Dawn Patrol 11/02/2009

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.

AFGHANISTAN

Heroes come home -- [Washington Times - Col Oliver North]
Those who have 'borne the battle'
In what has turned out to be the bloodiest month of the war in Afghanistan, a growing chorus of critics claim the fight is no longer worth the cost. Though most of those saying so aren't paying the price, the toll was evident at Dover Air Force Base early Thursday morning as 21 flag-draped, gunmetal transfer cases were conveyed solemnly from the ramp of a USAF C-17.
...According to those who were there, MH-47 helicopters of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR) - the legendary "Nightstalkers" - lifted the raid force from the same base in western Afghanistan where we were just weeks ago, inserted them at the objective in Badghis province and departed. After what one participant described as a "brisk gunfight," the raid force moved to its extract landing zone. On takeoff, one of the MH-47s apparently struck an obstacle, and the large helicopter with 39 aboard crashed in the mountainous terrain - killing 10 - and severely injuring nearly all who survived.
One of the raid participants gave me a matter-of-fact description of what happened next:

Afghan election commission declares Karzai winner -- [Washington Post]
Afghan election officials canceled a presidential runoff and proclaimed the reelection of President Hamid Karzai on Monday, a day after Karzai's top challenger declared he would not take part in a second round of voting scheduled

The State of Play -- [Free Range International - in Afghanistan]
The best way to view the current state of play in Afghanistan is to start at the top of food chain and work down to what is important. The presidential election remains undecided and now Abdullah Abdullah has pulled out of the run-off election. Our Secretary of State says that means nothing. I agree but for different reasons; in the end it does not matter who is leading the country - the Afghan government will not be a proper COIN partner and will continue to be part of the problem regardless of how these elections turn out. Conducting a runoff will only give the bad guys more opportunity for mischief while accomplishing nothing.
...The military is bitching about the fact that the Afghan government is not a reliable partner and a big part of the insecurity problem. This is true but the military can't change that. They can make the Afghan military part of the solution but not by treating them the way they treat them now. We need to get the troops off the FOB's and out with their counterparts in the villages. We also need to pull out of areas where the local people do not want our help - which is not that many areas in the country as a whole.

Abdullah Abduallah pulls out - should we? -- [Greyhawk]
Abdullah Abdullah, Hamid Karzai's main rival for office of President of Afghanistan, has withdrawn from the scheduled November 7 runoff election there, saying his demands for ensuring a fraud-free election had not been met. However, he stopped short of calling for his supporters to boycott the vote.

US Troop Levels Not Tied to Afghan Vote, White House Aides Say -- [Wall Street Journal]
The withdrawal by Afghan President Hamid Karzai's chief rival from a runoff election shouldn't complicate President Barack Obama's decision on whether to send more troops to that country, senior White House aides said. Abdullah Abdullah on Sunday said he would not participate in Afghanistan's Nov. 7 runoff, after failing to reach an agreement with Mr. Karzai on how to redress problems with fraud that had marred the presidential election in August. His announcement comes as Mr. Obama has been weighing a request from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, for at least 40,000 more troops to help fight the extremist Taliban and prevent al Qaeda from reestablishing a base in the country.

Good intelligence vs. Bad men, not easy to distinguish (part 1) -- [World of Troubles - in Afghanistan]
"What we do isn't classified, but how we do it is," Dan said from his small plywood office covered with maps marked Secret. He wore a beard and civilian clothes. His cell phone was constantly ringing from Afghans who wanted to meet with him.
I'd seen him work the day before. We'd trudged through rows of farmland along the river to a mud and brick compound (qulat), where an Afghan patriarch with a salt and pepper beard welcomed the American Provincial Reconstruction team.

Soldier tells of enemy attack on the front line -- [Frontline bloggers - Afghanistan]
A soldier who is serving on the front line in Afghanistan has spoken of the moment he came under enemy fire. Corporal Jamie Hilton, of the 2nd Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment, was deployed to Helmand province in August. As a section commander, he is in charge of eight men.
Since the summer, he and his soldiers have been involved in operations to expand security. They have also built two new checkpoints and are building a bridge across a canal to allow greater freedom of movement for locals, as well as the military.
Cpl Hilton, aged 23, said: "We were under some heavy enemy fire. "We were suppressing the enemy. Then a rocket-propelled grenade came in and made an explosion and blew me off the roof.

Notes from a tribal gathering -- [Captain Cat's Diary - in Afghanistan]
So back to those querulous tribesmen up in the Kurram Agency. After a couple of weeks, the Deputy Governor managed to arrange a meeting between the Shi'a Turi tribe and the Sunni Bangash tribe, to try to find a peaceful settlement to their long-standing dispute.
A word on this particular sectarian conflict: tensions between the Shi'as and Sunnis flared up back in the 80s when the Zia government in Pakistan introduced fighters to the Kurram Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), in order to quell Shi'a influence on the main weapons supply route between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The two sides now accuse each other of not allowing the other to travel freely through the areas they inhabit and control. Thus ...

Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, behind attack on UN guesthouse in Kabul -- [Long War Journal]
Al Qaeda and the Haqqani Network coordinated last week's deadly assault on a UN guest house in the Afghan capital of Kabul.
The attack, which killed five foreign UN workers and three Afghans, was launched by three terrorists who were dressed as policemen and were armed with grenades, assault rifles, and suicide belts.

Wake-Up Call II -- [Knights of Afghanistan - in Afghanistan]
...I can state as a fact that Afghan guards (ANP) were outside during the attack, guarding the gate as they are supposed to. I saw those guards everyday when I left my residence and they were as vigilant and as capable as anyone can expect.
I can also state that both of them are now dead, victims of a well-planned and effectively executed attack. The Taliban, if that's who the attackers were, wore ANP uniforms themselves, undoubtedly stolen or purchased from some corrupt district commander. Some of my guys, who witnessed the attack, tell me that the Taliban conducted a thorough recon of the area first, disguised as police, and then ...

Afghanistan Trip Report -- [SWJ - Bing West]
Having recently returned from Afghanistan - thanks to the hospitality of Generals Petraeus and McChrystal - I'd like to share a few thoughts. By way of context, let me state my frame of reference. As a former assistant secretary of defense for international security, I am familiar with Washington dynamics; but I believe COIN is decided at the small unit level, not in national capitals. I was 18 months in Vietnam, have written five books on COIN and made 20 trips to Iraq and Afghanistan. This was my third Afghanistan visit in quick succession

War Is Tiring -- [Afghan Quest - in Afghanistan]
War Is Tiring There are lots of people who are tired of war. The young men and women on their third and fourth deployments are tired of war. Some say that the Afghans are tired of war, while others point out that if they were truly tired of war, they would perhaps cease fighting. Matthew Hoh is tired of war.

Watchmen: Moral Outrage as Marketing -- [Quatto Zone - in Afghanistan]
Like luncheon meat, sometimes it's best if we don't know how news is made, and that's especially true of the Sunday political talk shows. A case in point was Jon Krakauer's plug for his book Where Men Win Glory at the end of NBC's Meet the Press yesterday. The appearance was justified by the fact that Krakauer's subject, Corporal Pat Tillman, could be tied by way of the expansive concept of news analysis to General McChrystal's leadership of operations in Afghanistan. What follows are a few facts and one speculation relevant to Krakauer's conclusions.

Balance -- [Embedded in Afghanistan... - in Afghanistan]
It's a common thing to see articles in the news media about the negative aspects of war on the micro level. The dead, the wounded, the mentally and emotionally damaged all appear to get a fair amount of coverage and exposure, so I'm going to focus on a few of the good things some of us get out of serving in combat - because many of us are getting a lot out of it.

Anatomy of a Mission -- [Sgt Danger - in Afghanistan]
Posted by sgtdanger on Oct 29, 2009 in Deployment, Leadership, Soldiering
You know what I listen to, what I wear to work, how an APFT goes, what I'm afraid of, why I'm getting out, what happens when a tractor-trailer rolls in a combat zone, and what my insecurities are. But none of that is what the Army sent my buddies and I to Afghanistan for.

43 nations in ISAF -- [Helmand Blog]
ISAF - International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is a very broad international commitment made up of a coalition of 43 nations, with every member operating under a UN mandate.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force is not there to fight the Afghans, it is there to fight alongside them against insurgents who are rejected by most people in the country. Afghan forces have paid a heavy price in casualties and have borne a substantial part of the fighting.

Jack of All Trades -- [Doc H's International Adventure - in Afghanistan]
Some days I am limited to office work. Other days I spend all day travelling. Then there are days like today when I do many different tasks in one day.
Mentor- Today we went downtown to meet with our ANP Counterparts in their clinic. We had the usual niceties and discussion of how well our families are doing. Then we went through our list of discussion topics.

Guest Blogger: David F after Keating attack -- [Bouhammer]
This post was written right after FOB Keating was attacked. Hi. Things have settled down a bit now. We were not as busy as I thought we would be - which is actually a bad thing. I don't think there is any news agency here. Information goes pretty much by two way radio and IRC on the SIPR-net. So it is just slow information travel I think. Over a hundred T'ban / tribals stormed FOB Keating and a little outpost nearby.

IRAQ

Frustrated in Iraq, U.S. troops eye Afghan action -- [Washington Post]
Frustrated by their decreasing military role in Iraq as they hand over to Iraqi security forces, many U.S. soldiers are itching to join the war in Afghanistan.
When they get there, though, some are shocked by the escalating violence and relatively spartan conditions.
Bloodshed has fallen sharply in Iraq in the last two years, and the U.S. military is drawing down troops and equipment ahead of a full withdrawal by 2012.

Biden and Kurd chief press need for election law -- [AFP]
ARBIL, Iraq -- US Vice President Joe Biden and president Massud Barzani of Iraqi Kurdistan have pressed the need for a key election law to be passed in

Passing Around The Pain -- [Strategy Page]
While the dual vehicle bombing on the 25th was spectacular, it obscures the fact that overall violence is still down to a tenth of what it was two years ago (at its peak). Most of the terrorist attacks fail, in that they are stopped short of their objective by security forces. This results in much less damage and far fewer casualties (often only the suicide bomber is killed.) Thus the great public anger at the failure to halt the October 25th attack. Unacceptable corruption or incompetence are seen in play here, and people want scapegoats.

Violence is a Way of Life in Iraq -- [The Times]
Violence in Iraq has been reduced, as Western generals and politicians are keen to point out, but it has not gone away. If anything, it has become more deeply ingrained. The kidnapping and murder of Muntadher al-Mussewi shows how political violence has spawned criminal gangs capable of the vilest acts. Having learnt their trade from the Mahdi Army, a brutal militia, the kidnappers now carry on without even the veneer of political justification. Were terrorists to disappear from Iraq overnight, the country would still be stuck, possibly for decades, with the culture of violence they fostered (building on the legacy of Saddam Hussein, of course). So should the West use its by now limited influence to prevent another turn in the cycle of violence? Often that can work: when Arabs and Kurds rattle their sabres in the oil-rich region of Kirkuk, US advisers are right to scurry up north to calm them down.

At Least 8 Killed in Iraq Bombings -- [Voice of America]
Iraqi police say four bombs Sunday have killed at least eight people and wounded more than 50 others. Police say a bomb attached to a bicycle exploded in a popular market in the town of Mussayab, about 60 kilometers south of Baghdad. The blast killed at least five people and wounded 37 others. Meanwhile, police in Ramadi, 100 kilometers west of the capital, say two bombs exploded minutes apart, killing two and wounding four others. A fourth bomb attached to a bus detonated as it approached a police checkpoint in the Shi'ite Muslim holy city of Karbala. The blast killed at least one person and wounded at least a dozen others. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Two powerful car bombings one week ago in Baghdad targeted Iraq's Ministry of Justice and a provincial government building, killing 155 people and wounding more than 500 others. An al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility for these attacks.

UN Disburses $610 Million of Iraqi Oil revenues to Kuwait -- [MEMRI Blog]
The compensation committee of the United Nations has disbursed to Kuwait, on October 29, the sum of $610 million as compensation for the damage incurred by Kuwait after it was invaded by Iraq in 1990.

Baghdad holds first trade fair in over six years -- [Reuters]
Iraq's economy has been shattered by years of war, sanctions in the 1990s, inefficient state-run operations under Saddam Hussein, and bombings, conflict and ...

Photos: Children Of Iraq Set 2 -- [Sour Swinger]
On to the pictures shall we? Today I have for you another set of pictures from the children in Iraq. Only one more left after this one. I picked out 5 pics to display below. You can view the complete set here. There's exactly 60 pictures.

Who Fights This War--Trading a Guitar for a Gun -- [In Iraq Now (at 56) - in Iraq]
Nick was one of the guys who went through the Live Fire Shoot House when I did.
Seven years ago, then 18-year-old Nicholas Raia of Altoona, Pa., brought his trumpet to an audition for the Pennsylvania Army National Guard band. He aced the audition and until last summer was member of several performance groups within the band. Over those seven years he performed more and more with the band and ensembles playing the guitar for recruiting events and celebrations. For more formal military ceremonies he now plays the baritone--a small tuba.
After seven years in the band, Raia, now a sergeant, decided to take a year away from performing and volunteer for a combat tour. Since mobilization in January, Raia has served as a door gunner on a CH-47 Chinook helicopter with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 104th Aviation Regiment.

U.S. AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

USS New York comes 'home' to harbor -- [Newsday]
ABOARD THE USS NEW YORK - The USS New York, built with steel salvaged from the fallen Twin Towers, entered New York Harbor Monday and paused for a moment in the waters off Ground Zero to honor those ....

The Threat From Somalia -- [Washington Post]
One of the rhetorical questions frequently tossed out in the debate over Afghanistan concerns the brewing trouble in Somalia and Yemen, both of which are known to host al-Qaeda cadres and training camps. If it's necessary to pacify Afghanistan to protect US security, goes the taunt, must we also intervene in Somalia and Yemen? The presumed answer is: "Of course not - and therefore why bother with Afghanistan?" The more sensible response is: If something is not done soon about these lawless places, one or the other may well become the next Afghanistan - a place where US military intervention was compelled by a devastating attack on the homeland. Most urgent is Somalia

Somali group with al Qaeda ties threatens Israel -- [CNN]
militant Islamist group associated with al Qaeda has for the first time threatened to attack Israel, far from its normal base of operations in Somalia.
Al-Shabab, which is fighting to control the east African country, accused Israel of "starting to destroy" the Al Aqsa mosque, where standoffs have taken place recently between Israeli police and Palestinians.

Palestinians Accuse US of Damaging Peace Process -- [Voice of America]
Palestinian leaders are voicing frustration after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised Israel for making what she said are unprecedented concessions in efforts to restart peace negotiations. Israeli leaders are keeping up their calls for the Palestinians to drop all preconditions. Palestinian leaders on Sunday stuck to their demands that Israel stop all settlement activity before any resumption of peace talks that have been stalled since December. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called late Saturday for all sides to return to talks and praised what she said are Israel's unprecedented concessions, which she said include its offer to restrain settlement growth. She urged both sides to return to talks as soon as possible and backed Israel's assertion that all demands over settlements should be dealt with during negotiations, not sooner. "There has never been a precondition," said Clinton.

North Korea Presses US to Agree to Bilateral Talks -- [New York Times]
North Korea has again pressed the United States for a decision about starting bilateral talks, with a diplomat warning Monday that the North was "ready to go our own way" with its nuclear weapons program. "Now that we have shown the generosity of stating the position that we would be willing to talk to the United States and hold multilateral talks including the six-way talks, it is time for the United States to make a decision," an unidentified spokesman for the North's Foreign Ministry told its official news agency, KCNA.

Intelligence Failures? -- [Washington Times]
On Oct. 21, the incoming commander of the US Pacific Command, Adm. Robert F. Willard, made a little-noticed but astonishing accusation to reporters in Seoul: "I would contend that in the past decade or so, China has exceeded most of our intelligence estimates of their military capability and capacity every year. They've grown at an unprecedented rate in those capabilities." Very politely, the head of PACOM has accused the American intelligence community (IC) and, by extension, its political leadership, of failure to estimate correctly the capabilities and capacity of a nuclear-armed dictatorship with a history of hostility against all of its neighbors and the United States. According to the admiral, this failure has gone on for 10 years. This sort of public bomb-throwing is very rare in Washington, especially on China issues.

Bill Clinton Statue in Kosovo -- [Jawa Report]
(Pristina, Kosovo) Ethnic Albanians flocked in miserable weather to honor former President Bill Clinton on Sunday. Clinton attended the unveiling of an 11-foot statue of himself on a street named after him.

WAR ON TERROR /TERRORISM

US moves on domestic jihadis -- [Long War Journal]
A high number of terrorist plots have been disrupted in the US this year. Several of the Islamists who have been detained have been traced back to Pakistan's tribal areas.

Al-Qaeda arms cache found near Riyadh -- [PRESS TV]
The cache has been found amid reports indicating that the Saudi government is not taking the necessary steps in fighting terrorism.

Air Force doc testifies in terrorism case -- [FlightLines]
The Associated Press reports that an Air Force psychologist testified yesterday in the sentencing of Ali al-Marri, who was convicted in Illinois of being an al-Qaida sleeper agent.
Maj. Deborah Sirratt, who was in charge of medical care in the U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, S.C., told the court that al-Marri can be kind and respectful but would likely attack the United States if given a chance. She also said he believes infidels -- i.e., non-Muslims -- should be killed.
"I do feel in Mr. al-Marri's case that it's likely he might engage in hostile acts against the United States," Sirratt testified.

SUPPORTING THE TROOPS...OR NOT

Over 1900 Heroes Waiting for Adoption!!! -- [Soldiers' Angels]
Every Soldiers' Angels volunteer who adopts, joins a team or assists a project helps ensure "No Soldier Go Unloved." Angel volunteers support the troops in two main ways:
Associate Angels participate in the group activities and projects that do not involve personal information about soldiers or families. The tireless work and generosity of these patriots is the foundation of many important Soldiers' Angels projects.

Valour-IT Fundraising Auctions -- [Soldiers' Angels Germany]
"Guardian Angel": A Marine from 1st BN, 4th Marines stands guard outside an emergency ordinance disposal site. By Michael D. Fay.
Lots of great items now up for auction at the Soldiers' Angels Valour-IT eBay site, all of them generously donated by their owners to raise money for Valour-IT.
The print above, called "Guardian Angel" is signed by USMC combat artist Michael D. Fay. Image size: 9" x 13". Print size: 16 x 20. Bids are starting at $20.
Chief Warrant Officer-2 Fay is one of only two combat artists employed by the United States Marine Corps to produce fine art based on their experience of combat and the life of fellow Marines in the field. His work is displayed in various museums such as the James A. Michener Art Museum, the Marine Corps Combat Art collection, and in the new National Museum of the Marine Corps.
One of Fay's works is also proudly displayed at Landstuhl hospital.

Ramstein CASF to reach 100,000 patient transfers in October -- [Soldiers' Angels Germany]
Another part of the incredible chain of life-saving logistics required to move our Wounded Warriors out of theater and on to higher levels of medical care.