General David Petraeus' appearance at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School For Public and International Affairs. The speech received no notice in any other media as of this writing, and that's not surprising, given that a central topic of discussion was the failure of the media to report much of what was happening in Iraq during his latest tour there. The entire post is a must-read, and TigerHawk has done a great service in providing it. A key comment: The central theme of his talk, which was supported by lots of data and supporting anecdotes, was that there are a lot of myths about Iraq that need to be dispelled. One such myth is the claim that NATO has not been involved -- General Petraeus forcefully argued that it had been, particularly in the establishment of the military academy and training facilities, but that NATO's participation had been substantially ignored by the press.Indeed, though more correctly the American media has ignored it - as Agence France Presse did cover the story of the recent opening of a training center near Baghdad, although DefenseNews was one of the few American sources carry the story: The United States hailed the launch of a new NATO training center for Iraqi forces on Sept. 27, saying the alliance had a key role to play in the insurgency-wracked nation.Although not noted by the General, another training facility recently opened in Iraq has also been ignored by media: In the U.S. Army, noncommissioned officers are known as the ?backbone of the Army,? and a group of these Soldiers has set up an academy to help the Iraqi army produce its own rigid corps of NCOs.And progress is being made: The newly trained NCOs go back to their respective units upon graduating from the academy, with one exception. Select Iraqi NCOs have the opportunity to become part of the cadre.Major K has more: When the Academy was first set up, SFC R. and the rest of the MiTT Team were teaching all of the courses. Now, the courses are taught exclusively by Iraqi NCO Instructors. Several of these instructors are female.It's not clear whether he's discussing the same facility though - and to be effective there should be several such schools throughout the country. Both these schools are examples of forward progress - and to measure progress we return to TigerHawk's report: The most impressive thing about the Iraqi units is how tenacious they have become, notwithstanding early reports that they would cut and run. According to General Patraeus, since the January elections, from which the Iraqi security forces ?took an enormous lift that still persists,? the Iraqi forces "have not run from a fight, they have not backed down."In fact, in my time in Iraq, the media was rife with stories of the failure of Iraqi security forces - their tendency to vanish when attacked by their foes. Such stories have been noticeably absent from reports for several months now - although questions about the overall readiness of the Iraqi Army are raised routinely. Another quote from the General that brings to mind another now-vanished theme common to stories from Iraq a few months ago: Another myth is that "the Iraqi forces have no armor." Coalition members from the former Communist bloc have contributed lots of armor compatible with legacy Iraqi experience, including 77 T-70 tanks from Hungary ("which are better than anything the Iraqis had under Saddam"). Iraqi tanks have been organized into an armored brigade which is responsible for securing the airport road ("Route Irish has been free of violence since the Iraqi armored brigade took it over").Those unfamiliar with the territory will miss the significance of that last line. Route Irish, aka the Airport Road links Baghdad Airport to the International Zone, and was rightfully notorious for the number of attacks that occurred there. A common theme in reports from Iraq was the story of any journalist's harrowing trip from the Zone to the Airport along that route - but such stories have vanished recently. A final point from Princeton: In General Petraeus' conception, the Transition Command has five missions:This is worth noting in that 1) it's right, and a realistic assessment, and 2) the sentiment is echoed in a quote from a junior officer from another unit in another recent story from Iraq: "When people say it's horrible that you are training those Iraqi soldiers because they will never be as good as we are, they are missing the point," said Capt. Mike Whitney, commander of the 1-30th's Alpha Company. "No, the Iraqis will never be as good as we are, but they don't have to be. They just have to be better than anybody they face here."In a further sign of hope, note that that story is from the New York Times, and reflects a recent trend - more willingness to report good news from Iraq. So perhaps that battle is going a bit more favorably than the General is aware. Time will tell. Posted by Greyhawk / October 2, 2005 10:31 PM | Permalink 2 TrackBacksTigerHawk reports a very important and illuminating speech given by Lieutenant General (LTG) David Petraeus at Princeton University, "A Soldier's Reflections on IraqA Soldier's Reflections on Iraq Read More Don't miss TigerHawk's excellent report and analysis here, or Greyhawk's comments here. While you're at it, read Tigerhawk's earlier post on Condoleezza Rice's speech at Princeton here. Sorry I forgot to link to it earlier. Read More 7 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
Comments (0) |
|
The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
Okay, but what about the recent reports that only one Iraq battalion is up to snuff, as opposed to three just a while ago? What about the U.S. generals who once said they could draw down forces next year now saying that there will be no draw-down in 2006? Doesn't sound like progress on the ground.
I'd be interested to know how many Level 1 units total exist outside of the U.S. Military and the IDF. I'm guessing the number is probably not very high.
Wilson,
"Only 1 Battalion Up to Snuff"
The difference between a level 1, and a level 2 battalion is "Self Sustainment"
If a level 2 Battalion had to go out into the middle of the desert to fight, it would quickly run out of food,fuel,water and ammo. Thus rendering it useless.
However, a level two battalion can be quite effective if it a located near readily available supply's of food,water and fuel. Last I checked, there were plenty of Kabob Shops, Soft Drink stands and Gas Stations in all of Iraq's cities.
The level one issue will be an issue if US Troops completely withdraw. It is not an issue when discussing "Significant Troop Reductions".
Wilson, you didn't read the link.
I actually remember quite a bit of reporting in the media about how NATO was training Iraqi troops. I specifically remember that the european countries agreed to train an Iraqi officer corps but not in Iraq. The Iraqis are flow to france, germany, etc..., trained, graduate and return to Iraq.
By the way, how do you feel about a draft for the american military? I recenty wrote about this topic on my blog.
I'll believe what an American soldier who is stationed there working directly with the Iraqis has to say ANY DAY over the media... You should, too, Wilson.
The problem is that the senior officers have no ability to be candid. By definition, in their public statements they are required to put the best face on things. As a result, their statements have to be taken with not just a grain of salt but a pound of it.