The Anti-Surge

via DVIDS(pdf)

The 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment is now responsible for the entire area of Mosul in conjunction with a capable Iraqi army and police force.

A single US battalion (~600 troops) supporting a city of over a million.

All appeared lost a mere two years ago

via ABC News Nov 142th,2004

Insurgents have set police stations ablaze, stole weapons and brazenly roamed the streets of Mosul as Iraq's third largest city appeared to be sliding out of control, residents said.

Michael Yon's mystery weapon.

You probably saw it around the web yesterday, especially after Drudge linked it.

This is the current working hypothesis at Castle Argghhh! We invite your input.

Not just regarding what it is - but where it might have come from.

A symbolic move?

Closing the borders for 72 hours. Probably won't have much of an effect - however it is an acknowledgment that troubles come not as single spies, but in battalions do they march - and across two borders in particular...

Where There is Hope

From the Christian Science Monitor

Indeed, most Iraqis interviewed in Baghdad Monday about the new security plan, which involves deploying more Iraqi and US soldiers throughout the capital, framed the problem in sectarian terms. But they also expressed hope in the latest effort to restore calm.

"I hope this allows troops to capture all the criminals in the Sunni mosques or in the Shiite mosques," says Feras al-Jabouri, a Sunni who lives in the Amariyah neighborhood, near the road to the airport in western Baghdad.

Mr. Jabouri says war-weary Baghdadis often can identify insurgents and members of sectarian militias. He predicts that many who are fed up with the devastating toll of bombings and sectarian attacks will eventually begin turning the culprits in to the newly arriving American and Iraqi forces.

While the Baghdadis don't paint an entirely rosey picture, it seems that there is progress in the thinking... even in this statement

Muthena Mohammed, a secular Shiite who lives in the southern Baghdad neighborhood al-Bayaa, says he wants to get revenge for attacks on his own house. But he is waiting to see if the US and Iraqi forces will mete out justice for him.

On the other hand, it should be noted that re-establishing security in Baghdad will take time... even the Iraqis interviewed in the story admit (and accept) that... Let's hope there are enough sane Americans left who understand that as well.

The problem with Europeans

Not a good day for a serious West - and a reason we should always make sure we, ahem, get first shot at our interests and not wait for Europe to wake up and grap a pitchfork.

Point 1: Can't take care of old terrorist problems.

Brigitte Mohnhaupt, 57, will be released March 27 after serving 24 years of a life sentence for multiple murders, the Stuttgart state court ruled. Mohnhaupt was convicted in 1985 of involvement in nine murders, including those of West German chief federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback and of Hanns-Martin Schleyer, the head of the country's industry federation.

She was given five life sentences on the murder charges and convictions on other counts. Those included attempted murder for her part in a 1981 rocket-propelled grenade attack on the car of U.S. Gen. Frederick Krosen — then the commander of U.S. forces in Europe — which injured both the general and his wife. ... The court decided Mohnhaupt fulfilled the conditions of her sentence and no longer posed a threat to society, court spokeswoman Josefine Koeblitz said.

The decision was made "according to legal conditions and was not an act of clemency," Koeblitz said. ... Mohnhaupt was captured early in her involvement with the Red Army Faction in Berlin in 1972 and jailed for several years. Released in 1977, she immediately went back to the group and played a key role in the trail of death it left later that year, which became known as the "German Autumn."

She was arrested again in then-communist Yugoslavia in 1978, but allowed to go six months later.

She was finally captured by West German authorities on Nov. 11, 1982, as she went to an arms cache in woods near Frankfurt, which had been staked out by a special police unit for two weeks after they received a tip from locals who had stumbled upon it.

Austrian sniper rifles that were exported to Iran have been discovered in the hands of Iraqi terrorists, The Daily Telegraph has learned.
...
The guns were part of a shipment of 800 rifles that the Austrian company, Steyr-Mannlicher, exported legally to Iran last year.
...
Within 45 days of the first HS50 Steyr Mannlicher rifles arriving in Iran, an American officer in an armoured vehicle was shot dead by an Iraqi insurgent using the weapon.

Over the last six months American forces have found small caches of the £10,000 rifles but in the last 24 hours a raid in Baghdad brought the total to more than 100, US defence sources reported.

R.I.P. FHM

Tonight I was tasked by my lovely wife to stop by the store and buy her some “products”. When I shop, I tend to shop in a holistic manner, meaning I wander around and looking at everything and saying to my self "oh, I need that".

Today, I just happened to meander by the magazine rack and saw that FHM was publishing their last issue. Woah, considering it was one of the top read magazines in Iraq, they probably have millions of military dollars, for them to shut down is quite an event. Of course I had to have a look and when I opened it up, the first page I looked at had this guy's picture in the “Who The Hell Are You” section

With the Angels...

Soldiers' Angels Mourns Aunt Mary

It is with great sadness that Soldiers' Angels announces the passing of its dearest and oldest member, Aunt Mary. Mary Irvin Roun was born on April 13, 1905 in Turnersville, NJ and died peacefully in her sleep on February 8,2007.

SecDef in Pakistan

...meets with President Musharraf:

We discussed the coming spring military activity on the border and the measures that the Afghans, the NATO alliance, the United States and Pakistan working together can take both separately and together. I described to him the augmentation of U.S. forces on the Afghan side of the border that I directed a few weeks ago and also talked to him about the comments that I had made and others had made at the NATO Defense Ministers Meeting in Madrid -- in Seville, rather -- about increasing their commitment both in terms of military forces, but also economic development and reconstruction resources for Afghanistan.

We talked about the importance of seizing the offensive this spring to deal the Taliban and al Qaeda a strategic setback. I congratulated him on his efforts to strengthen modern Islam and encouraged him to continue those efforts and that the United States thought this was a significant contribution.

I would just make one final comment. My first visits to Pakistan were over 20 years ago and were in connection with our mutual effort to help the Afghans drive the Soviet troops from their territory.

After the Soviets left, the United States made a mistake. We neglected Afghanistan, and extremism took control of that country. And the United States paid a price for that on September 11th, 2001. We won't make that mistake again. We are here for the long haul.

Be happy to take some questions. Yeah.

Q Mr. Secretary, did you talk and come to any understanding with the president here about U.S. military action in Pakistan? I'm talking about the artillery that's being lobbed across the border, and some of the hot pursuit that U.S. military personnel are doing there.

SEC. GATES: I'll just say that our operations are coordinated with the Pakistanis.

Q But the president -- are these things coordinated to the effect that President Musharraf has approved of them?

SEC. GATES: I don't know that he approves of them. They're coordinated, though. I don't know that he personally approves them. I doubt that, frankly, but they are coordinated in the border area.