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Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and various 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. Hat Tips to the Dawn Patrol are greatly appreciated.Refresh for updates.
Withdrawal from Iraq -- [CSIS]
Iraq and the United States face a critical transition through 2011 and beyond. The awkward reality is that an Iraqi-U.S. failure to properly manage the U.S. withdrawal and the creation of effective Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) is as serious a threat to Iraq's future stability and security as any internal or external threat. Realism is a key to future success.
The improvement in ISF capabilities is very real, and Iraqi forces are experiencing growing success in combat. But ...
The Wrong Man for the Job -- [The Atlantic - Robert D. Kaplan]
Obama's new ambassador to Iraq is a star diplomat--but has no experience in the Arab world. Why Christopher Hill is a bad choice.
...Iraq is now at a tipping point. American troops are a diminishing factor as they slowly withdraw from the country. There has been an uptick in sectarian-motivated bombings, and relations between the Kurds and the Arabs are worsening by the day in the north. A return to civil war in Iraq could destabilize the whole region--and undo all the good that U.S. troops accomplished by suppressing violence there in 2007 and 2008. Iraq matters every bit as much as Afghanistan--arguably more so. At this sensitive juncture, the U.S. ambassador's role as trusted facilitator who can keep the various parties talking and cooperating with each other is crucial. A successful behind-the-scenes deal or two could mean the difference between war and peace in Iraq--and by inference in the wider Middle East. Shouldn't this job go to someone in whom we can have supreme confidence?
Who Was Behind Wednesday's Attacks? -- [Iraq the Model]
There is near-full agreement in Iraq that Wednesday's wave of attacks were more than indiscriminate acts of terrorism. Most politicians, commentators and observers believe those behind the attacks want to influence political alignments and voter decisions before general elections next January. Most fingers point at a "neighboring country". This "neighboring country" to some is Saudi Arabia but is Iran to many others. Either way, most people agree that the attacks were beyond al-Qaeda's or any other individual group's capability. This is a plausible assumption. Baghdad has not seen a similar wave of highly coordinated attacks and powerful bombings in more than a year. During that time it has been all down hill for al-Qaeda's network in Baghdad. Most operatives had either been killed or captured or had to flee and find new safe havens around Mosul, Diyala and Kirkuk to the north and northeast.
Is Iraq slipping away? -- [Hot Air - Ed Morrissey]
It certainly appears to have gone wrong in a hurry. Today, 95 people died in a series of bombings in Baghdad, blamed on al-Qaeda and other Sunni insurgent groups, which left more than 400 Iraqis injured. Since the US pulled out of the cities at the end of June, violence has escalated, and even Nouri al-Maliki acknowledges that Iraqi forces have failed to maintain security
Calm Down, Ed -- [BlackFive - Grim]
Captain Ed Morrissey worries that Iraq has "gone wrong in a hurry."
No, it hasn't. Remember what we said when I came home from Iraq at the end of June, when I wrote:...Expect to see them fail, because they have to fail to get over the next step. The thing to watch is whether they learn. They know what they have to do; the time has come to see if they will do it.
The problem here is that the Iraqi military is trying to do things its own way. That includes things like static checkpoints, rather than the dynamic ones we prefer.
...Now they know why we do it the other way. It's not because we're gluttons for the extra work.
Iraqi Security Forces: Up to the Job? -- [War, the military, COIN and stuff]
"There is infiltration everywhere in the state, especially in the security forces," an Iraqi told Washington Post reporters in Baghdad after yesterday's bombings that killed almost 100, while injuring another 500. "Today the entire city was targeted. How do you justify that?" A new report by Iraqi Major General (Ret.) Najim Abed Al-Jabouri put out by the Institute for National Strategic Studies (PDF) points to just such "infiltration" of the security forces by various Iraqi political parties, and outlines how this is contributing to the continuing instability in the country. As the recent spate of deadly bombings attest, all is not well in a land where 130,000 American troops are now largely confined to their bases, and like the Baghdadi in the Post story, Al-Jabouri frets about the continuing politicization of the Iraqi Security Forces
Livin' at Victory -- [Ramblings from a painter - in Iraq]
I'm settled into my new home at Victory Base. I've got my barracks room slummed out so it's comfortable and have my desk at work arranged just so ... meaning papers all over the place, a coffee cup that needs to be washed, half-empty bottle of water, and a chair set to just the right height. So all is well, no? No. All my email files disappeared in the move. Four months worth of records just *poof* went away. The same thing happened with about half of the people I've talked to as well. Some of them had records that went back several years.
132.8 Degrees Fahrenheit -- [Short Timers - in Iraq]
Today was the hottest Forward Operating Base Warhorse has experienced this year. The thermometer at the Public Affairs office, our base of operations, pegged the maximum temperature at 132.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Needless to say, nobody here - not even the soldiers - had experienced heat that severe before. You may be wondering what it feels like to be outside at that temperature. The answer, as best I can approximate it, is that it feels as though you're inside a sauna that doesn't have any walls. The heat pushes its way into everything - your clothes, the water you're carrying, your body armor, the vehicles (which get too hot to touch without gloves)... everything. There's no escape.
Commander ISAF Commends ANSF for Afghan Election Security -- [ISAF]
21 Aug. - Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, offered his compliments to the Afghan National Security Forces' successful efforts in ensuring Afghans' secure access to voting polls.
Afghanistan Election Day UPDATED -- [Mrs Greyhawk]
REPORTS FROM THE FRONT
Afghanistan's Karzai, Abdullah Both Claim Lead in Election -- [Bloomberg]
Any hope of eventually defeating Islamic militancy in Afghanistan will require an Afghan government that better meets its people's aspirations, ...
Today's essential Afghan viewing -- [flit - in Afghanistan]
Good UK Channel 4 clip on British soldiers and mentors in Helmand.
The Captain's Journal says this is evidence that Westerners need to be allowed to search Afghan homes again. I'd settle personally for the ANA being allowed to search Afghan homes again... during our tour there was a blanket prohibition on army house searches from MoD in Kabul. That was seen as an ANP duty. Oh, the army would do it sometimes, of course: everyone likes to find a weapons or ammo cache and they had less of an issue with the grape huts or unoccupied ruins where those kinds of things could often be found, but if it got too hot, or too dark, or the mentors too tiresome, they could always pull out the "we don't search houses" card, and that would basically be that.
Election Day -- [Free Range International - in Afghanistan]
I still believe the Taliban do not view the election as a significant event although it is clear some actors do. Around the city of Kunduz there were 24 election stations burned down on Tuesday night which indicates Hekmatyar's group HiG is sending a message about the election. HiG conducted their own version of a RIP (relief in place) by replacing all the commanders in Kunduz last winter and ordering them to fight. They have been battling with the Germans all summer up in the previously very quiet and safe north and it will be interesting to see if the German's step up their game and rediscover the art of small unit infantry warfare like the French have done outside of Kabul.
Bravery And Afghan Voters - [P.J. Tobia - in Afghanistan]
Much of the reporting about Afghanistan's election yesterday (my own included) had to do with violence, death, repression and low voter turnout. All of the above did take place in great and depressing abundance, but there was something else too: The courage of Afghan voters. While turnout was generally regarded as low, millions of voters did brave threats from insurgents, awful roads and a perilous security situation to cast a ballot, and that is no small thing. Zulhaija (pictured above), was at the polling station a full hour before it opened, because, she told me "I'm excited to chose our leader. I know things will not change immediately, but we have to make the effort to try. If we do not try, who will?" Said Guhl, (pictured below, right) a 43-year-old shop keeper, brought his two sons to a north Kabul polling station because he wanted them to see democracy up close and know that one day it would be their responsibility.
Back safely from elections mission -- [Afghanistan My Last Tour - in Afghanistan]
From SMSgt Temple's wife Liisa: Rex is safely back from the elections mission but too tired to write; he'll post again tomorrow. Meanwhile he asked me to post a news video he is interviewed in.
Count begins in Afghanistan as pollling stations close -- [Helmand Blog - in Afghanistan]
Afghan officials have begun counting votes as polling sites closed in the presidential election.
Taliban threats had appeared to dampen voter turnout in the militant south with scattered rocket, suicide and bomb attacks closing some voting sites.
Low turnout in the south would harm President Hamid Karzai's re-election chances and boost the standing of his top challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.
NATO chief hails Afghan elections -- [Helmand Blog - in Afghanistan]
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen today congratulated Afghans who had defied the Taliban by casting their ballots in the country's presidential elections, calling the vote's Afghan-led security operation 'a success'.
Commander hopes Afghan election will spur change -- [CTV.ca]
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The commander of Canadian Forces in Kandahar says he hopes Afghanistan's election ushers in a changed political atmosphere in the
Good, Bad and Indifferent -- [Quatto Zone - in Afghanistan]
...We'll see how the coverage shakes out, but nothing irritates reporters more than a slow news day. After today's electoral anticlimax, my guess is that successful attacks, areas of low voter turnout, voting irregularities and any other imperfections will be milked by the irritated for every dreadful thing they presumably can tell us about Afghanistan's enduring troubles. In the end, however, dullness may be the real story. Taken as a whole, today's violence seemed more pro forma than inspired. In many areas, the political choices offered to Afghans did not prompt a stampede to the polls. For a day, Afghanistan was relatively boring, which is to say closer to normal. Tomorrow
Life in "River City" -- [FOX News - Mal James - in Afghanistan]
At all bases the "Marines operate in there" is an expression they use in "River City" to describe what happens when a Marine is killed or injured. All contact with the outside world ceases to be available all phone lines and Internet connections are cut until the next of kin are notified.
At Forward Operating Base in Now Zad, it is almost the norm, rather than the exception.
Afghanistan Elections: Polling Day - [FCO Blogger - Lisa Bandari - in Afghanistan]
I've just returned from a visit with the Ambassador to a polling centre in an Ismaili religious compound in Taimani, an area of Kabul, feeling exhilarated. The polling centre was busy. There were long queues outside the male and female stations, and searches before they were allowed to enter. As ever, I was flattered when the policeman on the gate mistook me for the interpreter, but tried to remember the Dari for 'international observer', as I wasn't sure he could read the card I handed him.
The Day After. Then the Wait -- [NY Times - At War]
On the eve of the holy month of Ramadan, Friday prayers today echoed out over above Kabul's quiet, checkpointed streets and below the huge, white Baghdad-style surveillance balloon that is a new fixture above the city's skyline. This week the prayers drifted through the windows of high school classrooms which are now filled with election volunteers slowly counting ballots after Thursday's Presidential and provincial elections. With counting already under way, the leading Presidential candidates are both claiming success, trying to build momentum for their own post-election campaign and to establish a basis of expectations against which will almost certainly come formal allegations of vote-buying, ballot-rigging and intimidation of election staff, especially in rural areas. Election officials in Kabul have consistently sought to lower expectations of a quick result, or even of early turnout figures.
Old Crusty Cold Warrior Vaguely Uncomfortable Moment -- [Afghan Quest - in Afghanistan]
Back when I was a youngin, the idea of being directly overflown by a Hind D (big, evil-looking Russian attack helicopter) was a horrifying prospect. Today I was overflown at an altitude of about 100 feet on several occasions by Afghan National Army Hind D's.
It was vaguely uncomfortable. I knew, on a conscious level, that they were "friendlies," but ...
Majority Americans Say: Afghan War Is Not Worth Fighting -- [NPR]
Family members and supporters were out in force to welcome home the soldiers from Afghanistan. With record numbers of US troops being killed in Afghanistan,
WaPo/ABC Poll: Majority Of Americans Now Against Afghan War -- [BlackFive - McQ]
This, at least in my mind, has never been a matter of "if", but instead a matter of "when". According to the Washington Post, the "when", has occurred and according to their poll the majority of Americans are now against the war in Afghanistan. Popularly known, even by Barack Obama, as the "good war" or the "necessary war", the Washington Post is now saying popular sentiment has turned against it: ...
US Predators target the Haqqanis in North Waziristan -- [LWJ - Bill Roggio]
An unmanned US Predator aircraft fired missiles at the Haqqani Network in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal area of North Waziristan. Two Hellfire missiles struck in the town of Darpa Khel near Miramshah, a known stronghold of the Haqqani Network. Twelve Taliban fighters from Afghanistan were reported killed, but no high value Taliban or al Qaeda targets have been reported killed at this time. A senior Haqqani Network commander and an al Qaeda operative were the targets of the strike, a US intelligence official told The Long War Journal. The official would not identify the names of the leaders targeted. The strike in Danda Darpa Khel is the third in the town since September 2008.
Iran still not fully cooperative on nukes - US -- [Ynetnews]
Iran is still not fulfilling its obligations related to its nuclear activities, despite allowing UN inspectors access to a reactor and allowing an upgrade
Iran missile said to pose Europe threat in 3-4 years -- [Reuters]
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama (Reuters) - Iran could have the ability to strike most of Europe with a ballistic missile within three or four years if it ...
China's nuclear envoy wraps up nkorea trip -- [AsiaOne]
BEIJING, CHINA - China's chief nuclear negotiator wrapped up a five-day visit to North Korea on Friday, state media announced - a mission reportedly focused
The Blood of Children on Their Hands -- [One Free Korea]
I'm now being flooded with e-mails with links to this story, and I'm simply horrified. A fascist dictatorship with a seat in the U.N. Security Council rounds up innocent women and children, probably to ship them to Kim Jong Il's slaughterhouses, and three inexplicably stupid and reckless Americans unwittingly helped them do it:
Lee said Laura Ling, Euna Lee and a man named Mitch Koss
Laura Ling & Euna Lee Video Led to Capture of North Korean Refugees -- [GI Korea]
This has long been suspected and now it is official, the actions of Laura Ling, Mitch Koss, and Euna Lee crossing into North Korea has led to the capture and deportation of North Korean refugees and human rights activists within China
Terror suspect tapped as Iran defense minister -- [Washington Times]
Ahmad Vahidi, nominated Thursday by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to serve as Iran's defense minister, is a suspected international terrorist sought by Interpol in connection with a deadly 1994 attack on a Jewish community center in Argentina.
Saudi Arabia Announces Arrest of 44-Member Terror Network
In an August 20, 2009 statement, the Saudi Interior Ministry announced the arrest of a terror network comprising 44 individuals, all but one of whom are Saudi nationals...
Why The U.S. Missed Zapping Bin Laden 11 Years Ago -- [Counterterrorism Blog]
It all came down to a call from Pakistan.
Had Osama Bin Laden not received that message 11 years ago today, dozens of U.S. Navy cruise missiles might have found their primary target and America arguably would not have been attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. Afghanistan probably would have remained a blighted backwater run by the Taliban, and Iraq's Saddam Hussein might even still be in power. More importantly, ...
Detainees Shown CIA Officers' Photos -- [Washington Post]
The Justice Department recently questioned military defense attorneys at Guantanamo Bay about whether photographs of CIA personnel, including covert officers, were unlawfully provided to detainees charged with organizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
Libyan Terrorist Returns To Adoring Crowd -- [Ace of Spades]
The head of the US Pan Am Flight 103 victim's group was told there would be, "no celebratory reactions on the part of the Libyans".
The Obama administration said they expected the killer's homecoming would be low key.
Judge for yourself how that's all worked out.
Cozad Marine honored for valor -- [Omaha.com]
In the heat of an ambush in Afghanistan's most lawless province, a 19-year-old Nebraskan jumped in front of a grenade to shield other Marines in his platoon.
Richard Weinmaster was critically wounded by the blast. But the bloodied Cozad native stayed in the fight, firing his machine gun at the enemy position until he collapsed from his wounds.
From our facebook wall today -- [Soldiers Angel Network]
Tony: at 11:00pm on August 16th, 2009
Thank you Soldier's Angels for all you have done for my daughter and our family over the last two years. You sent our family and my son-in-law's family to Bethesda multiple times to be with him after he was hit by an IED in Iraq.
Founder's Notes -- [Soldiers Angels LA]
Dear Soldiers' Angels,
As fighting has heated up in Afghanistan, the number of wounded has increased, too. Several recent events have reminded me how big a job caring for our wounded is, and how much our love and support means to the wounded warriors of all generations. They are our true heroes, and it is our proud obligation to do whatever we can to assist them.
When a parent goes to war, military kids grow up fast -- [CNN]
In Pennsylvania, Tyler Dix, a 16-year-old movie buff, is wide awake by 7 a.m. to cook breakfast for his younger siblings.
Moranda Hern and Kaylei Deakin started Sisterhood of the Traveling BDUs, or battle dress uniforms.
1 of 3 In Georgia, Tucker Simmons, a 14-year old novice guitarist, prepares ice packs for his mother whenever her chronic lower back pain kicks in.
In California, Kaylei Deakin, an avid 17-year old rock climber, disciplines her little sisters when they act out.
"Semper Gumby" -- [Villianous Co]
A few days ago I related the daring manner in which The Love of My Life broke the news of an impending deployment: At this point I should probably mention that the joyous news of my impending celibacy came during a week when I needed to be 50 miles away by 8 a.m. every day and my Ukrainian friend was visiting from Seattle. All of which meant that I spent the next 3 days living inside my own head. I couldn't cry, or talk to anyone about it until we told his mother, or talk to him in the hour or so we have between dinner and bedtime. There just wasn't time and even if there had been time I was never far from tears.
National Guard soldiers home from Iraq tour -- [Hawaii 24/7]
Watts, a 28-year National Guard veteran, is stationed on Oahu, but flew to the Big Island to welcome the troops home. "This is the best part of my job," he
Local Guardsmen return from Afghanistan -- [Joliet Herald News]
"I am welcoming the soldiers home because they are fighting for us," he said. Diane Bown, of Joliet, came clutching a handmade welcome home sign with her
Polling Shows Public Is Turning Against Afghan War -- [CBS News]
The negative media is the best hope the Taliban have to win this war, you can't destroy an enemy that has the biggest media in the world behind them. by ...
Newspaper corrects 'Jackass'-Keith Olbermann mix-up -- [Los Angeles Times]
Thank goodness The Times is the forthright, ethical institution that it is.
And when a mistake happens, it rushes to set the journalistic record straight with an honest repair. Here is an actual correction from Page A4 of today's print edition:
FOR THE RECORD
TV listings: The Prime-Time TV grid in Thursday's Calendar section mistakenly listed MTV's "Jackass" show on the MSNBC cable schedule at 7 and 10 p.m. where instead MSNBC's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" should have been listed.
It's not the Worst Mistake in the World.
"You think you're gonna live forever?" -- [Greyhawk]
...Returning to the point at which our discussion began, the answer to "can my death help a media conglomerate make a few bucks?" probably shouldn't factor in to your end of life decision process.
VA pushes vets to consider death as an alternative to treatment -- [Hot Air - Ed Morrissey]
The ObamaCare bill may not contain "death panels," but even Charles Lane and Eugene Robinson at the Washington Post wonder why the bill incentivizes end-of-life consultations with the elderly and ill as part of its cost-containment strategy. Maybe Lane and Robinson should take a look at the VA, where the Obama administration and former General Eric Shinseki have reinstated a program called "Your Life, Your Choices." The Wall Street Journal reports that this program amounts to a high-pressure sales pitch for refusal of treatment for veterans...
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