Dawn Patrol

Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs, other blogs, and the mainstream media. If you're a blogger, you can join the conversation. If you link to any of these stories, add a link to the Dawn Patrol too and your trackback will be added to the list. (We have a daily "Open Post" too, if you have something on another topic you can link there.)

IRAQ

Breaking News! -- [Iraq the Model - an Iraqi in Iraq]
National Assembly member Bahaa Al-Aaraji just told Al-Iraqia TV that an agreement has finally been reached among the leaders of political bodies on the final draft of the constitution and that disputes over issues like federalism, distribution of resources and the role of Islam have been solved.

It's good to be back---In Iraq [JD"Blog - Faces from the Front - in Iraq]
Down the hall, past the Gurkas, past the rows of TV cameras Iraqis are haggling. And for a nation of negotiators and hagglers, negotiating a constitution has to be the bargaining session of the century.

Today I got to see something truly amazing--the buddings of an Iraqi democracy.

EVERYONE IS DOING GOOD -- [Dixie Sappers - Kevin Kelly - in Iraq]
I know that it has hit all over the place that an IED hit one of our tanks today. My email was flooded. There was one person who was injured, but he is in good condition. I don't know if you remember the parade when GEN Cross talked about our uparmorment of our vehicles, but the armor that was put on the M113 showed that it is strong. It makes you feel a lot safer in the vehicles. Whenever something like this happens where someone is in contact in some form or fashion with the enemy, it's like all the wheels stop and everyone is listening to the radio to see what is going on. At the same time you can rest assured that there are prayers being said at the same time. It looks like the prayers to watch over us and protect us were answered again.

Backtracking Part III -- [Major K - in Iraq]
There are many unusual tasks that can be assigned to infantry officers, and some of them are rather unpleasant. Occasionally they are morbid. About two weeks before changing jobs I came up in the rotation to do a "personal efffects inventory." Several soldiers from the battalion had recently been wounded from another surge of IED's in our area, two of them bad enough to be sent home to recover. While "out for the rest of the season" luckily they will both recover to full function. One of them was a stranger to me. The other, I knew, respected and liked. So the task feel to me to go and unlock their barracks rooms, dig through all of their personal stuff, inventory it thoroughly, and pack it up to be shipped back to them in the USA.

Checkpoint defense -- [Phil and Becky - Phil's in Iraq]
This afternoon we received a call from our partnered Iraqi Army battalion that a group of bad guys was getting ready to attack one of the IA checkpoints in our area of operations. This isn't particularly remarkable -- we get reports like this fairly frequently. The report of "20 AIF with AK-47s and RPGs congregating" is something of a joke. It is always 20, they always have AK-47s and RPGs and they are always invisible when we show up.

Lock and load your mops at Camp Taji -- [48th goes to War - The AJC - in Iraq]
There?s something strange oozing from the ground at Camp Taji.

Some mornings, the gravel and dirt paths between the soldiers? trailers turn to chocolate brown slime.

?I had it all over my flip-flops,? said Staff Sgt. Gilbert Sheppard of Millen, who serves in the 1st Battalion, 118th Field Artillery Regiment. ?It took four days for them to dry out.?

At the pods where soldiers of the Georgia Army National Guard?s 48th Brigade Combat Team live, conspiracy theories run rampant.

Snapshots -- [365 and a Wake Up - in Iraq]
Central Baghdad itself is a dense knot of infrastructure ? a place where grandiose homes adjoin crowded hives thick with humanity. One of the only consistent theme you see in this area of Baghdad is the omnipresent litter. Every street is lined with random pieces of junk, and every fence line flutters with chattering pieces of plastic and paper. Some fences are so thick with the windblown flotsam they start to resemble lines of Tibetan prayer flags twisting in the wind.

What My Command Means to Me: Bad Times -- [Assumption of Command - in Iraq]
At the end of this long year, I would love to be able tell everyone that this deployment has been a cakewalk, but I am not a good liar. There are a lot of good things about being in command but there a plenty of things that are not so fun. As favorite Battalion Commander, COL (at the time he was LTC) Kevin C. M. Benson said many times, ?These are the conditions under which we live.? He would say this when he knew something was very unpleasant, but there was nothing we could do to change it. He was also telling us he was suffering with us.

Flying Again -- [stardotstar.org - in Iraq]
Balad is a great place to be stationed. I had steak for Dinner and Midnight Chow (or Breakfast and Lunch on my schedule). They have repaved a bunch of the airfield and now we have luxurious parking for our Chinooks. However, the improvements in facilities are because the
Air Force is now in charge. Those guys are ultra cautious when it comes to running the Air Traffic Control Tower. Last night we had to...

A matter of perspective -- [Who's your Baghdaddy? -back in Iraq from R&R]
I'm back.
The time at home was everything I hoped it would be and less. No, that is not a typo. One of my fears before going home was that the time would be filled with a flurry of activities and it would all go by so fast that I wouldn't be able to enjoy it as I counted down the days. I also feared that after being gone for so long that I wouldn't fit in...that I would feel like a stranger in my own home. That was not the case at all.

The Downside of Mercy -- [Strategy Page]
August 22, 2005: The continued deadlock over the new constitution is yet another front in the war that was thought over in April, 2003. Defeating the Sunni Arabs has proved harder than anticipated. Like Germany and Japan during World War II, Iraq was run by a militaristic dictatorship. Unlike Germany and Japan, defeating the Iraqi government did not eliminate the militaristic faction that supported the dictatorship. The reason was simple. In Iraq, the dictator was backed by a religious faction; the Sunni Arabs. In Germany and Japan, the dictators were backed by supporters united by class and politics. The Sunni Arabs are also united by blood, as the Sunni Arabs are organized as clans and tribes, and feel a unity from that, as well as their common religious beliefs.

MSM REPORTS ON IRAQ

Tribute to Men and Women in Uniform -- (CNN LOU DOBBS TONIGHT)
DOBBS: Now our weekly tribute to our men and women in uniform. Tonight, the story of Marine Sergeant Doug Hayenga. After Sergeant Hayenga nearly lost his leg in Fallujah, doctors worked long and hard to save his leg, but his remarkable recovery also due to his extraordinary bravery and determination.

Leaders In Iraq Report Progress On Constitution -- (New York Times)...Dexter Filkins
Iraqi leaders moved to the brink of agreement on a new constitution on Sunday, solving several contentious issues but still struggling with the potentially explosive questions of Shiite autonomy and the role of Islam in family disputes and the judiciary.

Sunnis Call For Delay In Charter -- (Los Angeles Times)...Edmund Sanders and Ashraf Khalil
Political groups representing Iraq's minority Sunni Arabs called Sunday for new delays in approving a national constitution, complaining that they had been cut out of final-hour negotiations between Shiites and Kurds and appealing to U.S. and U.N. officials to intervene.

Iraq Militias Push Voter Sign-Up -- (Washington Post)...Ellen Knickmeyer and Omar Fekeiki
Two major armed factions opposed to Iraq's still unfinished constitution on Sunday ordered their followers to register for an upcoming vote on the new charter, with one faction urging a vote against it and the other telling supporters to wait for further orders.

Iraqi Army Training Emphasizes Allegiance -- (San Diego Union-Tribune)...Tini Tran, Associated Press
In the ethnic melting pot of the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, the challenges of creating a new, unified Iraqi army are clear. Half the recruits speak Kurdish, the other half Arabic. Loyalties are complicated by regional ties to Kurdistan, the autonomous region to the north.

Does It Matter If You Call It A Civil War? -- (Christian Science Monitor)...Dan Murphy
Finding a way to head off civil war is at the heart of all the major initiatives - including the talks over a new constitution - in Iraq. But by most common political-science definitions of the term, "civil war" is already here.

Success In Iraq Depends On Services And Jobs, General Says -- (New York Times)...Thom Shanker
An American general who commanded 38,000 soldiers in the securing and rebuilding of Baghdad writes in a new essay that success in Iraq cannot be achieved solely by training local security forces. He says the military must also work to provide essential city services, create jobs and promote local governmental control.

Cops'-Style Show Makes Arresting TV For Viewers In Iraq -- (Arizona Daily Star (Tucson))...Tini Tran, Associated Press
...Created to make government more transparent, "The Cops Show" featuring Kirkuk officers in action is the first of its kind in the country and is breaking new ground in Iraqi television. A live call-in portion gives the public the chance to praise the security forces or gripe about them.

Hussein Casts Himself As A Martyr In Letter -- (Los Angeles Times)...Associated Press
Facing trial and possible execution for the massacre of his fellow Muslims, ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein sought in a letter published Sunday to cast himself as a martyr, writing that his "soul and existence is to be sacrificed" for the Arab cause.

AFGHANISTAN

Dons First Video For BW -- [The Siegrist Blogs - in Afghanistan]
Don gave me this video to slap on the net, he has done a great job showing the day to day here in the Stan!

Freedom and independence in Afghanistan -- [Afghan Reality - Afghani in Afghanistan]
August 18 celebrates the 1919 Afghan independence from Britain. The defeat of British in three wars and the subsequent bold resistance against the Soviet Union by the Afghan nation reflect Afghans' determinism and unity in upholding their soverignty, independence and freedom

MSM REPORTS ON AFGHANISTAN

Blast Kills Four GIs In Southern Afghanistan (USA Today)...AP
Four U.S. soldiers were killed and three were injured Sunday when an improvised explosive device ripped through a convoy of armored Humvees driving in a remote area of southern Afghanistan, marking the deadliest attack against U.S. forces in the past two months, U.S. military officials said.

G.I. Death Toll In Afghanistan Worst Since '01 -- (New York Times)...Carlotta Gall
This year is already the deadliest for American soldiers in Afghanistan since the war of 2001, and the violence is likely to intensify before the nation's legislative elections on Sept. 18.

OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Report: Japan gives up on UN bid -- [Riding Sun]
Rediff.com reports that, according to the Sankei Shimbun, Japan is giving up on its bid to gain a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council:...

Back "home" -- [Ramrod's Blog - back in Iraq from R&R]
I'm glad to be back, and that's creeping me out. While I was home, I had a blast, but a little part of me felt like I didn't belong. I hated driving when there were other cars on the road, not used to all these cars so close to me..haha.

I hung out with my old friends, got drunk, went paintballing, and just hung out. I had fun, but it just didn't feel 100% comfortable. I don't know.

MSM REPORTS ON OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Iran Leader Says Europeans Aim To Shut Nuclear Program -- (Philadelphia Inquirer)...Associated Press
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday accused Europeans of being willing to sell their goods to Iranians while at the same time trying to strangle Tehran's nuclear program.

S. Korea, US Seek Consensus Ahead Of Nuke Talks -- (Korea Times)...Reuben Staines
...Ban, who will begin meetings with top U.S. officials including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld today, confirmed that he does ``need to talk?? with them about North Korea?s right to a peaceful nuclear program.

Ignoring China's Growing Sub Force -- (Hartford Courant)...Rob Simmons and Carlisle Trost
...The Defense Department's new submarine plan rests on an overly optimistic assessment - bad news because our intelligence community has consistently been surprised by China's military modernization program, most recently when Beijing launched an entire new class of submarines without our knowledge. The Navy office responsible for coordinating submarine force planning disagrees with such optimistic assumptions, but has been overruled.

DEMOCRACY

What's on their Minds? -- [Neptunus Lex]
I've always feared that people who talk about the thinking of an entire demographic - in the case of the articles cited below, the "Arab mind" - ran some significant risks. It's dangerous to think that a group of individual people, all of them richly variegated in experience and environment could somehow form a coherent and undifferentiated aggregate, and that this "mind" could be usefully described.

TERRORISM

Believe our Enemies -- [Dadmanly - in Iraq]
Jeffrey Bell and Frank Cannon take stock of the War on Terror in this, the fifth year of America's active response to the threat of radical Islamic terrorism (which itself is far older than our response to its aggression against us).

In The War on Terror: Year Five in the Weekly Standard, Bell and Gannon rightly point out that:

Al Qaeda's Media Jihad -- [BlackFive]
Teniace sends this article on a possible electonic media strategy ("I call jihad on you!") of Al Qaeda to demoralize our Soldiers fighting the War on Terror.

Al-Qaida's Network in Iraq Goes (Temporarily) Silent -- [Counterterrorism Blog]
For the first time in weeks (if not months), Al-Qaida's Committee in Mesopotamia--led by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi--has failed to release a single claim of responsibility for ongoing operations in the Sunni Triangle in a given day. Claims for Al-Qaida attacks in Iraq have undergone a noticeable and sudden decline over the past three days, though it is unclear whether that decline is merely a temporary technical issue or evidence of a larger and more significant operational trend. It should be noted that popular websites and forums used by Al-Qaida to distribute their material are still online and active, and there has been no similar interruption in daily online digests from other militant groups such as the Ansar al-Sunnah Army and the Army of the Victorious Sect. Thus, if there is indeed a terrorist technical snafu, it is apparently one limited to Al-Qaida's organization in Iraq.

MSM REPORTS ON TERRORISM

Suspects detained in Jordan attacks -- (Baltimore Sun)... AP
Rockets narrowly missed a U.S. Navy ship in Aqaba; Police find four more rockets
AQABA, Jordan - Police detained several suspects yesterday as the hunt widened for the attackers who fired and supplied the rockets that narrowly missed a U.S. Navy ship anchored in the bay of this Red Sea port best known for beach vacations and Mideast summits.

Was Mohammed Atta Overlooked? -- (Time)...Timothy J. Burger and Brian Bennett
..."I'm offended, because people say, 'Well, why didn't you do anything?'" says Kean. "This was information that was not given us." After largely declining comment for nearly two weeks, a Pentagon spokesman told TIME last week that the Defense Department has been "aggressively looking into these allegations" but has yet to find documentation to support them.

Beyond Guantanamo (Washington Post)...Matthew Waxman
This month the United States and the government of Afghanistan reached an understanding that will allow for the gradual transfer of Afghan detainees now held by the Defense Department at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan to the control of Afghan authorities. This is not only a significant step forward in the U.S.-Afghan security relationship but the latest example of how the United States and its coalition partners can share the burdens in mitigating the dangers terrorist fighters pose.

Colonel Got Permission To Disclose Pre-9/11 Data -- (Washington Times)...Shaun Waterman, United Press International
House Republican leaders approved in advance plans by a military intelligence official to go public with details of a top-secret Pentagon project code-named Able Danger.

Dangerously Disabled (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)...Jack Kelly
Since I wrote about the top-secret intelligence unit last week, Able Danger has gained a face, and other pertinent information about 9/11 that didn't make it into the 9/11 Commission's final report has emerged.
(Note: Jack Kelly's blog is Irish Pennants)

MILITARY

Soldiers say force level comments no surprise, but could affect re-enlistment -- [Lance in Iraq]
While I don't like headlines that state the obvious, this piece in Stars and Stripes interviews several soldiers that reflect majority opinion in the military.

?We came here to do a job and then go home, whether that takes 10 years or even 15 years,? said Spc. Allan Annaert, from Headquarters Support Company, of the 94th Engineer Combat Battalion, (Heavy), which is stationed in Mosul, Iraq.

SUPPORTING THE MILTLARY

The Spectrum of Support to Our Troops -- [Firepower Forward - in Iraq]
I was reading a post to Black Five's blog the other day about what he calls ?Clueless? mail rather than ?Hate? mail. It's a letter from a Joan Mackie Ochoa and you can decide for yourself how you would classify it. After she spends a paragraph running down President Bush and letting us, the military know that we are all ?brainwashed?, she states that she supports us.
I've been stewing on this for a while and it's taken me a little while to separate all the self-contradicting statements but it made me start thinking about what it means to ?Support Our Troops?.

Supporting the Military... Part 1 -- [Argghhh!]
Part 1. How to Support the Military, if what you want to do is *not* support the Military... and, indeed, wrap up a whole buncha stuff ya wanna castigate in one, neat little package.

I'm a San Francisco City Supervisor. I want to demonstrate my support for the military.

Hmmm. Where to start, where to start, where to start?

Okay. I know! I know!....

MSM REPORTS ON MILITARY

Army Fights To Sell Itself To The Parents Of America -- (Los Angeles Times)...Mark Mazzetti
Success in advertising usually means getting people to part with their hard-earned cash. Ray DeThorne's success is measured by how many people he can get to let go of their sons and daughters.

Groups Seek To Stop Military Recruiters -- (Miami Herald)...Unattributed
The Citizen Coalition Against Militarism will visit high schools around the U.S. Caribbean territory this week to urge students and parents not to allow schools to release students' names, addresses, phone numbers and other data to military recruiters, the group said in a statement.

Experts Warn Army May Face Decline In Quality -- (USA Today)...Dave Moniz
If the Army maintains the size of its force in Iraq over the next several years, it could risk a decline in the quality of the force and other severe problems, a Republican senator, defense analysts and retired military officers say.

Revamped Veterans' Health Care Now A Model -- (Washington Post)...Gilbert M. Gaul
For years, the Department of Veterans Affairs' sprawling health care system was criticized by veterans groups and government investigators as a dangerous backwater of medicine. Report after report portrayed it as suffocating from top-heavy bureaucracy, dirty and unsafe hospitals, and little or no accountability. Thousands of eligible patients opted to get their care elsewhere.

POLITICS

The Left squeezes the Democrats again
This morning's Washington Post has an interesting article describing the inability of the leadership of the Democratic Party to reach a coherent position on the war. Activists on the Left are pushing the Democrats to call for withdrawal, but party warhorses Reid, Biden and Clinton quite sensibly believe that success in Iraq is "too important for the country." They also worry, I'm sure, that pushing for unilateral withdrawal will remind the country that Democrats of the current generation always push for unilateral withdrawal.

Blitzer Gravely Reports Roberts' Lawyer Joke [Media Blog NPR]
On The Blitzer Identity, Wolf Blitzer told us today that he likes his orange juice "freshly squeezed." Fair enough. But then he followed that announcement with a segment in which he gravely reported that John Roberts, according to today's widely panned Washington Post article, wrote in a memo during the '80s that:...

MSM REPORTS ON POLITICS

Democrats Split Over Position On Iraq War -- (Washington Post)...Peter Baker and Shailagh Murray
Democrats say a long-standing rift in the party over the Iraq war has grown increasingly raw in recent days, as stay-the-course elected leaders who voted for the war three years ago confront rising impatience from activists and strategists who want to challenge President Bush aggressively to withdraw troops.

Republican Senator Says U.S. Needs Iraq Exit Strategy Now -- (Los Angeles Times)...Josh Meyer
As President Bush prepared to hit the road this week to bolster public support for his policies in Iraq, a senior Republican senator said Sunday that the United States needed to craft an exit strategy because its continued presence had created a potential Vietnam.

Soldiers' Fortitude Impresses Cuellar -- (San Antonio Express-News)...Simone Sebastian
Describing weather in the Middle East as a "blow-dryer full blast, 10 inches from your face," U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said he was all the more impressed by the reconstruction effort in Iraq and the perseverance of soldiers he met during a three-day trip.

At Pentagon, Less Ideology, More Balance -- (Washington Post)...Bradley Graham
The new civilian leadership team that has moved into place under Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld over the past few months is shaping up to be less ideological, more balanced and more attuned to Congress than the first-term group it has succeeded, according to defense analysts and lawmakers.

Base-closing dims Republican star (Chicago Sun-Times)...Robert D. Novak
The Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) will have finished its work by week?s end, and Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota probably will be closed forever. That also will close Sen. John Thune?s tenure as national Republican poster boy following his victory last year over Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle. This is a cautionary tale of what happens when politicians forget politics.

BLOGGERS REPORT ON IN MSM

My Second ?Outside the Tent? Piece in the L.A. Times [Patterico]
As I told you yesterday, I have an ?Outside the Tent? piece in today?s L.A. Times, about the paper?s coverage of Cindy Sheehan. It?s titled Peacenik paper fawns over antiwar mom. I don?t write the headlines, folks.

As I also said yesterday, this is intended as media criticism, not as a personal attack on Sheehan. I hope that readers of the piece understand that.

(Need more? The previous Dawn Patrol is here.)