Re: Re: Iraqi forces can take over by June 2007?

Dec 1st Pentagon Briefing

GEN. MIXON: (ed Commander of MNF-N) We have a goal for this transition, and we're making advances every day. We currently have one Iraqi army division under control of Iraq ground force command, and a second division transferred today.
A third division will transfer by the end of January, and by February all four Iraqi divisions in Multinational Division North will be under Iraqi Ground Force Command. ...

As I mentioned, today in western Nineveh province, the 3rd Iraqi Army Division formally took the lead in providing security for Iraq's people. Over the past month, this unit has conducted over 400 operations independent of any coalition support.

News of Afghanistan - the blizzard edition

If you don't read the News, I will have Marines throw snowballs at you!

[This photo is from 2005 when my little band of Marine security guys got a bit squirrely while we were in Gholam-ali].

Silly String.

No, we're not talking about the last line of defense for Army against Navy tomorrow (methinks it's going to be a slaughter, ever-so-glad I went to a Land Grant college and beat up on Army in football once, myself).

Rather - Laurie of Soldier's Angels New York wants to know if she should be gathering up silly string to send to the sandboxes for booby-trap detection duty.

She's really concerned, as a victim of silly string herself - if the utility of it will outweigh the Hearts and Minds aspect.

Are you a Majority or Minority?

Victor Davis Hanson is so good at boiling things down.

The Majority Opinion
The new majority school of thought — often described as the more nuanced and more sophisticated — seems to conclude that the “global war on terror” (if that’s even what it ever really was) is insidiously winding down to a police matter. Billions spent in lives and treasure in Iraq did not make us any safer; the passing of time, the dissipation of passions, and increased vigilance did.
...

The Minority Brief
We really are in a global war. Its dimensions are hard to conceptualize since our enemies, while aided and abetted by sympathetic Middle Eastern dictatorships, claim no national affinity. Indeed, the terrorists deliberately mask the role of their patrons. The latter, given understandable fears of the overwhelming conventional power of the United States military, deny culpability.

Introducing The Deadlies

What's more deadly than a pair of minature helicopters?

That's how Noah Shachtman got thinking about a new type of contest, a cross between Wired's Raves and the Darwin Awards, appropriately dubbed The Deadlies.

Noah is now taking submissions for "The Earth's most lethal gadgetry," nominees which include atomic automobiles and inflateable space pods.

I, for one, will be voting for Darpa's man-cannon.

Send in your own nomination for The Deadlies here.

Noah has also launched a biweekly Defense Tech newsletter that's pretty cool. Right up your ally if you're a gizmo geek.

Re: Iraqi forces can take over by June 2007?

The real discussion will center on "combat" vs "advisory" roles for US troops in the coming months. I expect what we'll see is a shift to having most US troops in QRF or advisory (embedded with Iraqi units) capacity. Those QRF forces might stage in Iraq. The Kurdish North would be the best option - Kuwait could be another. (Has already been done, in fact.) Other countries could be considered, but Okinawa is right out.

If not already there, the tricky part will be determining when to deploy them into Iraq. That will be up to commanders on the ground, of course, but what happens next time the Association of Muslim Scholars calls the AP and reports 184 mosque attacks? And if we are in other countries, what do their opinions matter on that issue? And will each execution of the option be touted in the press as a failure of the plan?

Another tricky piece would be a "brief" surge in combat troops prior to this shift. That smacks of "home by Christmas" - I'll leave it at that.

That's all a bit further on down the road though. For now, there are reasons for optimism. The battle is still on, and while we may not be as close to "victory" as some would like we are closer to it than any other faction is - for now. Here's why I say that - there are more cracks developing in the enemy facade, and more Iraqi civilians - at least in Anbar - moving from wishing to acting.

Go Navy!

THURSDAY MORNING, at the Metro entrance to the Pentagon, I spotted a banner hanging above the entry lobby:

Unfortunately, the Pentagon discourages photo-taking, especially in the entry lobby. So instead, I'll share with you this lovely photo of a formal parade at West Point.

Hey, how did that "BEAT ARMY" banner get up there?