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Site contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com
AMMAN, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Thursday his government's forces would be able to take over security command from U.S. troops by June 2007 -- a move which could allow the United States to start withdrawing.
"I cannot answer on behalf of the U.S. administration but I can tell you that from our side our forces will be ready by June 2007," Maliki told ABC television after meeting U.S. President George W. Bush in Jordan.
First, let us qualify "take over security command". It would mean carrying out the daily manpower intensive tasks of patrolling and searching. The US would still provide Mitts, Logistics Support and Quick Reaction Forces.
Has al-Maliki taken one two many hits from the crack pipe, or does he know something the MSM doesn't...let's see.
Greyhawk,
I think it is going to be worse than we thought. Cliff May was an advisor, and he has put out a War Warning about what is waiting.
I’ve been a member of the “expert” advisory group of the Baker/Hamilton panel. The frustration I and a few others faced: We thought our task was to develop options to move forward in Iraq. Most of our colleagues thought the task was to develop options to move out of Iraq.I hope his report is wrong - but I doubt it. Sigh.
...
They were unconvinced by the case that I and a few others were making: That if the U.S. mission in Iraq sinks, it won’t just be Captain Bush and his neo-con crew that will drown. America will have a lost a key battle in a serious global conflict.
"The bipartisan Iraq Study Group reached a consensus on Wednesday."
It's a big turn. In fact, the new direction in Iraq looks like it's going to be 360 degrees off from the one we've been going in - that's as big a turn as you can make.
As Army Lawyer noted below, the UN concurs.
There’s a new website poking fun at the Navy from the inside called GearAdrift. I guess you could say this is our version of the Air Forces Chairforce only most of the stuff isn’t written by a cranky Airman called Joe the Fat.
Check them out, I think the site has some good potential.
Plus check out their plans on refurbishing our carrier fleet!
Will the real Ramadi please stand up?His answer at the link."The U.S. military is no longer able to defeat a bloody insurgency in western Iraq [Al Anbar Province] or counter al Qaeda's rising popularity there, according to newly disclosed details from a classified Marine Corps intelligence report," began a front-page article in yesterday's Washington Post by Dafna Linzer and Thomas E. Ricks. It concerned the so-called "Devlin Report," a five-page document allegedly filled with gloom and doom. It contrasts completely with my article Return to Ramadi, in the Nov. 27 Weekly Standard, in which I write that the largest city in the province is slowly being reclaimed from al Qaeda. By coincidence, the day my article hit the stands the Times of London published an extensive article coming to the same conclusion as mine. But for the timing, you'd practically think one of us had plagiarized the other.
Why such different conclusions between our articles and the Post's and whom to believe?
You know that guy Jesse MacBeth? Allah does...just scroll to the bottom past the four hundred pound fake Marine...
Just saw John Kerry on Larry KIng (transcript not yet available as of this posting) claim that our own generals are saying that our military presence in Iraq is making the situation worse. I've heard numerous generals state the exact opposite - that our presence is the only thing keeping it from becoming worse, but I'm not sure which generals Mr Kerry is quoting here, and he didn't provide names.
Anyone have some specific quotes? These would have to be actual quotes - not claims made by others about what generals said. Otherwise, looks like deja vu all over again.
Update: Here it is:
KING: You met with the Iraq Study Group, I believe, on Monday.Any inclination as to what they're going to say?
KERRY: I think it's important for them to say what they're going to say and I don't want to violate that.
But I will tell you point blank, I said to them what I have been saying publicly consistently, which is that the American presence, according to our own generals and to our best experts, is making the situation worse.
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
O, Almighty God, bestow upon humanity the perfect human being promised to all by You, and make us among his followers.
Noble Americans,
We have so much in common. Both our nations are God-fearing, truth-loving and justice-seeking, and both seek dignity, respect and perfection.
Both greatly value and readily embrace the promotion of human ideals such as compassion, empathy, respect for the rights of human beings, securing justice and equity, and defending the innocent and the weak against oppressors and bullies.
We all deplore injustice, the trampling of peoples' rights and the intimidation and humiliation of human beings.
So why can't we acknowledge these universal values, and come together against our common enemy, the filthy Jews?
Somehow, the Washington Post has managed to distort the conclusions of a secret intelligence assessment on the situation in Anbar so grotesquely as to somehow morph Marine Corps Colonel Peter Devlin's recommendations for smashing al-Qaeda in Iraq into a fantastical military mea culpa, instead concluding that Devlin insists that it is impossible to defeat al-Qaeda or the insurgents.
Please forgive the self-reference, but in Distorting Marines As Martyrs, an attempt has been made to initiate a vigorous defense of Colonel Devlin, who in fact asserts that with another division (15k - 20k troops) and the Fallujafication of Ramadi, al-Qaeda can be defeated in Iraq.
One must conclude that, as a responsible commander of Marines, Colonel Devlin was not making the recommendation as a means to a more dignified and glorious death and certain defeat.Yet, the Post’s opening sentence states that, according to Col. Devlin’s assessment, “The U.S. military is no longer able to defeat a bloody insurgency in western Iraq or counter al-Qaeda’s rising popularity there.” Why then a recommendation of an additional 20,000 troops if the “U.S. military is no longer able to defeat” al-Qaeda and the insurgency? Marines are not in the martyrdom business. If the open can be this wrong, what ensues in the rest of the article is surely a literary minefield with cherry-picked sentence fragments strewn about in order to support an article that opens with its (flawed) conclusion.
The Post writers almost certainly agree - with a great many others - that fighting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan is a proper fight. They also clearly believe that the United States should withdraw from Iraq. To that disjointed logic and those who share it, I offer that "Those who advocate fighting al-Qaeda in Afghanistan yet would opt not to engage them in Iraq exhibit a logical disconnect and a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the enemy and the jihadi fight he brings."
Colonel Devlin is in Ramadi and clearly understands the nature of the enemy. And he deserves a vigorous defense in the face of leaks and wild distortions in Washington.
1) http://www.operationhomelink.org
- Free computers for spouses or parents of deployed soldier in ranks E1- E5.
2) https://store.primediamags.com/soldier2/service_member_pg.html
- Free magazines, up to 3 choices, for deployers.
3) http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/2/prweb106818.htm
- Free mail/gifts sent to children of deployed soldiers.
4) https://www.operationuplink.org/
- Free phone cards.
WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Using money, weapons or its oil power, Saudi Arabia will intervene to prevent Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias from massacring Iraqi Sunni Muslims once the United States begins pulling out of Iraq, a security adviser to the Saudi government said on Wednesday."To be sure, Saudi engagement in Iraq carries great risks -- it could spark a regional war. So be it: The consequences of inaction are far worse," Obaid said.
News is starting to trickle out of the NATO Riga summit. Neither a full victory for the "can we be a grown up Alliance" crowd, but not a defeat either. Some movements on caveats, some new equipment and troops.
Nato chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer welcomed the relaxation of "caveats" on deployment in Afghanistan.The sad thing is, some major troop holding nations are still willing to let better nations do the fighting and dying.He said about 20,000 of the 32,000-strong Nato force were now more usable for combat and non-combat missions.
"We have made real progress on caveats," he said.
...
Those agreeing to ease the restrictions on deployment against the Taleban include the Dutch, Romanians and smaller nations such as Slovenia and Luxembourg.
...
The summit also saw several countries offer additional troops and training teams, while France agreed to send more helicopters and aircraft.
France, Germany, Spain and Italy have said they will now send help to trouble zones outside their areas, but only in emergencies."Emergency" subject to definition. Baby steps.
UPDATED: Some of you emailed that you were having trouble with the Paypal link. Link has been fixed, see below.
Operation Santa/Bethesda & Walter Reed, a project designed to bring some Christmas cheer to our wounded troops who will be confined to a hospital bed over Christmas, is in full swing. Click here for background. Quantico-based Marines, and their families, have been generous in their support of this worthy project. Quantico will become home base for stuffing hundreds of stockings, which will be delivered to patients at the hospitals on Christmas. As of today, we're only $2,130 away from our goal. Please consider a donation, no matter how small. Your donation will support a worthy cause, and it's also tax-deductible.
Click here to donate (use the pink Operation Santa button), and (very important) be sure to note that your donation is for Operation Santa Bethesda & Walter Reed in the "payment for" field.
If you prefer to mail a donation of money or gift cards, you can use the following address:
Marine Corps Family Foundation
Operation Santa - Bethesda & Walter Reed
4000 Lancaster Drive- Suite 57
Salem, OR 97309
Thanks for your support. It's never fun to be stuck in a hospital, but less so during the Holiday season.
I'll post more info in the extended entry section.
...for the Iraq Study Group to guide us to victory. Might be a long wait.
Members of an independent commission on Iraq policy could not reach a consensus Tuesday on how many or how long U.S. troops should remain in Iraq, forcing the group to return for a third day of debate, according to an official close to the panel's negotiations.
I see at the Castle that John Donovan is a Dungeon Master. Having met him at I MBC, I find this not at all surprising.
Actually, I'd imagine (if it were possible to study it) that role playing gamers are overrepresented in the military. Let's say you grew up imagining what it would be like to be a hero -- well, now you're 18. Would you rather pursue a degree in accounting at the local college, or JOIN THE MARINES?
I once made a passing comment about Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. on the blog, which got an immediate response from former Marine Doc Russia. He wrote in the comments, "Holy Smokes! I used to play that game when I was a kid. I used to play it a lot."
Well, naturally.
UN council extends U.S.-led force in Iraq one year
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday unanimously renewed the mandate of the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq through the end of 2007, granting a request from the Baghdad government.
...
The resolution authorizes the Iraqi government to terminate the force's mandate at any time over the next year if it so chooses.
Good news. No word if the resolution contemplates a US decision to terminate the mandate by withdrawing.
The operative elements of the resolution:
In light of the exposure of a significant amount of questionable - if not fraudulent - recent reporting from Iraq, it's worthwhile to acknowledge that there is a bloody battle ongoing there. I know folks here are well aware of that, but I'm actually surprised that so far Sadr's goons haven't retaliated in force for the attack last week - while it's possible Maliki might actually have him under a bit of control (they reached some agreements a couple weeks ago, and this attack was probably designed to derail that process) - that may be still to come.
In fact, it may be coming soon.
A couple points on Sadr - one, I don't think he's as much "in control" of his goon squads as many believe (I've mentioned this before), and two, I'm not convinced he won't chose a political solution to resolve this current situation. Given item one, I'm not sure item two matters all that much anyway.
...then I usually tolerate in a blog post. Work safe (no photos) but not for kids.
Information war, that is.
Patterico has an update on his Ramadi story here, and an apologetic letter from CENTCOM here.
Meanwhile, that Flopping Aces post we've been following this past weekend has attracted so much attention he's gone to a back-up site. CENTCOM has demanded a response from AP on that story - full text at Flopping Aces.
Brief excerpts from each CENTCOM letter below the fold. You'll want to read them.
Sailors from 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, are every bit a part of the Fleet Marine Force, and they have the badges to prove it.
Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Donald A. Shenck, a 44-year-old hospital corpsman from Harrisburg, Pa., Petty Officer 2nd Class Richard S. MacPartland, a 23-year-old hospital corpsman from DeKalb, Ill., and Seaman Joe T. Caruso, a 24-year-old hospital corpsman from Norwell, Mass., all with Headquarters and Service Company, were awarded the Fleet Marine Force pin Nov. 18.
"Adrenaline rush" doesn't describe what it's like to stand next to a tank as it fires. It's as if Thor, Norse god of thunder, got his Viking shorts in a bunch because someone makes a noise louder than him, so he grabs hold of the adrenal glands and squeezes for all he's worth.
Here's the first Spirit Spot I've seen for this year's Army-Navy game. Has anyone else seen any others flying around the 'net?
Rangel's proposal to revive the military draft is a sick joke. Nobody in the military wants the draft. Rangel's fellow Democrats are embarassed by his antics. His proposal has less chance of passing the House than the Washington Redskins do of winning the Stanley Cup. And even if it did, President Bush would veto it without a second thought. It's hardly worth mentioning.
Indeed, I wouldn't have mentioned it at all, if Rangel hadn't regurgitated the tired old slander that only those with "the least opportunities" volunteer to serve in the military.
Why don't we give our SS the same lov'n? We don't come even close to a mythology like this. We don't have a song anything like it.
Anyway, everyone loves the Beautiful Loser....and the German U-boats and their men were, professionally, beautiful.
John, thanks for that post. The new structure and refurnishing of U-505 is a great exhibit, and the docents do a good job of trying to explain what it's like on a diesel boat--they even got most of the smell out. Too bad they couldn't have popped your ears when they simulated launching a torpedo, and let kids move levers and things!
The first time I saw U-505 was in enlisted 'A' school, when U-505 was at the museum with sold out tickets...and USS Silversides, an American WWII boat, was moldering on a pier downtown, supported by vets and a few visitors. Silversides eventually left Chicago (lack of interest, maybe?), which is a pity.
We tend to forget our own, sometimes. USS Requin in Pittsburgh has a good exhibit built around it as part of a science museum, and Bowfin is an attraction to Pearl Harbor visitors to the Arizona memorial, but more often it's more like the poor USS Marlin, on blocks in Omaha at some distant place and locked up (due to bums relieving themselves and sleeping there in the winter) and behind a locked fence (a squabble with the park owner and the city has closed the exhibit such that I've never seen it open).
Put visually and overstating the case, here's how we memorialize the Nazi sub, with a big building and exhibits and tickets in the middle of Chicago:
and here's how we memorialized USS Bullhead, a WWII boat that has a park named after it in Tampa in the bad side of town, unimproved since the seventies as far as I can tell, with a couple of Mk-14 torpedoes on sticks and a brass listing of the dead mounted on flaking painted concrete:
Of course I overstate the case, but sometimes we don't do so well at remembering what's important.
I took advantage of the 4 day weekend to take the kids to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. While there, I made sure we went to see the new hall for the U-505
Darn hall is as dark as I imagine a sub pen to be...
Various news agencies are throwing the word "Civil War" around.
I wish such an innocuous description of Iraq could be correct.
IMHO The war in Iraq is a regional proxy war.
The fear should not be that it somehow morphes into a full fledge civil war.
After all, if it is merely a civil war, then eventually the Iraqi's will either tire of killing each other, or there won't be any Iraqi's left. Either way, the impact on the comforatable lives of the American tribe would be limited, and US Congressman only care about the comort of those that can vote in US elections.
Nope, the danger in Iraq is that the two prominent regional powers, Iran and Saudi Arabia, will end up going nuclear.
(The Saudi's have money and oil, if they wanted to be a nuclear power, it would merely be a matter of signing some oil contracts and writing a few checks with the Chinese ,North Koreans or Pakistanis)
If we are going to toss terms around and talk about such things as "strategic redeployment", then we should toss another term around.
Armageddon
At Tarin Kowt, the 11 members of U.S. Special Forces A-team 574, with a few dozen Afghani fighters, called in airstrikes to defeat a convoy of hundreds of Taliban forces on their way to attack the village where Hamid Karzai was based. It was a pivotal battle, and a crushing psychological blow for the Taliban. Team Captain Jason Amerine tells the story and Lt. Col. David Fox analyzes the battle's significance.Five years ago. Another "made for Hollywood" movie that we will not see. Abu Ghraib, sure! Tarin Kowt? Nosomuch.
What is it with the 1968 mythology mindset lately? See what I mean here.
Because spelling is a tool of the imperialist warmongers.
(via Powerline)
After reading the excellent work by bloggers Patterico and Flopping Aces, this lead from AP stringer Bassem Mroue set off a few mental alarms:
Mortars Set Fire to US Base in Iraq (AP) --
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two mortar rounds hit a U.S. military post in eastern Baghdad on Sunday, setting it on fire, police and witnesses said. A large cloud of black smoke was seen rising above Baladiyat, a predominantly Shiite area of capital, at about 3 p.m.Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed that "indirect fire rounds" had landed in the vicinity of the coalition forward operating base, but he refused to describe the results of the attack, saying that would allow "the enemy" to assess its effectiveness.
The fact that there is indirect mortar fire in a war zone barely qualifies as "news-in-brief" material, yet the AP floated this as today's top story. Think of it this way. Mortars are used at the squad and platoon level, the basic warfighting elements in our combat infantry units. They are a scant step above heavy machine guns as far as warfighting tech goes. To a servicemember, running this story at the top of the fold is the rough equivilant of the Washington Post frontpaging a story on Cletus and Gilbert discharging shotguns in the Washington National Forest. It simply does not make sense.
Triggered by the work of Patterico and Flopping Aces, I ran a quick search into Mr. Bassem Mroue. I wanted to know why he felt this was earth-shattering news. Sure enough, Mroue's less-than-even journalistic practices were exposed earlier this summer by the blogosphere's ever-alert media watchdogs.
Here's short list of bloggers who have covered Mr. Mroue's agenda-driven reporting.
NRO Media Blog
My Pet Jawa
Newsbusters
Now whether or not anti-Israeli bias translates to anti-American bias is subject to speculation. In my experience, it usually does, particularly when you're talking about Arab stringers. But the question in itself segues into another important topic: the credibility of blogger critiques on MSM reporting.
While chatting informally with a journalist -a pro, so to speak- about the upcoming 2007 Milblogging Conference, the reporter groaned "oh man, this isn't going to be 3 days of trashing the media is it?"
Caught a bit off-guard, I stammered out a "well, yeah. I suppose that'll be part of it." Integrity counts. The inadequacies of the media were discussed at length during 2006's conference, pretending like the topic wouldn't be a part of next year's event is would have been dishonest.
What bothered me about the reporter's question was the reflection of how the MSM views bloggers (and to a smaller extent milbloggers). To the media elites, we're just a bunch of armchair quarterbacks who are constantly telling them how poor they are at their jobs. Which is somewhat ironic, in that I felt the same way about journalists and the military. Still, that perception blinds reporters to the very real, very specific grievances that milbloggers have leveled against media giants regarding their coverage in Iraq, issues that should be seriously considered instead of callously dismissed.
During the 2005 conference, I never heard a panelist throw out an ambiguous, hazily phrased critique of war reporting. Instead I heard laser-focused grievances: "reporters never leave the Green Zone," or "they are employing stringers with ties to the insurgency."
These are valid complaints, and are most certainly directly related to the plummeting popularity of MSM rags and rising popularity of independent embeds like Roggio, Yon, and Totten.
Bassem Mroue's case alone should be a blazing red flag to the AP. When indirect mortar fire in a war zone is headline news, something is wrong. When the Pentagon is forced to stand up an entire unit dedicated to fighting reporting inaccuracies, something is wrong. When a major news network airs enemy propaganda thinly disguised as a story, something is wrong. Breathing in all of that foul air at once leads me to believe that something is rotten.
Doctored photos, suspect stringers, slanted reporting, all of this helps the enemy. If military bloggers don't have a dog in this fight, then who the hell does?
(I suppose I could call this post "Another Re: CENTCOM...)
A sidebar to Patterico's and Flopping Aces' stories we've been following here - both bloggers have received input from military PAOs on the ground.
This is a damn good sign. And they aren't getting "happy happy joy joy" responses. Flopping Aces has a list of recently media-quoted "MOI [Iraq Ministry of the Interior] spokesmen we are tracking since the middle of November and trying to verify" - an acknowledgement of the complexity of the "information war" and the engagement of PAOs therein. It's not a short list.
But "engaged" is the key word, and it's great to see that bloggers are being recognized as key allies (perhaps "weapons" is a better term) in the battle.
Update: For the Record is still going strong too. (And if you haven't read all three links in this post, I encourage you to take a few minutes and do so.)
...to the Anbar Salvation Council :
Al Qaeda attacks Al Anbar tribeThis is big. Remember al-Qaeda's threat to kill the "renegade" Sunnis after Ramadan? Since the tribes "have given their men to the Ministry of the Interior to serve as Iraqi Police" and the coalition has given significant resources in support, they're going to have a tough time delivering.
Sunday, 26 November 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20061126-01
Nov. 26, 2006Al Qaeda attacks Al Anbar tribe
Multi-National Corps – West PAOAR RAMADI, Iraq – Al Qaeda terrorists attacked the Abu Soda tribe in Sofia Nov. 25. In response, Coalition Forces provided support to the Abu Soda’s fight against Al Qaeda.
“The American’s have come to the aide of the Abu Soda tribe. They have understood the dire situation [that the Abu Soda are currently battling the Al Qaeda], because [the Americans] see it as a fight against a common enemy,” said Sheikh Ahmed, Sheikh of Abu Resha.
After establishing positive identification, Coalition Forces conducted air strikes and fired artillery at Al Qaeda forces attacking the Abu Soda Tribe.
Al Qaeda forces attacked through a tribal area check point and engaged the Abu Soda in Sofia. Al Qaeda burned homes, and killed members of the tribe using small arms fire and mortars.
There were no reports of Coalition or Iraqi Security Forces casualties during this fight. Both Al Qaeda and the Abu Soda suffered casualties but the exact numbers are unknown at this time.
According to Sheikh Ahmed, “The Abu Soda tribe that is being led by Sheik Jassim and supported by Sheikh Abbas from the Abu Mahal have given their men to the Ministry of the Interior to serve as Iraqi Police. Al Qaeda has decided to attack the tribes due to their support. The terrorists have gone to a neighboring tribe and have brought fighters to attack the Abu Soda.”
The Abu Soda and Abu Mahal are both members of the Sahawat Al Anbar (Awakening Council) started by Sheikh Sittar of the Abu Resha tribe.
But the significance of it will likely be lost on Western media, where you might see it depicted as Americans taking sides in Iraq's Civil War. (That would certainly be the POV for some "stringers".) Even if that characterization is accurate, I'd have to agree with Glenn Reynolds: "I don't know if we can pick winners, but we may be able to pick a couple of losers"
Update: Earlier this month, in Washington, Senator McCain called for more troops.:
Sen McCain: Would it make sense to say it might be well to get both Baghdad and al Anbar province under control...?Perhaps he'll understand this one then.Gen Abizaid: ...You can't have a "main effort" everywhere... the preponderance of military activity needs to go into the Baghdad area.
Sen McCain: I don't understand that tactic, General.
Welcome to MilBlogs, Instapundit readers - there's a lot of news from Iraq this weekend, and a lot of military bloggers commenting on it here. If your interested in a look beyond the headlines from folks who know the business, start here and scroll.
Iran says will help U.S. if it quits Iraq
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday Iran was ready to help the United States and Britain in Iraq but only if they pledged to change their attitude and withdraw their troops.
This offer is like when you are at a party and your girlfriend is drunk and she wants you to run to the store for something but you don't want to leave her alone. And the only person around is that guy you kind of know, but don't really trust because he's all sorts of shady and kind of a scumbag, and he says "No man, go ahead, I'll keep an eye on her for you."
Her name is not usually thought of in nautical terms, but World War I North Sea mines couldn't sink her, she took shots at the Japanese at Pearl Harbor.
Her follow-on helped clear mines off Japan after WWII.
Details here.
OPFOR's resident Foward Air Controller is also calling shenanigans.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMuch more at Flopping Aces, who is communicating with CENTCOM on some aspects of the story, and has yet another appearance by the Association of Muslim Scholars.
RELEASE No. 20061125-09
Nov. 25, 2006One Mosque Burned in Hurriya
Multi-National Corps – Iraq PAOBAGHDAD — Contrary to recent media reporting that four mosques were burned in Hurriya, an Iraqi Army patrol investigating the area found only one mosque had been burned in the neighborhood.
Soldiers from the 6th Iraqi Army Division conducted a patrol in Hurriya Friday afternoon in response to media reports that four mosques were being burned as retaliation for the VBIED attacks in Sadr City on Thursday.
The Soldiers set up a checkpoint near the Al Muhaimen mosque at approximately 2 p.m. and found the mosque intact with no evidence of any fire at the location.
While investigating the Al Meshaheda mosque, the patrol received small arms fire from unknown insurgents. The patrol returned fire, and the insurgents broke contact and fled the area. A subsequent check of the mosque found the mosque intact with no evidence of a fire.
At approximately 3:50 p.m., a local civilian reported to the patrol that armed insurgents had set the Al-Nidaa mosque on fire by throwing a gas container into the mosque. The patrol pursued the insurgents but lost contact with them.
The Soldiers called the fire department and set up a cordon around the mosque. Local fire trucks responded to the scene and extinguished the fire at approximately 4:00 p.m. The mosque sustained smoke and fire damage in the entry way but was not destroyed.
An alleged attack on a fourth mosque remains unconfirmed. The patrol was also unable to confirm media reports that six Sunni civilians were allegedly dragged out of Friday prayers and burned to death. Neither Baghdad police nor Coalition forces have reports of any such incident.
Note that Iraqi soldiers went into harm's way in response to bogus media reports - and were attacked. Hopefully the media will extend the courtesy of covering this debunking with the same intensity they devoted to the original.
'Military denies mosque attacks' is probably the best we can hope for.
Update: Corrected original to properly identify soldiers involved.
In case you haven't had enough conversation with the home folks this weekend, from Glenn Reynolds
I don't know if we can pick winners, but we may be able to pick a couple of losers, which may be good enough. (Seeing that the right people lose is important, after all). The Sunnis seem to have picked themselves as losers, and to be doing their best to ensure that they'll be driven out of the country in response to their campaign of terror.My part of the conversation here.UPDATE: I don't think that what's happening to the Sunnis is a good thing; I just think they've brought it on themselves by foolishly stirring up a civil war that they can't win. They haven't been as canny as I'd hoped. What's going on now is a political, not a military problem -- we'd rather it were a military problem because we're better at military matters than politics -- and it will require an Iraqi political solution. The Sunnis, however, seem to me to have ensured that it will be a solution that they don't like.
USA Today factoid:
Iraq war about to equal time U.S. spent fighting WWIIOf course, we haven't left Germany or Japan yet either. (Or Korea, for that matter).The Iraq war is about to reach a benchmark that puts it on par with World War II by one measure: Sunday, it will have lasted the same number of days — 1,347 —that the United States fought the Axis.
On a related note, at the current rate the US military death toll will surpass that of the 1.5-year long Mexican War (13283) in another 10 or 12 years or so. I'm not going to do the math on how long it will take to equal WWII's U.S. death toll (the comparison is ridiculous, and only an idiot would make it) but we've already had more killed than on D-Day. Eclipsing the month-long battle for Iwo Jima could happen soon though - maybe another 4 years or so.
A better comparison might be the Phillipine's war (1899-1902) - 4300 American dead, and loads of accusations of imperialism and torture too. Of course, we have left the Phillipines, so that war appears to be over for now.
In the 3rd Grade, Mrs McCann made me stand in the corner, facing the wall for an entire day.
In the 11th Grade, the teachers handed out so many assignments in the last 2 weeks of school, I had to work thru the night to complete them. I don't even want to mention the cruelty of finals week in University.
Apparently, these acts have reached into the highest offices of Government
via Reuters
MADRID, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorised the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq..."The methods consisted of making prisoners stand for long periods, sleep deprivation ... playing music at full volume, having to sit in uncomfortably ... Rumsfeld authorised these specific techniques."
A look back at press coverage of the aftermath of the Samarra Shrine bombing.
Violence? No doubt. Exaggerated? Probably, but false reports and rumors do as much to fan the flames of "sectarian violence" as do actual attacks, especially when those reports are carried without qualification by a supposedly legitimate media source. Is that going on now? Who knows. A direct attack on Sadr's home turf will (perhaps ironically) likely spawn more violence than the attack on a revered shrine. But as the LA Times has more recently demonstrated, unlikely claims will be reported as facts without question.
AR RAMADI, Iraq – Iraqi soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 7th Division, conducted a census and security operation in western Ramadi Friday.The operation sets the conditions for the 2-1-7 IA to assume the lead and take responsibility for their portion of the city. Once the area of operations is officially transferred to 2-1-7 IA, they will be the third and final battalion in the 1st Brigade, 7th IA to own an area of operation in Ramadi.
Patterico offers a great example of why you can't believe everything (or anything, for that matter) you read in the papers. The LA Times says there was a U.S. airstrike in Ramadi in which "at least 15 homes were pulverized " and "30+ people, including women and children" were killed. Patterico got responses to his own questions on the issue from a PAO In Ramadi and a CENTCOM spokesperson - both stated there was no airstrike at all. The Times had no comment from anyone in DoD, and hasn't updated their story.
Read the whole thing for good reasons to believe the military claims on this one.
I'd add that if it were true, this might be the largest air strike ever in Iraq, requiring multiple platforms to achieve that much devastation. A lot of other nearby structures must have been damaged too. It would be awfully gutsy of DoD to deny that any air strike occurred that day at all, since absolutely no one in the city (including the Reuters reporter Patterico cites who did not mention the incident - and every US military member there) would be unaware of it.
John of Argghhh could tell us how much ordnance his boys would have to lay down to take out a city block - Lex or John Noonan might be able to clarify whether we could (or would, I should say) level that much ground in one shot from above. Can anyone explain why the LA Times can't even balance their story?
While the Marines in Ramadi and an officer at CENTCOM took time to respond to Patterico, the LA Times would not - beyond this:
As I mentioned above, Moore never responded to my e-mail, which I sent out Monday morning. I copied it to the Readers’ Representative, who sent me her own response, which is fairly summarized as follows: “The answer to all your questions is right there in the article.” Of course, it wasn’t — which made the response even more amusing.Update: Here's Lex.
Last year when "Our Guys" were still in the Sandbox, I couldn't go into any store it seemed without hearing "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and it broke me up every time... Seems that's likely again this year because there are plenty of our Guys still there...
So I thought I'd take this opportunity to gently remind everyone as we go about shopping for the holidays, to remember to fill a box or two for our Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen.... or be sure to drop by Soldiers' Angels Holiday for Heroes and make a donation to their efforts to be sure that No Soldier Goes Unloved... I've put up my annual list of suggestions if you're stuck for ideas over at Some Soldier's Mom with a link to the mailing dates...
And revenge attacks for that...
Angry Shi'ites Muslims launched reprisal attacks on a Sunni mosque, political headquarters and several Baghdad neighborhoods, a day after a series of blasts and mortars killed more than 200 Shi'ites. And a powerful Shi'ite bloc has threatened to pull its support from parliament if the prime minister meets next week in Jordan with President Bush.More:
Shiite militiamen doused six Sunni Arabs with kerosene and burned them alive as Iraqi soldiers stood by, and killed 19 other Sunnis in attacks on their mosques Friday, taking revenge for the previous day's attack on a Sadr City slum.The straw that breaks the camelbacks? Stay tuned.
Update: The bottom paragraphs of the second linked story:
Also Saturday, U.S. and Iraqi forces killed 22 insurgents and an Iraqi civilian, and destroyed a factory being used to make roadside bombs, during several raids north of Baghdad.During three of the coalition raids, soldiers killed 10 insurgents near the city of Taji, which is 12 miles north of Baghdad and home to a major U.S. air base. An Iraqi teenage boy also was killed and a pregnant Iraqi woman was wounded in the crossfire, the military said.
U.S. aircraft were called in to destroy a factory being used to make roadside bombs, and soldiers searching the area also found hidden caches of rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns, anti-aircraft weapons and pipe bombs.
Many U.S. soldiers are killed and wounded in Iraq by powerful roadside bombs used by insurgents.
"Coalition forces strive to mitigate risks to civilians while in pursuit of terrorists. It is always a shame when terrorists hide among civilian women and children, putting them in harm's way," the U.S. military said.
In another area north of Baghdad, coalition forces attacked three vehicles carrying 12 insurgents, including one they were searching for because he allegedly was involved in the manufacture of car bombs, the coalition said.
The soldiers opened fire on the cars when they ignored warning shots, and all the militants were killed, the military said. The coalition declined to give the exact location of the incident.
I am thankful for the News!
Whatever mess you find yourself in, enjoy!
Take a look around you... remember to be thankful for those you have and what you have -- especially your freedoms. Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving (and safe travel to those of you traveling!)
I am thankful for more... you can read it at Some Soldier's Mom
Wherever you are and whoever you are in this big ol' world, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Civ II players will appreciate this. I thought of it as soon as I saw the picture...
If you don't know the game, I can't really explain. Suffice to say, this sucks.
THE ENEMY OF THE GOOD
A Buck Sargent Epilogue
While it’s "Stryker this," and "Stryker that," and "Strykers go around," But it’s "Please to stay behind, sirs," when there’s trouble on the ground.
My long time readers know all about Dadmanly Profiles, but I want to alert readers to the start of another fine, and related series, under development by one fine Command Sergeant Major (CSM).
As SGT Hook explains in his original post, he recently undertook what has been the most challenging mission of his career, standing up a new Battalion from scratch as the senior noncommissioned officer (NCO) for the unit, the CSM. I’m flattered that, in the course of his reflections on leadership, SGT Hook had found inspiration in my Profiles:
Then, while reading the ever eloquent Dadmanly today, I found his collection of Profiles of key leaders, and was quite impressed. Add my recent reflections on past duty assignments, and I was suddenly inspired to put my own thoughts to paper (read blog) on defining just who/what a squad leader, platoon sergeant, etc. is in the Army.Hook’s a lot kinder than my own CSM. Eloquent would not have been the word he used, rather a less polite synonym for “verbose.” Who, when he (often) reached a point where I had said too much, used to say I made his brain hurt. I think it was more often exposure – to the elements for sure, preferring the Mohatma Ghandi hairstyle, but possibly also to unpleasant news… Listen, if you want more on him, read it here.
CSMs, I suppose come in all shapes and sizes, but almost all with a max decibel voice and what seems like a 10 foot standard issue frame (at least when he’s in your face). For those who don’t quite understand how the Army is organized, if the NCO Corps is the backbone of the Army, then CSMs are the spinal cord within the backbone of the Army.
I’m pleased to announce that SGT Hook has indeed commenced his profiles, with the first two installments. In the first, The Army Organized, Hook helpfully offers a primer on Army organization. I want to excerpt it in its entirety, if only because I am finding myself explaining these structures to the uninitiated – or listening to Little Manly do so, I think he’s got it down pat now!
Go check out Hook, and his first installment of The Squad Leader.
(Cross-posted with excerpts at Dadmanly.)
The "Golden 13 " were the first African-American Naval Officers, commissioned in 1944.
The last of these 13 pioneers has died, and honors are somewhat belatedly paid here.
It seems a simple enough question. To civilians living in societies where elected leaders run the show, it is a somewhat meaningless question. In a region of the world where military coups are more common than free elections , it is THE question. When the regional commander of the most powerful military in the history of the World speaks, serious people in the Middle East listen.
John Abizaid, Commander of Central Command, speaking at Harvard for 1 hour and 18 minutes on the "Long War" here.
Who in Korea approved her entry into South Korea?:
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan visited a village near Camp Humphreys on Monday night in a show of “solidarity” with local residents opposing the installation’s expansion.Sheehan was part of a group of about 20 activists from the United States who are in South Korea this week to oppose the expansion project and a proposed South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.
The camp is set to triple in size in coming years and become the U.S. military’s main installation on the peninsula.
Some local residents backed by South Korean anti-US activists have been resisting the expansion since 2005.
What does Cindy Sheehan know about South Korea? Absolutely nothing. She can’t even make up her own signs. This picture is absolutely priceless.
Nimitz in a pond?
Explanation at Murdoc Online
