 |  |
 
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! July 29, 2008 MilBlogs TV: Anbar Rising (part two)By GreyhawkTo embed this video on your website (and please do...) copy and paste the following code: <embed src="http://blip.tv/play/AcWCZI3NKg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="285" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"> </embed> Part one of this series is here. Major Smith and Colonel MacFarland's Military Review article can be found here, and should be read in its entirety. The Guardian video can be viewed in full here. A Stars and Stripes homecoming tribute (pdf) to the Ready First Combat Team can be found here. Recent Mudville entries on this topic: Earlier coverage cited in the video series: Saluting the 3rd ACR (February, 2006) Anbar Rising (September, 2006) Close Air Support (November, 2006) Links to most other reports cited in the video can be found in the above links, but additional links will be added to this post as time permits. MilBlogs TV is funded by readers like you. Please help MilBlogs TV grow. Script: Colonel MacFarland did brief the media on September 29, 2006. Unfortunately, with congressional elections looming little news from Iraq beyond the death toll was provided to Americans at the time. For example, Time magazine covers from the month following featured the looming war with Iran, a reporter wounded in Iraq, evolution, the end of the Republican Party, and a feature on "the next president". The New York Times front-page Iraq stories detailed a new book claiming that President Bush ignored warnings on Iraq on the 29th, and a story that the US might cut funding to the abusive Iraqi police on the 30th. So with great pride we now present the world premier of Colonel MacFarland's September 29, 2006 briefing to the American media from Ramadi... BREAK Ignored by traditional western media, the story of the Anbar awakening was told only in Arab media and in American milblogs at the time While Colonel MacFarland didn't use the term, as reported in part one of this series, The story of what would come to be known as the "Anbar Awakening" was first revealed in a little-noticed February, 2005 Time magazine article by Michael Ware. A June, 2005 London Times report headlined "US in Talks with Iraq Rebels" would cause a bit more of a stir. (A follow-up story in the Washington Post would reveal the "insurgent outreach" program had been approved in August, 2004.) Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld answered questions about the effort on Fox News Sunday that week. The secretary announced that such meetings "go on all the time" and described efforts to "split local insurgents off from the al Qaeda/foreign fighters group." He dismissed any need for additional US troops in Iraq, stating emphatically that Iraqis - not American troops, were going to win the battle against the insurgency in their country. His confidence was based on expectations that the Iraqis would very soon reject the brutality practiced by the radical groups in their midst. Reports of conflict between al Qaeda and Sunni groups would surface periodically thereafter, but would often blend into the emerging "civil war in Iraq" theme. In June, the death of Abu Musab al Zarqawi in a coalition air attack would result in a new leader for the group, and within days of Colonel MacFarland's announcement of the Anbar sheik's movement (limited at the time to Ramadi but then known as the "Anbar salvation council") Abu Ayyub al Masri would offer "amnesty" to the sheiks if they would return to his control before the end of Ramadan.
His response came from Sheik Sattar Abu-Risha. - Though little known outside Ramadi, the Sheik was in the process of turning the tide of the war in Iraq "I do not know what kind of authority he enjoys." The sheik stated, "Is he a prophet? Did he receive a messenger from God to give us a pardon? Are we criminals like him? Are we killers like him to be given a pardon? Or did we ask him for pardon? On the contrary, he should ask us for pardon, because he killed Iraqis, Sunnis and Shi'is. Who is he? He is only an inferior criminal. We should not grant him a pardon." A profile of Sheik Sattar From an early 2007 BBC report...
As Smith and MacFarland would relate in their 2008 review, Sattar was a dynamic figure willing to stand up to al Qada at a time when victory was far from certain. On 9 September he organized a tribal council attended by over 50 sheiks and the brigade commander, declaring the awakening underway and beginning a snowball effect that resulted in a growing number of tribes declaring open support for the movement or withdrawing support from al Qaeda in Iraq. BREAK The establishment of the Awakening was not spontaneous; it was an evolutionary movement developing over years in Iraq. But dramatic events along the way ensured its success. One of the most significant of these was the battle of Sufia, retold by Smith and MacFarland in Anbar Awakens... BREAK Once again,, other than milblogs readers, few would know of these events at the time. Coincidentally, the same milblogs story would include a report of Senator John McCain challenging General Casey on the need for additional troops in Baghdad and Anbar. For while the Awakening movement was altering the course of the war in Ramadi, the terrorists fleeing that area were helping spread violence throughout Baghdad, Mosul, Baqubah, and other areas in Iraq. In early 2007 the "surge" was announced. General David Petraeus was named commander of Multi-national force Iraq. Among his first agenda items on assuming command was a meeting with sheik Sattar. BREAK From the earliest days of the surge, efforts were underway to recreate the success of the Ramadi movement, and spread the awakening model throughout the country. BREAK General Petraeus' first press conference from Baghdad... BREAK AS Smith and MacFarland would later explain "The Anbar Awakening was the result of a concerted plan executed by US forces in Ramadi. And The conclusion of their report sums their unit's key lesson's learned from Iraq Accept risk in order to achieve results. Once you gain the initiative, never give the enemy respite or refuge. Never stop looking for another way to attack the enemy. The tribes represent the people of Iraq, and the populace represents the "key terrain" of the conflict. The force that supports the population by taking the moral high ground has as sure an advantage in COIN as a maneuver commander who occupies dominant terrain in a conventional battle. They close by noting, In the end, probably the most important lesson we learned in Ramadi was that, as General Petraeus said, "Hard is not hopeless." Epilogue: The Ready First Combat Team returned to its home station in March 2007 as the first of the "surge" Units were positioned in Iraq. Over the course of about 14 months on the ground, 31 of the brigade's soldiers were killed - among them, Capt Travis Patriquin, credited by Smith and MacFarland as the man responsible for the initial contacts and ultimate cementing of the American bond with the Ramadi Sheiks. A police station in Ramadi is named in Capt Patriquin's honor. BREAK Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Risha was killed by a roadside bomb at the outset of Ramadan in the western calendar year 2007. Contrary to expectations at the time, his movement survived him. In June, 2008 his brother and new awakening leader Sheik Ahmad al-Rishawi came to America, though his visits to President Bush and members of the US Congress received little media attention. He told the New York Sun that his message to Congress was that American soldiers should stay in Iraq for at least as long as it takes to rebuild Iraq's national army - but also repeated his brother's earlier offer to join the battle against al Qaeda in Afghanistan. "Al Qaeda is an ideology," Sheik Ahmad told the Sun. "We can defeat them inside Iraq and we can defeat them in any country." END Posted by Greyhawk / July 29, 2008 5:37 AM | Permalink 2 TrackBacks6 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 |
Excellent video. Just from reviewing mainstream media debates on this, I think both sides are unclear on what exactly was the catalyst for the tribes flipping? In other words, all the coverage starts by saying, well, AQI went over the top with their violence, so the tribes turned against them. Well, were the Marines doing something that ALLOWED the tribes to flip against AQI, in other words was the combination of U.S. lethality combined with overtures for diplomacy with the tribes what allowed the awakening to happen in the first place? That part of the picture is getting lost.
The MacFarland article shows some of the frustration we feel about the explanation that fortuitous events like the awakening and the Shia ceasefire just happened in a vacuum, out of sheer coincidence, while our soldiers stood around like potted plants (but doing "terrific" work nonetheless.)
The article says it was in fact a concerted plan conceived and executed by the U.S. military that was the catalyst -- the combination of lethality and the open hand of friendship allowing the tribes to say, "We're sick of getting killed on both sides by U.S. and AQ, so let's pick the Americans".
It seems Sattar's courageous decision was made possible by distinct, deliberate and methodical U.S. military actions. It may not have bee the surge per se at the time, but what is really at issue is, did our actions have anything, or nothing, to do with Iraq improving? B5 used to end vids with a tribute to Sattar and one of our Capts. as having been the architects of the awakening. Is this the framework that got the ball rolling?
Moreover, is it legitimate to say the later surge did allow the awakening to grow, and spread to other provinces?
I think the political end of the debate is getting hung up on which came first, the surge or the awakening, when in fact the real question is, in what way did U.S. actions allow the awakening and militia ceasefires (because they were being demolished by U.S. forces) to happen in the first place? To me it's a matter of giving credit where credit is due, whereas there's a political interest out there in minimizing the importance of troops' efforts in the Iraq turn around. This way, one can justify having opposed the surge.
I won't be as soft-spoken as the nice lady above:
The information about the Awakening and our role in it was available to the Big 0* as it was happening.
He ignored it, and instead promoted withdrawal as the solution from that time on ... revealing that, he had a tin ear for ground truth in Iraq as pronounced as Roseanne Barr's re: the National Anthem.
By not giving credit where credit's due, the Big 0* effectively spits on Capt. Patriquin's grave, IMO.
McCain perhaps chose his words badly ... but he accurately predicted what would happen all across Iraq, by implementing the strategy PROVEN in Ramadi by the Ready First nationwide.
As for the Big 0* ... the irony is, he is as accurate about the Surge even with having this information available, as the current Administration was about WMD stockpiles at the start of the war.
But he'll never get called on it ... because all the wailing and whining about no WMDs and quagmires isn't because this Chorus of Doom is interested in peace, freedom, or security.
All they are interested in, is discrediting a President and the worldview he represents, in the hopes of creating their Utopia ... where irresponsible behavior is celebrated, prohibitions against its disdain are legislated ... while the responsible have income confiscated, to subsidize libertine and inebriated ... and your choices are not yours to make, but dictated.
------------------------
* As in, 1-1 ...
Enough of the Big 0 ...
Excellent reportage, Grey one. The video and screen-captures add significantly to the written account of Smith and MacFarland, which is already great in its own right.
Page is bookmarked, to pass on to others who might have been bamboozled by Big 0 and Keith Overbite.
More like this, please, as time and duty allows ... just make sure to keep some time available for pickin' ...
Greyhawk, damn nice work. Damn nice.
I agree with Steve Schippert.
Thank you for this! I knew the media's depiction of events was skewed, as if it all happened in a vacuum. I had been following developments of the Awakening thanks to Schippert and milblogs for months before I heard even a remote peep from MSM.
Thank you for the work you put into the video and providing a timeline.