Dawn Patrol

Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and other sources around the world. 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.

IRAQ

Video: Attack on al-Qaida

GuardianFilms penetrates Iraq's most dangerous province to report on how the Iraqis themselves have turned on al-Qaida.

What it's Like to be a Cop in Fallujah, UPDATE -- [INDC Journal - in Iraq]
Last Tuesday, I published an e-mail from Fallujah Police Transition Team officer Captain Tad Scott regarding an Iraqi Police officer who suffered a horrific insurgent attack on his family. To recap:

Iraqi Papers Thursday: Is Falluja Next? -- [Iraq Slogger]
Tribal Alliance Spreads Control Over Anbar
Az-ZamanThe Iraqi newspaper al-Mada, which has recently been at the forefront in reporting the news of the “retreat” of al-Qa'ida from al-Anbar, has published another front-page article claiming that Al-Qa'ida is now facing in Falluja the same form of opposition that had forced its retreat from other Anbari cities.

Saddam, We Miss You -- [Strategy Page]
Attitude does matter. With the addition of just two brigades of U.S. troops, and the equivalent of four brigades of Iraqi troops and police, the death toll from terrorist bombs is down 36 percent over the last month, and killings by death squads are down by half. Attacks against government officials (including police) are down 70 percent)

Coalition forces kill two terrorists, detain 11 others -- [MNF-I]
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition Forces killed two terrorists and detained 11 suspected terrorists during several raids targeting the al-Qaeda in Iraq network.
During a raid Thursday morning east of Balad, two armed terrorists began firing on Coalition Forces. Coalition Forces engaged the armed men with precision fires from a fixed-wing aircraft, killing both terrorists. Coalition Forces also detained eight suspected terrorists during the raid.

Eye To Eye: Gen. David Petraeus On Iraq's Security

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, talks with Allen Pizzey about the security crackdown in Sadr City. He says it will take time to stabilize the country. (more)

The Opportunity In Sadr City -- [Captain's Quarters]
A report by The Scotsman on the shock experienced by American troops on their first forays into Sadr City reveal an opportunity that we can seize to push the militias aside. Basic services such as sewage and trash removal do not exist, and although the residents of the slums have so far given the American surge a chance, success will depend on replacing those services provided by the militias:

National Guard Soldiers Display ‘Exemplary’ Actions During Convoy Attack [GX Online]
Al Asad Air Base, Iraq— In two National Guard Soldiers’ written accounts of an August 2006 attack on their convoy, they used the same words to describe the back of a Humvee that was struck by a 155 mm artillery shell: “completely disintegrated.”
That day, members of the Mankato, MN-based 2nd Bn, 135th Infantry Regt’s combat logistics team were on a patrol heading from Camp Korean Village near Ar Rutbah back to their home base in northwest Iraq. The Soldiers of Charlie Co were split into two elements, “Forward Sweep Team” and “Lunch Bunch,” with the latter trailing about one kilometer behind the former.
Suddenly, ...

Habbaniyah Mayor Appeals To Residents To Aid U.S. Projects -- [Army News]
ANGUR, Iraq In an effort to win over non-converts, Hussein Ali Hussein, the mayor of Habbaniyah, donned a flak vest, jumped into an American Humvee and hit rural towns with the same message: "Help me help you."
Hussein repeated the plea Monday in decrepit towns in his district in western Iraq plagued by little or no electricity, no drinkable water, few schools, and unsuitable sewage systems.

Iraqi Prime Minister makes historic visit to Al Anbar -- [Cpl. Ryan M. Blaich - Marine Corps News]
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki traveled to Ar Ramadi in a historic meeting with governmental and tribal leaders, March 13. The talks between Maliki and leaders from all over Al Anbar took place at the headquarters of the Iraqi Army’s newest

Iraqi soldiers keeps Iraqis trucking -- [Cpl. Wayne Edmiston - Marine Corps News]
When many think of standing up an army, like the one getting on its feet in Iraq, they might envision infantrymen on patrols and tanks rolling across stretches of desert. But combat forces are only effective if they have supporting units to sustain...

Hello from Iraq -- [Michael Totten - in Iraq]
Yep, that’s me in Iraq, in a photo taken earlier today. Obviously I am not in Baghdad. Iraq is big, and diverse. Not all of it is a hot, flat, dusty plain, and not all of it is a war zone.

New DFAC -- [Calvary in Iraq - in Iraq]
A momentous event happened today at the place where I am temporarily located. A new DFAC opened!
DFAC, short for Dining FACility, is the place to get chow. The one they had here was cramped and did not allow for much selection. The new one is huge and has better selection of food items.
Even so, it's not like eating at home or at restaurants back home. It gets repetitive.
But ...

Destination: Baghdad -- [Wired Blogs]
...The story rightly notes that there's a lot of good that can come from members of Congress seeing actual conditions in Iraq (although the obvious danger, like with Walter Reed, is that congressional delegations are sometimes only shown the sunny side of things).
There's not much in the article that's shocking, but the figures about the Iraq junkets (cost and frequency) are illuminating. Breaking it down, the newspaper finds:
309 members of Congress who traveled to Iraq as of March 2006. They have taken 522 government-paid trips.

AFGHANISTAN

Search for bin Laden at Home! -- [Wired]
Where in the world is Osama bin Laden? Uh ... try checking Google Earth. After Google recently updated its satellite images of parts of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, much of the region still looked blotchy — the kind of low resolution that persists in coverage of, say, upstate New York. But several small squares (they stand out as off-color patches from 680 miles up) suddenly became as detailed as the images of Manhattan.
...But the CIA believes bin Laden is holed up in the Hindu Kush mountain range-one of the most out-of-the-way places on Earth — and you can now see every house, school, and mosque in certain villages there. Keep your eyes peeled for a very tall guy with a long beard and an AK-47

Making Every Bomb Count in Afghanistan -- [Strategy Page]
March 15, 2007: In 2005, the U.S. Air Force dropped 176 bombs and missiles in Afghanistan. Last year, they dropped ten times as many. Some 3,000 Taliban fighters were killed by these bombs. Because all the attacks used missiles or smart bombs, very few civilians were killed (fewer than a hundred.) So few civilians were killed that, whenever there were civilian deaths, the ...

Corner turned in push to bring stability to Kandahar: Hillier -- (Military Photos)
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Canada has turned a corner in the push to bring stability to a volatile part of Kandahar province, the chief of defence staff said Wednesday.

Afghan Legal -- [Army News]

Gail McCabe takes us to Afghanistan where an Army Specialist is using his skills as a lawyer to help educate local judges on the legal process.

RC-East, USAID Leaders Plan Future Afghanistan Development -- [DVIDS]
BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - The leaders of Regional Command-East and United States Agency International Development met, March 6, in order to bridge the information gap between the two groups

ISAF denies cross border raids into Pakistan -- [The Fourth Rail]
Incidents by region in Afghanistan, 2007. Denial technically true; Achilles update
Last week, western forces from Afghanistan were reported to have crossed the Pakistani border, and captured Mullah Hakimallah Mehsud, a clansman of Baitullah and Abdullah Mehsud, the two leading Taliban commanders in South Waziristan. Yesterday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force spokesman denied any involvement in operations inside Pakistan. "Contrary to recent press reports,

U.S. AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Bombs Away: Brits Get New Nukes -- [Wired Blogs]
In a 409-161 vote today, the British Parliament approved Prime Minister Tony Blair’s plan to renew Britain’s nuclear deterrent. This follows months of raging debate across the country: a majority of British citizens and a significant minority of MPs opposed renewing the deterrent, while the government has remained steadfast (background here and here.) Essentially the plan involves designing new submarines to replace the aging fleet currently in use.

WAR ON TERROR /TERRORISM

“We Are Jackals Fighting In The Nights” -- [Jules Crittenden]
Twisted dreams of death and destruction on a massive scale, boiled down into a fascinating but utterly dry, bureaucratic and soulless document, little more detailed than a to do list with several big items checked off. It starts with courtroom boilerplate and bickering, gets down to business with the confession. Then you get to Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s perverted vision of himself, some high-minded rot.

Transcripts of Interviews of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Faraj al-Libi, & Ramzi Binalshibh -- [Andrew Cochran - Counterterrorism Blog]
Here are the transcripts of the interviews by the Defense Department of the three most senior Al Qaeda leaders in custody in the world, provided to us by Jean Charles Brisard. The Defense Department has posted more information at a special website.

SUPPORTING THE TROOPS...OR NOT

To Our Americans Serving in Iraq -- [BlackAndRight]

I don't think you can, even if you think you can. And I'm (usually) right--so there. -- [From My Position... On the way!]
Supporting the troops means standing behind their decision, their choice, to serve their country, to go into harm's way when so ordered, and to fight, and win.
Support comes in many forms, from boxes of cookies, to socks and spices, to camelbak coolers, to voice-activated laptops. But support must be total, 100%, fully committed--just like the commitment we expect from our soldiers.

Dylan DeSilva Honored By Boston Celtics -- [Pundit Review]
Dylan Desilva is the 14-year old founder of Cape Cod Cares 4 The Troops, and he was honored tonight by the Boston Celtics as a Hero Among Us. What a deserving honor for a young man who has shown such incredible dedication to the men and women in the armed forces. Dylan’s organization has sent thousands of care packages to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gregg and I got to know Dylan through the radio show and tonight ...

MILITARY

Congress may keep Walter Reed open past 2011-- [Military News]
The House Appropriations Committee is expected to vote Thursday to keep open Walter Reed Army Medical Center for the duration of the global war on terrorism, a move that would reverse a 2005 base-closing commission recommendation and add one more reason for the Bush administration to...

The Walter Reed Fiasco - The Army fired the one guy who can fix it. -- [Opinion Journal]
Since its publication on Feb. 18 in the Washington Post, the story of the bureaucratic nightmares experienced at Walter Reed Army Medical Center by soldiers from the Iraq and Afghan wars has been Washington's biggest bonfire in a long time. Nearly four weeks on it still consumes official Washington -- with firings, hearings, denunciations and the waving forward of commissions.

Are the results controlled for stupidity? -- [CounterColumn]
When you're standing in ranks, look at the soldier or marine to you're right. Now look at the one to the left. Now look at the guy in front of you. If none of them are crazy, statistically, it means you're the nutcase. At least according to researchers in (ahem) San Francisco.

The Hollow Army -- [Weekly Standard Blog]
The Boston Globe ran a story yesterday on the Army's rush "to fill a growing number of vacancies in the officer corps," which has forced the Army to promote "captains, majors, and lieutenant colonels more quickly and at a higher percentage than before the Iraq war, a trend that some military specialists worry is lowering the overall quality of the officer corps."
It all sounds very damning, but my initial reaction to the story was that four years into the Iraq war, the Army's officer corps was likely to be filled with battle-hardened veterans who would make far better military leaders than their counterparts from the 1990's, when the Army could afford to be much more selective. But that may not be the case.

Fighting TRICARE Increases -- [Military.com]
Veterans Gird for New Fight of Sharp Health Care Fee Rises
Once again the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) and other members of the Military Coalition are having to gear up to fight the Pentagon's attempts to triple annual TRICARE fees for military retirees younger than 65 in some cases because of the president's recently submitted budget.

POLITICS

Yikes!... Now Hillary Says She'll Keep Troops in Iraq -- [Gateway Pundit]
This (along with the fact that Al Qaeda #3 admitted to planning 9-11 instead of the evil Mr. Bush) ought to send the leftards into a frenzy...
Hillary now promises to "Bring the troops home... Er, sometime later on."

Clinton Says Some G.I.’s in Iraq Would Remain -- (NY Times)
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton foresees a "remaining military as well as political mission" in Iraq, and says that if elected president, she would keep a reduced military force there to fight Al Qaeda, deter Iranian aggression, protect the Kurds and possibly support the Iraqi military.

What Part Of "Commander-in-Chief" Don't You Understand? -- [Hugh Hewitt]
The Congress can declare war, and it did, thus fully empowering the president to conduct it as he sees fit.
The Congress can choose not to fund the war, which it will not do because it fears the public's certain wrath.
But the Congress cannot manage the war, anymore than...

Democrats’ “omni-mental” heavy on spending, even heavier on our troops -- [RedState]
It took them more than a month to write, more than a week to schedule, and more than a few appendages to break, but Democratic leaders this afternoon will finally get down to marking-up the desperately needed emergency funding package for our men and women in the field.

Heart-ache: 59% support path to citizenship for illegal aliens; Update: Immigration lobby hooks up with anti-war -- [Allahpundit - Hot Air]
Send to a Friend | printer-friendly If you’re looking for good news here, you’ll have to look hard. The only upbeat note is that that 59% is down from 66% last June. But the 66% in June was up from 61% in May. What caused the spike? The glowing media coverage attendant to the Senate debating and then passing its immigration bill on May 25th, probably. The more pap people are fed about the “undocumented” coming out of the shadows to do the jobs Americans won’t do, the more they support amnesty.

THE MEDIA

More Media Bias news -- [QandO Blog]
In the wake of the Fox News/Nevada Democratic Debate kerfuffle, a Zogby poll which shows the vast majority of the population believes the media to be biased in its coverage: ...

AP's Misleading Headline Hides Dem Infighting -- [NewsBusters]
Imagine you're skimming the news and come across a story entitled "Democrats Work to Smooth Iraq Tension." What would you assume the article was about? That those caring Dems had tried to ease sectarian strife between Sunnis and Shias, perhaps? I'd say that would be a fair inference. But read the story, and you'll discover that it is an account of a behind-closed-doors shouting match between Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters, the tart-tongued congresswoman from California.

MILBLOGGING

The chief has a blog -- [Air Force Times]
What keeps the Air Force’s most powerful man up at night?
Proposed tanker aircraft, congressional funding and musings on the airman’s self-image.
That’s what Gen. Michael Moseley, United States Air Force Chief, says on his new blog of sorts.
Called “Chief’s Scope,” it’s Moseley’s online platform for quick thoughts and updates.

HUMOR / SATIRE

Senate Debates Timeline for Attorney General Firing -- [ScrappleFace]
(2007-03-15) — With controversy over the prosecutor-firing scandal swirling around the White House, the Senate today takes up debate on a resolution calling on President George Bush to fire Attorney General Alberto Gonzales if he fails to meet certain benchmarks by January 2009.

Day By Day

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