War Criminals

via BBC 11 March 2006

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who has been found dead in his cell in the detention centre at The Hague, had been on trial on war crimes charges since 2001 The indictment said he was responsible for "the widespread killing of thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats".

LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - Britain's first convicted war criminal was sentenced on Monday to one year in jail for mistreating Iraqi prisoners in a case that exposed senior commanders to accusations they had authorised abuse. Corporal Donald Payne was also kicked out of the army

When a Corporal...involved in the beating death of a single prisoner is described as a "War Criminal"...how do we now describe people who are responsble for things like genocide? Those who ordered the deaths of millions are now in the same category as a Corporal whose actions resulted in the death of one.

Stout Little Ships

Saved cruisers damaged in battle. Delivered the goods on Iwo Jima. Broached on a beach, broken. Repaired, renamed. Rescued sailors and ships. Present when Andrea Doria sank. Rode "The Perfect Storm." Was called a "submarine"- but it wasn't.

Served this country for 50 years.

And that's just one of these stout little ships.

As set out here.

An academic exercise in preparing for a terrible, but important thing

Excellent advice that I hope I never need to put into play.

General Patraeus Redux

Via Stryker News an hour long interview with General Patraeus by Charlie Rose is here.

It is a full hour long...and even if a transcript were available..none of it could be excerpted responsibly.

Meanwhile, Back in Iraq

So - with the Commanding General in the U.S. this week, did the troops of MNF-I slack off?

Doesn't look like it:

32 Years Ago on April 29, 1975

April 29, 1975. Flying refugees out of Saigon as the NVA rolls in:

"When we got on the ship, the South Vietnamese were landing helicopters right on the deck," said Stewart, remembering his actions during the operation. "We'd take the people off and push the helicopters over the side. They tried to land (planes) on the ship and the Navy would wave them off. Then they'd ditch the planes into the ocean and jump out and the Navy would fish them out of the water. It was very hectic."

The planners anticipated they would be moving about 100 people out of Saigon, but when it was over, they had relocated 1,373 Americans and 5,595 foreign refugees.

There came a point during the night when the order was given to only take American citizens because the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong were getting close to the DOA compound and American Embassy.

"I can't imagine what it must have been like to have to look at those people, knowing that if they were caught they'd probably be killed," Buckel said. "As good a feeling as it must've been helping the ones they could, there also had to be a little bit of guilt there too."

Prelude to Victory

Operation Tiger April 28, 1944:

As noted here:

It was the costliest training exercise in all of World War II. As the bodies washed ashore in days ahead, the official count rose to 749.

The brave men who died that day contributed to the success in France six weeks later. Indeed their sacrifice was a Prelude to Victory.

Cross posted.

RE: Sounding the Bugle Re: failure day

October 4th, 1962

By Morris K. Udall

I'm proud and fortunate to be an American living in a 20th century society which enjoys more basic freedoms and more material wealth than any nation in the history of this earth. All of us can rejoice in the blessings we now have. Yet, I sense from my mail a great deal of worry and concern about the future of our country. This uneasiness seems to boil down to two conclusions which are drummed into our people from many sources: (1) We are gradually losing our free enterprise system to socialism; and (2) we are slowly, but surely, losing the cold war and will eventually live under communism.

Updated: * higlight change
The all is lost crowd has been babbling away for a very long time......sometimes one needs to just have faith that the product they are selling is a product people , given a choice want to buy.

Coming soon

From the folks who can't provide "news" without mis-quotes, distortions, and unnamed sources: Failure Day.

Bugler...

...sound retreat:

A British soldier who has just returned from Iraq yesterday described the situation in Basra as "hopeless and lost" and accused the Government of "trying to save face" by keeping troops there.
<...>
He called on Tony Blair to withdraw troops immediately.
<...>
"We're coming into the end game as far as I'm concerned. We're losing around four soldiers a month and it won't get any better.

"They've even started attacking our base at Basra airport now they've got proper artillery guns. Once that's gone there's nowhere left."

Pte Barton said in the 18 months between the end of his first tour of Iraq and his return this year the pressure on troops had increased hugely. The "Iranian influence" had given insurgents increasingly powerful and new weaponry, he said.

A reasonable discussion on this topic would include examination of Britain's intentions regarding Iran (given recent history), an appreciation of their steadfast commitment to the war on terror, an acknowledgement of the political realities confronting Tony Blair at home, and a valid explanation of the difference between complete pacification of an area and the return of responsibility of that area to Iraq. One is the goal of coalition strategy, ("The tipping point in the war in Iraq will not come from killing off insurgents - it will be achieved by replacing the Americans who are killing them with Iraqi forces capable of doing the same." I believe someone once said...) the other is beyond our control. (See Virginia Tech, for example.)

Meanwhile, Haider Ajina writes:

Greetings,

The following is an article form ‘Aswat Al-Iraq or “Voices of Iraq” from Apr 26, 2007

Al-Shuaiba airbase back to Iraqis for second time in 48 years

By Malik Saadon

Basra, Apr 26, (VOI) – Forty-eight years has passed between the handover of al-Shuaiba airbase from the British forces to the Iraqi Air Force (IQAF) in 1959 and its handover to the 10th division of the Iraqi army two days ago. During these 48 years the map of the world has changed, many concepts, ideas and theories have evolved, disproving others that scientists previously held true, but man's will to remain free and to be the master of his own land has not changed.

Appeal for Even More Re: Generalship

Chap asks, "Funnily enough I don't see anything about information war in the good LTCOL's article. Where's the IW/PA/PSYOPS love?"

Heh. I suspect that like me, Chap sees it between every line of the subsequent coverage. But perhaps I'm simply transferring my own suspicions...

Wow - here's a huge surprise. NPR did a story this week on military members "speaking out".

Members of the U.S. armed forces are prohibited from speaking out against the war in Iraq. The Uniform Code of Military Justice limits what soldiers may say about political issues.

But as opposition to the Iraq war mounts, some service members are finding ways to air their opinions. Some are speaking anonymously while others sign a petition.

"You know this isn't really what we signed up to do. This isn't really what I believe America is about," an Army intelligence officer says, speaking from his base in Iraq.

Comments like this would land him in a military prison if he were identified.

RE: Generalship (and Second Thoughts)

Four must reads sometime this week:
Retired LTC Yingling's article in Armed Forces Journal
Hugh Hewitt interview with Max Boot on Yingling’s article, via Instapundit
Greyhawk's reflections on Yingling's piece
Point of view contrary to Yingling from Neptunus Lex.

Call it all some considerations of the second draft of history, all relating to how we have conducted our military efforts in Iraq, how we’ve adapted, and where we stand now.

The mainstream media (MSM) delight in stories like this. They move from darling to darling, from one convenient message to another, and find ways to highlight and stress those particular threads of military commentary and opinion that supports their own biases, or the partisan aims of those they seek to assist.

I don’t want to insult or call into question the integrity of LTC Yingling, or impute ulterior motives to the particular timing of his article. I think Yingling accurately captures a strain of thought within the officer corps, particular for younger officers a level or two below those who have achieved the political stature of elevated senior rank. I say political because for those not as familiar with the world of the military, it may not be apparent the degree to which Generals and aspiring Field Grade officers by necessity excel as political animals.

I will certainly grant that, in hindsight, it will always be possible to find oppositional voices in military senior command who take positions contrary to those which ultimately prevail, and after the fact can seem deep wisdom indeed. Hindsight, after all, can always be measured as 20/20. I would even go so far to admit that a certain degree of hubris, institutional prejudices, vanity and pride underlay much military decision-making immediately leading up to our invasion of Iraq, and decisions in the first 3 years of executing the various components of our plans.

All that said I still have several big objections to his argument.

Bad results don’t necessarily indicate bad plans, or even bad decisions. Poor results are more often a failure of adaptability, not necessarily foresight. You can generally foresee all manner of possibilities, but leadership is a matter of making decisions, of choosing courses of action (COA) among alternatives. After the fact, it will always be possible to point at outcomes, and say, well, clearly, you should have opted for COA #2, or #3, or so on, rather than the one chosen.

Yingling describes the failures of Generals making decisions during the Vietnam War as inadequately preparing their forces for counterinsurgency. That may or may not be a complete picture of all that went on, and certainly doesn’t accommodate evolving thinking about Vietnam, that we may have won militarily but lost politically by giving way on PR and pulling out on the verge of victory. Sure, the results were disastrous, but was the disaster the fault of military operations, or the political decision-making that pulled US forces out, and then cravenly abandoned our allies in South Vietnam?

We fought a very tough and prolonged fight against a Filipino insurgency at the turn of the 19th century, and won against them, and the military created doctrinal components that were informed by those experiences. I think it reasonable that the US military was justified thinking they would prevail in Vietnam. Certainly, tactics and strategy could have evolved more, but the great unanswered question is what would have happened if we had held on longer, maintained support of South Vietnam? Our North Vietnamese enemies candidly admit they were near complete defeat and surrender shortly after Tet.

Again, we might grant Yingling his premise that the military didn’t exhibit sufficient foresight as the war in Vietnam continued, or didn’t adapt, or ignored warning signs and alternative courses of action. I don’t think it supports his conclusion, in any case.

I thought at the time and I think now that arguments by Administration detractors and in-house military critics that 300,000 to 400,000 troops would be needed to prevail in Iraq was a recipe for guaranteed paralysis. Say we ponied up that kind of force. How long would that big a force be needed to accomplish a “pacification” of the country? How many more casualties would the US have sustained with two to three times as many targets for IEDs and other suicide attacks?

How on earth does anyone think the US could implement that in the politics of the time? We’d see even worse conflict and obstructionism, only louder, more, and sooner. No, those kinds of troops levels would ensure that we would, in fact, choose not to go to war. That was the overriding intent of these estimates, anyway. Prove me wrong, but I think that would be perfectly logical based on the cynical Powell Doctrine. (We fight ONLY when we are certain of complete victory, not on necessity, nor on principle.)

If there is one truism in modern warfare, it’s that we don’t always get time and opportunity to choose a fight that is brought on you unexpectedly. We can’t always support or sustain overwhelming force, and we can’t control every eventuality or eliminate terror as PR and media tactic. Careful “pragmatists” like Powell and Shinseki would, by their doctrines, ensure we only take on boutique wars against very minor adversaries. That was the intent of Shinseki and others on this side of the argument, an argument for inaction and status quo. And the fatal fallacy of these arguments, are they don’t in any way answer what we face in AQ and similar global terror affinity organizations.

The example Yingling cites of Valmy is grossly inapt for our situation in Iraq. Valmy led to Jena because the Prussians did not see Valmy as a warning for what the future might hold, or their own vulnerabilities. You can argue that Secretary Rumsfeld (and the President) didn’t take a sober enough look at the security situation in Iraq, or change strategy, or prompt adaptation in the military. But you surely can’t view the surge, the substantive and impressive changes in strategy and tactics, and the orchestration of the surge by GEN Petraeus as an inability to reassess, and adapt.

Lastly, I find it incomprehensible that a military leader of advanced rank, a Brigade Deputy Commander no less, could thoroughly inform himself of ground truth in Iraq, and then honestly or accurately describe us on the verge of defeat, in any sense. We have difficulties transferring authority to Iraqis, building up their security forces (more so the Iraqi police versus the Army), and no one is happy with security, but this is not a military defeat.

We and the Iraqi forces we support have been unable to fully secure important population centers, and there are significant populations of potential adversaries not pacified. Terrorists are not fully eliminated nor prevented from conducting harassing operations. But this can be said about many places in the world. If a steady stream of foreign ideological suicides, or vulnerable innocents (children, handicapped, subjects of blackmail) can be kept available, this could be kept up indefinitely, anywhere in the world. It just happens that Al Qaeda wants to continue to focus on Iraq, because they believe they can thereby turn Americans against the war, with the help of the Democrat opposition and western media.

Links to Hugh Hewitt, Greyhawk, and Neptunus Lex, and more commentary, over at Dadmanly.)

Re:[96] Generalship and Congress

I wouldn't say anything against a gentleman from the 3rd Armored Cav. I do wonder about this idea, though: "To reward moral courage in our general officers, Congress must ask hard questions about the means and ways for war as part of its oversight responsibility."

Congressional confirmation procedures are something we've seen a lot of over the last several years. Does anyone really believe that these procedures ever, ever, ever even once, "reward moral courage"?

Let's say you want to be on the Supreme Court. Or an ambassador. Whatever. Does it help or hurt your chances if you've ever expressed strong opinions about any controversial topic?

Reward moral courage? That's the best way I can think of to make sure that no one of moral courge is ever considered for the post.

Re[95]: Generalship

Yeah, a civilian friend read the paper, and now I just had to post on it. Hawk's got the importance right--if you think this article is as Important as the papers say it is, you're being played for a sucker unless the papers get to drive the momentum enough for people to riff on the article.

Funnily enough I don't see anything about information war in the good LTCOL's article. Where's the IW/PA/PSYOPS love?

Update: One more thing. Seems as though GEN Abizaid fits LTCOL Yingling's model for the modern general...

Re:Quadruple Re: Generalship

Just a quick question...

If one knows that it will be 3-5 years before handing off to the ISF is feasable...and the maximum sustainable rotation is 15 Brigades...does one immediately engage in a policy that will require 21-22 Brigades until the ISF is capable of assuming command...or does one engage in "economy of force" for three to four years?

Just asking

Quadruple Re: Generalship

W. Thomas Smith Jr.

I think it is important to note that the officer criticizing American generalship is doing so in the Armed Forces Journal, which (according to the AP story) is published by Army Times Publishing Company, which publishes all the Military Times newspapers.

Armed Forces Journal and its Web site, armedforcesjournal.com, are published by Army Times Publishing Company, a part of Gannett Company, Inc.

Army Times Publishing Company is organized into three market sector groups to effectively cover the needs of the consumer and business-to-business communities served by its publications: 1. The Military Times Media Group, which publishes the Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times newsweeklies;
2. the Defense News Media Group, which publishes Defense News, Armed Forces Journal , Training & Simulation Journal, and C4ISR Journal (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance); and
3. the Federal Times newsweekly.

Also at The Tank, Gregory S. McNeal found AP coverage of Yingling's article, which claims that

In February, the U.S. forces launched the Baghdad security operation, which calls for deploying about 28,000 additional American troops as well as thousands of Iraqi soldiers. Most will try to secure Baghdad.

Yingling welcomed the change, but suggested it is too little too late.

But it certainly looks like Gannett is pushing this story hard.

The AP story also shoehorns in a reference to the Astroturf campaign "Appeal for Redress":

But public criticism from an active duty officer is rare and may be a sign of growing discontent among military leaders at a critical time in the troubled U.S. military mission here.

An anti-war group, Appeal for Redress, says about 2,000 active duty personnel and veterans have signed a petition calling for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.

One of its founders, Navy Petty Officer Jonathan Hutto, has said 60 percent of the members have served in Iraq. There are about 1.4 million active-duty personnel in the U.S. military.

Which seems to be a trend.

Update: The Military Times papers ran a fluffer piece on Appeal for Redress a while back, too, without explaining the background on the group.

The MilBlogs Community Grows

...even faster than we knew:

A vibrant milblogging community in the People's Republic of China, where all manners of speech are closely monitored and controlled, may seem unlikely. Chinese milbloggers, however, have closely followed major defense and security developments both within China as well as abroad, from last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah to China's anti-satellite missile test in January.

Translations of Chinese MilBlogger names into English include Chinese Sword, Door of Green Dragon, Flying Flower Pursues Moon, Flying Fish, and Commanding Feather Eagle Wolf.

Wonder what they think of Harry Reid being a fan boy of one of their Generals?

Triple Re: Generalship

What Lex said. Seriously, go read it. It's of more general interest than you think. I mean, it's of interest to more than just Generals, and the general public should take a gander. You don't even need to review the source document or the WaPo piece first.

A few points, for info only, not directly related to the document or discussion thereof - though I will now quote it:

America's generals not only failed to develop a strategy for victory in Vietnam, but also remained largely silent while the strategy developed by civilian politicians led to defeat. As H.R. McMaster noted in "Dereliction of Duty," the Joint Chiefs of Staff were divided by service parochialism and failed to develop a unified and coherent recommendation to the president for prosecuting the war to a successful conclusion.

Re: Re: Generalship

You guys saw that too? I guess it's what all the cool kids are talking about.

For my own part, I thought that while the LTC made some good points, he was being a little hard on the elephants. Flawed assumptions were exposed, and poor decisions revealed, but only in retrospect - they were none of them "no-brainers."

And the COIN strategy that we have settled on is risky, frankly - we expose more troops in smaller numbers to a 360-degree threat axis. The fact that this the only strategy with good prospects for success now doesn't mean that it was blindingly obvious before.

More here, if you're interested.

We're Only Eight Days Out

Today is the last day to register for the 2007 MilBlog Conference. We will not be accepting on-site registrations.

In other MilBlog Conference news, we have just announced our Master of Ceremonies.

News of Afghanistan - the 55th edition

Kabul cricket supremacy, French military efficacy, Abdullah Abdullah breaking bad on Karzai and Canadian Parliamentary squabbling all found here.

Re: Generalship

"I think the case can be made that the ground commanders in Iraq before Gen. Petraeus lacked imagination and the ability to change tactics"

Agree that the case can be made. But...

The hour is late, but not too late to prepare for the challenges of the Long War. We still have time to select as our generals those who possess the intelligence to visualize future conflicts and the moral courage to advise civilian policymakers on the preparations needed for our security.

Why?

Surprise! (Okay, actually no surprise at all):

WASHINGTON - Hours before the House of Representatives narrowly passed a $124-billion bill to fund the war in Iraq, the commander of the multinational forces there delivered a classified briefing to Congress.
<...>
But at dueling Democratic and Republican news conferences after Petraeus' closed-door meeting with the House, it seemed as if the members had attended different briefings.

The General was clear on many points - including this one: "I have, as you know, in fact tried to stay clear of the political minefields of various legislative proposals and so forth..."

So - which side was closest to the truth? The answer will surprise you every bit as much as the story above.

A failure in generalship

The Deputy Commander of the 3rd ACR has an article in the new Armed Forces Journal that makes some interesting points, even though the Washington Post tries to stretch them into something they might not be. From the conclusion of Lt Col Yingling's article:

Iraq is America's Valmy. America's generals have been checked by a form of war that they did not prepare for and do not understand. They spent the years following the 1991 Gulf War mastering a system of war without thinking deeply about the ever changing nature of war. They marched into Iraq having assumed without much reflection that the wars of the future would look much like the wars of the past. Those few who saw clearly our vulnerability to insurgent tactics said and did little to prepare for these dangers. As at Valmy, this one debacle, however humiliating, will not in itself signal national disaster. The hour is late, but not too late to prepare for the challenges of the Long War. We still have time to select as our generals those who possess the intelligence to visualize future conflicts and the moral courage to advise civilian policymakers on the preparations needed for our security.

RE: Idiot of the Year

Soldier's Dad already responded here to Senator Obama. I posted some related thoughts over at Dadmanly.

Here's an excerpt:

Senator Barack Obama says that we are "one signature away from ending this war," making the remarkable statement in the first debate of democrats for the 2008 Presidential Election.

Not to be outdone in the visualize peace exercise, Senator Hillary Clinton repeated her promise, that "if George Bush doesn't end the war, as President, I will."

A central assumption of both of these naive positions is that the US fights "George Bush's war" in isolation. If we weren't there, nobody in Iraq would be blowing people up. If we weren't there, Iraqis would work out there differences. If we weren't there, terrorists would stop being terrorists, or at least, go on to unidentified other targets elsewhere in the world, but in places that we just don't need to worry about either.

You almost get the feeling this is all some made-up war, dreamed up on some ranch in Texas. Heck, the only reason Iraq has erupted in "civil war," to hear Surrender Democrats tell it, was out of spontaneous anger and hostility towards the US presence.

Readers of analysis that is actually informed by facts and reality, of course, know that both Iran and Al Qaeda have gone to extreme lengths to try to ignite a civil war between Sunnis and Shia in Iraq, but they have failed, in places, spectacularly, as we are seeing evidence of now. Sunni tribes and major leaders are turning against Al Qaeda. Shia have exercised amazing restraint in recent months, holding back from serious reprisals against Sunnis, not falling for the bait when terrorists attack Shia sites and neighborhoods. Al Qaeda has even taken to attacking former allies who now line up with the Iraqi Government, further alienating themselves from the Sunnis in Iraq.

People who really want to know what's happening in Iraq, read MILBLOGS, and consult experts like those at Strategy Page, or listen closely to what GEN Petraeus tells us. Not so Congressional Democrats, who skip out on briefings, grossly distort what he says, and declare that if the GEN shares any good news, he's lying.

Busy, Busy, Nancy

On the Petraeus briefing:

Still, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did not attend. It was not clear where she was Wednesday afternoon. Aides did not return calls Wednesday.
<...>
“I think the speaker’s got better things to do, frankly,” agreed Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.). “They didn’t say anything they haven’t said in public.”

But here's what I wondered - who's this "they" Moran is talking about? It's an odd choice of word - sort of impies an "us vs them" thing. If it was a briefing given by Republicans I'd understand it - but this was General Petraeus.

Re: Re: Ware

His current "delusional" comments will almost certainly not be repeated in the cesspool of the Democratic Underground...

These stats

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has fallen from a 38 percent positive rating in February to 30 percent positive now. Well over half (56%) of adults currently view her job performance in a negative light, compared to just 45 percent who did so in February. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has also dropped. In February, 23 percent viewed him positively while 47 percent viewed his job performance negatively. Currently, over half (52%) see his job performance in a negative light while just 22 percent gives it positive ratings.

The stats may not play much at the Democratic Underground...but they will cause great concern in the Halls of Congress. To be in ones job for all of 90 days an find yourself in to 20% bracket in approval ratings is not a good sign for the Surrender in Shame caucus.

General Petraeus

"Iraq is, in fact, the central front of al Qaeda's global campaign."

"As I mentioned, we generally in many areas -- not all, but in many areas -- have a sense of sort of incremental progress. Again, that is not transmitted at all. Of course it will never break through the noise and the understandable coverage given to it in the press of a sensational attack that kills many Iraqis."

Q: You say that Iraq is now the central focus of al Qaeda's worldwide effort. Are you saying that al Qaeda in Iraq is now the sort of principal enemy of the U.S. forces stationed there?

A: I think it is probably public enemy number one.

Q (Off mike.) What would be the -- in your assessment as a military man, what would be the consequences on the ground in Baghdad if the United States was to pull back from its security mission in the capital by the fall, withdraw its forces, say, to the forward- operating bases in the capital and maybe withdraw from Iraq by the summer of '08? I'm not asking you about congressional legislation, about timelines. I'm asking you for your military assessment of the effects on the ground if the U.S. were to end its security mission in Baghdad in the fall, in terms of insurgent activity, the vulnerability of the population and sectarian violence.

GEN. PETRAEUS: I have, as you know, in fact tried to stay clear of the political minefields of various legislative proposals and so forth...

My sense is that there would be an increase in sectarian violence, a resumption of sectarian violence, were the presence of our forces and Iraqi forces at that time to be reduced and not to be doing what it is that they are doing right now.

Q (Off mike) -- progress are less than obvious to a person in the United States, much less Iraq or Europe. Is it possible that these things could improve while spectacular bombing attacks still occur in parallel?

GEN. PETRAEUS: Well, I think first of all -- look, I think you have to be realistic and acknowledge there is going to be a continuation of some level of sensational attacks. In an environment where to prevent those, you know, the Iraqi and coalition forces have to protect everything and they only have to attack one thing, some of that is going to happen.

...And actually, to be fair to the Iraqis, I mean they're an exceedingly resilient people. I actually the other night was talking to one of your colleagues from The Washington Post and talked about this idea that there is -- you know, we feel this incremental progress; it's very difficult to demonstrate. In fact, the progress is interesting, because it's a negative. It means nothing happened, in most cases. In other words, there were not sectarian murders. Whether that is newsworthy before it goes on for several weeks is obviously arguable.

But anyway, so what I asked was, "Hey, come on, it's about dusk, let's go -- we'll fly around the city a little bit." And we flew around. And so -- I mean, it was unbelievable.

This is a day in which I think there was a car bomb in Iraq, some of Iraq’s seven million citizens were affected by that, but you could not have told that from what we saw over the city. There were three big amusement parks operational. I'm talking about, you know, roller coaster kinds of -- these are not just a couple little merry-go-rounds in small neighborhood parks. Restaurants in some parts of the city were booming. Lots of markets were open. The people were on the street. There were -- there had to be a thousand soccer games ongoing. They're watering the grass in various professional soccer fields -- the soccer leagues.

You know, all of this is actually so foreign, I think, in the mind of most people who see the news and of course do see that day's explosion or something like that. And actually there is a city of seven million in which life goes on, and again, citizens are determined to carry on with their life.

Written transcript here.

Key excerpts below.

Re: Ware Again

We'll see how much attention this gets.

My guess, not as much as an earlier statement.

"To suggest that there's any neighborhood in this city where an American can walk freely is beyond ludicrous. I'd love Senator McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is and he and I can go for a stroll."

Of course, people take notes of the domestic politics back in D.C., in the United States...

People are still dying in the dozens every single day...

Do you think anyone enduring that is paying attention to artificial deadlines that are going to get vetoed by the president? And even if they were to pass through the legislative process, would only serve al Qaeda and Iran, America's enemies? No. People are focusing on the near game, Wolf.

Ignoratti

Defined:

You see. It's not the president's policy Democrats aren't supporting, it's General Petraeus' policy!

This is something we've seen for months now and it really rankles. It's a weird way of turning civil-military relations on its head, and then kind of spinning it around. Petraeus is a general. He's supposed to follow orders from the country's civilian leadership. If Bush outlines a policy, Petraeus is supposed to carry it out. The fact that Petraeus is backing it, however, doesn't then become an additional reason for further elements of the national political leadership to also back it.

(I knew that when I saw the word "nukuler" on page 5.)

And I suppose it's Karl Rove and Dick Cheney who are Petraeus' real advisors, not these guys.

The Surge, From Mike Yon

In his press conference this morning, General Petraeus spotlighted one indicator of success with the new "surge" plan-- the increased presence of forces in new Combat Outposts throughout Baghdad, and the "increased operational tempo" are beginning to produce significant results, specifically, a 2/3rds reduction in sectarian murders in the city.

Desires of the Human Hearts is a two part photo essay that gives a detailed look at how Coalition soldiers are accomplishing these results.

In the face of daunting odds and clear obstacles, the soldiers from the I-4 Cavalry out of Ft Riley Kansas (some of whom are depicted in the attached photos) begin the process of transforming an abandoned but barely disturbed Christian College facility into COP Amanche, their home base for the foreseeable future. In a three day span, where they barely rest, the soldiers stay focused on their mission and do not miss any opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to returning some sense of security and normalcy to the neighborhood.

Idiot of the Year

via Senator Obama's Website

We are one signature away from ending the Iraq War.

Whose signature might that be Senator...the signature of Ansar Al Sunna, Jaish Al Mehdi, 1920's Revolutions Brigades, Islamic Army of Iraq, Hamas of Iraq, Al Quuds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Council, The Islamic State of Iraq????

Quite honestly sir....the level of your ignorance is beyond the pale.

Update: Michael Ware of CNN has a somewhat similar opinion -via NewsBusters

if U.S. troops leave now, you’re giving Iraq to Iran, a member of President Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil,’ and al Qaeda. That’s who will own it. And so, coming back now, I’m struck by the nature of the debate on Capitol Hill, how delusional it is.

Reality Lag

Fred Kagan (A pretty smart guy...even if I don't agree with everything he says) observes here

I’ve been struck by the degree to which the debate in this town, in Washington, seems to be lagging behind reality in Iraq. And one would hope that with the briefings that the Congress is getting from General Petraeus and others, that we would start to catch up and realize that the world is different from the way it was in November, 2006. We’ll see.

If You missed...

...the live stream of General Petraeus' briefing on Iraq, there will be an encore at 1500 (3PM) eastern time.

Another Re: New Perspectives

A while back I mentioned this in a comment here responding to the "US abandoned Afghanistan for Iraq" talking point:

By the way, how would you deal with the influx of fighters to Afghanistan that our withdrawal from Iraq (in both freeing enemy "troops" from the "second front" and the resulting recruiting boon that follows) will encourage? That would be a 'change of dynamics' indeed.

The harsh reality is that once we abandon Iraq we're going to have to put all the newly available troops in Afghanistan. Al Qaeda certainly will, and their recruiting is going to soar. Ultimately we'll lose that one, too, because they won't quit knowing full well that we will.

At least, in America:

“If America pulls out of Iraq, they will fail in Afghanistan,” Mam Rostam said.

Hardly anyone in Congress seems to consider that the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan might become much more severe if similar tactics are proven effective in Iraq.

But I base my expectations on knowledge of the enemy. Here's Osama bin Laden, in his own words:

After our victory in Afghanistan and the defeat of the oppressors who had killed millions of Muslims, the legend about the invincibility of the superpowers vanished. Our boys no longer viewed America as a superpower. So, when they left Afghanistan, they went to Somalia and prepared themselves carefully for a long war.
<...>
America assumed the titles of world leader and master of the new world order. After a few blows, it forgot all about those titles and rushed out of Somalia in shame and disgrace, dragging the bodies of its soldiers.
<...>
Where was this false courage of yours when the explosion in Beirut took place on 1983 AD (1403 A.H). You were turned into scattered pits and pieces at that time; 241 mainly marines solders were killed. And where was this courage of yours when two explosions made you to leave Aden in lees than twenty four hours!

But your most disgraceful case was in Somalia; where- after vigorous propaganda about the power of the USA and its post cold war leadership of the new world order- you moved tens of thousands of international force, including twenty eight thousands American solders into Somalia. However, when tens of your solders were killed in minor battles and one American Pilot was dragged in the streets of Mogadishu you left the area carrying disappointment, humiliation, defeat and your dead with you. Clinton appeared in front of the whole world threatening and promising revenge , but these threats were merely a preparation for withdrawal. You have been disgraced by Allah and you withdrew; the extent of your impotence and weaknesses became very clear. It was a pleasure for the "heart" of every Muslim and a remedy to the "chests" of believing nations to see you defeated in the three Islamic cities of Beirut , Aden and Mogadishu...

In short, a flow of mujahadeen no longer restrained by any previous doubts of their own righteousness, our weakness, or their ultimate victory.

The Old 80/20 Rule

Back to that Harry Reid sound bite:

BASH: The phrase "the war is lost" really touched a nerve.

Do you stand by that -- that -- that comment?

REID: General Petraeus has said that only 20 percent of the war can be won militarily. He's the man on the ground there now. He said 80 percent of the war has to be won diplomatically, economically and politically. I agree with General Petraeus.
<...>
General -- General Petraeus has said the war cannot be won militarily. He said that.

So I looked it up.

Short answer for the time challenged: It was Petraeus on an obscure radio interview answering a question from a guy who quoted this guy:

"General Chang Ting-chen of Mao Zedong’s central committee once stated that revolutionary war was 80 percent political action and only 20 percent military."

Re: New Perspectives

Their failure to consider the effects of "running away" isn't new as I attempted to point out here, which concludes:

The Law of Unintended Consequences will surely come into play if we abandon the world to al Qaeda thugs, just as it did when we abandoned South Vietnam to North Vietnamese thugs. Only this time, it has the potential to be much, much worse.

New Perspectives

I've been away from home for most of a month now, but I finally had some access to high speed and a little time to do some updating over at Some Soldier's Mom (even a brief update on my son Noah). In addition to updating and adding some perspectives on the Future of Military/Veterans Health Care, I've included the following personal observation on Harry Reid's and other politicians' assertion that the violence in Iraq is not our problem and we need to go home:

Reid and the Dems' constant call to withdraw our military because it's a civil war in Iraq and we can't fix that with the military, doesn't have anything to do with "supporting our troops" -- I realized that Reid and the Dems KNOW that millions of Iraqis will most likely die in the violence likely to ensue if we leave -- and they don't care. THEY ARE TELLING THE WORLD THAT THEY DO NOT CARE WHETHER MILLIONS OF INNOCENT IRAQIS DIE -- SO LONG AS THEY "WIN" THE POLITICAL POINT. How absolutely repulsive is that? That democracy and "world peace" is only for Reid's white man's world... that "world peace" is only world peace if the Democrats say so and on their terms. They are willing to let MILLIONS of Iraqis die for political hay.

Voting in Ignorance

via Politco

When asked what troops were doing in Iraq, Harkin(ed Senator) said: "That is a good question. I don't know what they're engaged in, what they are trying to do.

Don't you think you should know what you are voting for or against Senator???

Afghan Nationals Step Up?

Bad news bears for the Taliban:

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Afghan forces have trapped up to 200 Taliban fighters in a southern village, possibly including the militia's military commander, demanding they surrender or come under attack, Afghan officials said Monday.

Afghan police and government officials said the suspected Taliban fighters were surrounded as they gathered for a meeting in the mountain village of Keshay in Uruzgan province on Saturday.

Provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Qasim Khan said NATO troops were also involved in the siege, but NATO spokeswoman Lt. Col. Angela Billings said she had no such information.

Uh ohs! Communication breakdown? Was NATO there or not? And when I say "NATO," I mean member states that are actually fighting. Like Canada.

I'm hoping no. Would be nice to see the Afghan national Army pulling off an op of such....large-itude.

Hotel Tango: Worldwide Standard Blog

Cool Water

A refreshing little tale about some National Guard troops saving lives found here.

Title borowed from an old Sons Of The Pioneers song:

All day I face the barren waste without the taste of water,
Cool water.
Old Dan and I with throats burned dry and souls that cry for water,
Cool water.

The night are cool and I'm a fool each stars a pool of water,
Cool water.
But with the dawn I'll wake and yawn and carry on to water,
Cool water.

On Point

This clip from CNN International (yes, it has been on CNN in the U.S., too) could hardly be called a "morale booster"

"We've talked at length, my soldiers and myself, and a term that comes up often is, 'this is our generation's Vietnam.' I don't think this can be won."

That's a tough assessment to hear - but it's also not an isolated opinion, and it should be heard.

To respond I would need to know what "Vietnam" means to SSG Pierre. I'm not taking the easy way out here - I'm being fair and not assigning my meaning to him. Military members have almost as many opinions on Vietnam as the general public. A couple simplified points most would agree on are "a lot of people killed" and "a war lost in Washington".

Does SSG Pierre agree? I don't know. If I were the interviewer I would have asked. But if he did, that question and it's answer didn't make the final cut for this video clip.

Leaving a sound bite that "anti-war" blogs can celebrate - as long as they ignore SSG Pierre's dire warning:

CNN: He fears the United States will leave this country worse than it found it, leaving a slaughter behind it.

St Pierre: We are the buffer right now. When you pull us out the people that support us are going to feel the wrath, and the people that were against us - and they're the majority - they're gonna, I believe ultimately win. That's unfortunate.

CNN: It is one soldier's view, from the evidence of his eyes.

St. Pierre recognizes that U.S. forces are the "buffer" in this civil war, and that a withdrawal of American troops will lead that majority who is against us to win.

But back to Daily Kos:

But, as Sargent points out, St. Pierre is echoing what Harry Reid said in recent weeks.

Let's close with a thought from a commenter at Kos ("the reality based community"):

"I'm just desperately hopeful that it turns out to be the beginning of the end of MSM passivity on Iraq."

Penalties for Non-compliance

Just a reminder for everyone, North Korea is now 11 days past the agreed upon deadline to shut down their nuclear reactor, anyone surprised? Since North Korea has once again failed to live up to their end of an agreement what penalties have they faced for this? Well not much. First of all the US agreed to give them back $25 million dollars worth of frozen funds in a Macao bank that were linked to the counterfeiting of US currency. The funds were given back to them for a "pledge" from the North Koreans to use the money for humanitarian purposes. Yeah right.

Secondly, the South Koreans went and handed over $400,000 worth of cash in a suitcase to the North Koreans to use to supposedly buy computers. Sure they will. Then to top it of 400,000 tons of rice aid was sent to North Korea despite their failure to meet the nuclear deadline. Additionally the slave labor park in Kaesong is still being allowed to operate in violation of a UN resolution.

If these are the penalties for non-compliance I would hate to see what the rewards will be.

End Censorship!

Free the Aussie MilBloggers!

(What better way to celebrate Anzac Day?)

Re:Stupefying

An insurgency can only be won by the following actions
A) Addressing the Legitamate Concerns of the People
B) Imprisoning or killing the rest

An insurgency can only lost by -
A) Failing to address the concerns of the people
B) Failing to kill or imprison those whose concerns can not be addressed
C) Quiting

The military can only address issue B....politico's have to deal with option A.

Of course...DUMBASS Harry Reid....with ZERO understanding of Middle East culture...chooses C....

But hey...those NBC suits you all wore in 2003...will come in handy in 2013...CNN will get the ratings they so rightly desever... as a NUKE goes off over your heads of advancing American troops.

Thats the real problem....CNN didn't get the footage they were looking for.....it isn't that there were no WMD...it was that that COKED UP ASSHATS at CNN don't have footage of 10's of thousands of US troops being evaporated in a nuclear blast.

Stupefying (Addendum)

Here's one reason Reid cites for failure:

They've even moved up in the Kurdish area now. Have tremendous explosions up there, killing two dozen people today.

But I've looked for news of the event he cites and can't find it. I found a story of a Kurdish political party hit by a suicide bomber in Mosul, and another about a religious sect having 23 members killed (this doesn't seem war-related) but I can't find any story of a bombing attack on April 23rd (give or take a day for time differences) in the Kurdish regions. (Mosul - "the capital city of the predominantly Sunni province of Nineveh" ain't there...)

Help me prove that Reid knows what the hell he's talking about - otherwise people are going to think he's clueless.

Just because I can't find something doesn't mean you can't. Find that story - leave a link in the comments. Let's get Reid at least that one tiny shred of credibility a man in his position should have. We're Americans, damn it, and this man is our Senate Majority Leader, and we can't leave him to look like a complete buffoon.

UPDATE:

Patrick Lasswell writes:

Senator Reid is incorrect, the Yezhidy Kurds who were killed were pulled off a bus in Mosul. This bit of violence was a retaliation killing for a really stupid stoning death of a Yezhidy girl who ran off with a Muslim boy.

I like the Yezhidy and they are my friends, but they screwed the pooch on this, overreacting on this instance. For referance, the Yezhidy are endogamous, they only marry their own, so running off with people from another religion is a big deal. This does not excuse the stoning death, but does give context.

Taking 23 Yezhidy off of a bus and shooting them in retaliation is just unhinged violence.

This sort of thing happens all over the Middle East and it is screwed up, but it has nothing to do with the insurgency. This is just old-fashioned religious intolerance that happened to occur in Mosul.

As for Senator Reid's assertion that this happened in Kurdistan, he's out of his mind. The distance from Mosul to the Kurdish region is nothing. It's funny, I've been minutes away from Mosul and perfectly safe looking at it. This is not something I've troubled my wife with.

For more information from the Kurds: http://www.thekurdistani.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2958

Stupefying

Ladies and gentlemen, the United States Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid:

BASH: The phrase "the war is lost" really touched a nerve.

Do you stand by that -- that -- that comment?

REID: General Petraeus has said that only 20 percent of the war can be won militarily. He's the man on the ground there now. He said 80 percent of the war has to be won diplomatically, economically and politically. I agree with General Petraeus.

Now, that is clear and I certainly believe that.

BASH: But, sir, General Petraeus has not said the war is lost.

I just want to ask you again...

REID: General -- General Petraeus has said the war cannot be won militarily. He said that.
<...>
BASH: Is there something to that, an 18- and 19-year-old person in the service in Iraq who is serving, risking their lives, in some cases losing their life, hearing somebody like you back in Washington saying that they're fighting for a lost cause?

REID: General Petraeus has told them that.

BASH: How has he said that?

REID: He said the war can't be won militarily. He said that. I mean he said it. He's the commander on the ground there.

BASH: But, sir, there's a difference...

REID: Are they critical of him?

BASH: ... between that and saying the war is lost, don't you think?

REID: Well, I -- as I said, maybe it's a choice of words. I mean General Petraeus has said the war cannot be won militarily.

Doesn't every soldier going there know that he's said that?

I think so.
<...>
BASH: He also said that General Petraeus is going to come to the Hill and make it clear to you that there is progress going on in Iraq, that the so-called surge is working. Will you believe him when he says that?

REID: No, I don't believe him, because it's not happening.

I'm reminded of an event from 2nd grade:

Marketing 101

via DefenseLink

A spate of suicide bombings targeting residents of the city of Khowst and other areas in Afghanistan have turned Afghans against the Taliban, Army Col. Martin Schweitzer, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, said during a satellite-carried news conference.

I may be a country bumpkin...but blowing your potential constiuents to bits is probably a less than effective campaign technique. These AlQueda types might also want to do a bit of consumer research to determine if anyone actually wants to buy what they are selling...seems to me...anyone who gets a 'taste' of the AlQueda lifestyle finds it to tastes somewhat less appealing than camel dung.

COIN: The Gravity Well

Over at BlackFive, I posted a model for understanding COIN Theory.

This came out of a discussion with a fellow at PACOM who was trying to explain all the various systems analysis/emergent theory/organic models that various genuises have come up with over the last few years. I think it captures what each of these has to say, but puts it into a single metaphor that you can visualize. That's what he needed, and it's probably useful for the rest of us also.

The Story of Jessica Lynch

OPFOR's distinguished guest-blogger, Richard S. Lowry, does a little debunking in the Weekly Standard:

TODAY, THE HOUSE Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chaired by Henry Waxman (D-CA) conducted a hearing into "misleading military statements" that followed the death of Pat Tillman and the ordeal of Jessica Lynch. I cannot speak of the Pat Tillman incident, but I can speak to the story of Jessica Lynch.

I spent more than two years of my life studying the battle of An Nasiriyah. I read thousands of pages of government reports and personally interviewed nearly one-hundred of the participants of the battle, including four survivors of the 507th Maintenance Company's ambush, several Marines who came upon the scene of the ambush, a young Marine who worked in the regimental intelligence shop and was responsible for the safekeeping of Jessica's personal effects, and several of the soldiers, sailors, and Marines who were actually involved in her rescue. The results of my research were published last year in Marines in the Garden of Eden.

Following her rescue, unsubstantiated reports abounded, the media made a variety of assertions: Jessica Lynch was a pretty teenage girl who had been subjected to the ravages of an unjust war. She had been sent into battle with inadequate equipment and protection. After taking a wrong turn, Iraqis feigning surrender had ambushed her unit. Yet, she bravely fought off the enemy until she could resist no longer. Because of the incompetence of the leadership in Washington, D.C., she had been taken prisoner by evil Iraqis who did unspeakable things to her.

This was the type of story that had "legs." Every news producer in America salivated when they read the first copy. They knew that their ratings would skyrocket when the story of this fragile American girl was told. This was the type of story that would go down in history.

There was only one problem--most of the story wasn't true.

Read it all.

A New Direction or DejaVu

via NY Times

“On Iraq, the American people want a new direction, and we are providing it,” said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington

MURTHA: Well, the Marines in Okinawa -- remember in Somalia

Hundreds of people have died in the week of artillery duels and gun battles between allied Somali-Ethiopian forces and rebels frustrating the government's bid to restore central rule in the Horn of Africa country for the first time in 16 years.

Senator Murray - Somehow I doubt the American people want to create another Somalia...of course there is someone who would like another SomaliaParagraph #274 9/11 Commission Report

In August 1996, Bin Ladin had issued his own self-styled fatwa calling on Muslims to drive American soldiers out of Saudi Arabia...... It praised the 1983 suicide bombing in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. Marines, the 1992 bombing in Aden, and especially the 1993 firefight in Somalia after which the United States “left the area carrying disappointment, humiliation, defeat and your dead with you

Another Soldier speaks out from Iraq

...at Op For.

Update:

And another

And another

And another

And another

And another

And another

And another...

And damned if it doesn't seem like my first post from my first trip to Iraq is still valid today. (Back then, the talking points were that we had lost, and that there was no way we could hold elections in Iraq.)

Meet Kelly Bruno

Off the war topic: Meet Kelly Bruno.

The Ranger Up guys (and girls) rock.

More Begging in Washington

From The Hill:

President of Iraqi relief organization calls on Dems to rethink withdrawals

The president of the Iraqi Red Crescent, the only relief organization operating in Iraq, is calling on the Democratic-led Congress to rethink its troop withdrawal strategy and recognize that Iraq suffers from a worsening humanitarian crisis.
<...>
In Washington for a series of advocacy meetings in Congress, Said Hakki, the president of the Iraqi Red Crescent, expressed concern that by setting a withdrawal timetable, the U.S. would abandon Iraq at the height of a humanitarian crisis.

“It is important that Congress identifies that there is a humanitarian crisis in Iraq,” Hakki said in an interview with The Hill. “If they agree there’s a crisis, let’s not have America be a problem but the solution.”

The Iraqi Red Crescent Society or Organization, as it is often referred to, is an auxiliary arm of the Iraqi government and is a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Insisting that he is not a politician, Hakki — a U.S. citizen who spends most of his time in Iraq’s red zones — is pushing for a time-out in what he calls the “partisan squabble” over the U.S. troop withdrawal timetable.

“Let’s not talk about differences, but about what we can agree upon,” Hakki said. If Congress agrees that there is a humanitarian crisis, he asked, “is it justified to set a timetable and leave all those people in a dire position, worse than they were [before 2003]?”

Re: Lynch-ing

Well said, Chap. And a good point from Legion in the comments, too.

Stories of real heroism have been lost in the hype of the Lynch story and the Cindy Sheehan story. (We should note that in Pvt Lynch's case this is through no fault or action of her own.)

Casey Sheehan's story here.

Here's a name most people haven't heard either:

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester fought her way through an enemy ambush south of Baghdad, killing three insurgents with her M-4 rifle to save fellow soldiers' lives -- and yesterday became the first woman since World War II to win the Silver Star medal for valor in combat.

The 23-year-old retail store manager from Bowling Green, Ky., won the award for skillfully leading her team of military police soldiers in a counterattack after about 50 insurgents ambushed a supply convoy they were guarding near Salman Pak on March 20.

Suicide Squad Wanted

Anyone who believes the Democrats have a workable plan for Iraq should probably read the fine print on their surrender bill:

Negotiators Agree on War-Funding Package

House-Senate Bill, Which Sets Timetable for Troop Withdrawal, Likely to Face Veto

House and Senate negotiators reached agreement yesterday on war-funding legislation that would begin bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq as early as July, setting a goal of ending U.S. combat operations by no later than March.
<...>
After combat forces are withdrawn, some troops could remain to protect U.S. facilities and diplomats, pursue terrorist organizations and train and equip Iraqi security forces.

No details as to how few troops would be left to perform this mission - or how the lucky bastards would be chosen.

(But I'll bet Harry Reid knows a bunch from Nevada he'd like to offer...)

Harry Reid, Please Phone Home

As Harry Reid declares the effort "lost", soldier's in his home state are preparing for Iraq :

Las Vegas reserves disagree with Reid

"We're not losing this war."

That's how a Las Vegas Army Reserve sergeant and Iraq war veteran who is heading out again for Operation Iraqi Freedom reacted Friday to Nevada Sen. Harry Reid's assessment that the war in Iraq is "lost."

"I don't believe the war is lost," Sgt. George Turkovich, 24, said as he stood with other soldiers near a shipping container that had been packed for their deployment to Kuwait.

The soldiers leave today for a six-week training stint at Camp Atterbury, Ind., before heading overseas to run a camp in support of the war effort. It is uncertain if their yearlong tour will take them to Iraq.

"Unfortunately, politics has taken a huge role in this war affecting our rules of engagement," said Turkovich, a 2001 Palo Verde High School graduate. "This is a guerrilla war that we're fighting, and they're going to tie our hands.

"So it does make it a lot harder for us to fight the enemy, but we're not losing this war," he said.

For the most part, the 50-plus soldiers from a detachment of the Army Reserve's 314th Combat Service Support Battalion expressed similar views about Reid's war-is-lost comments this week. They respectfully disagreed with the Democrat.

All volunteers, they were upbeat and excited about the deployment. Some said they were nervous and were trying not to dwell on leaving their families for a year.

Spc. Marvin Castillo, 31, said he hoped to be back next year in time for his son's second birthday in June.

"It's very hard," he said. "The best thing to do is not think about it."

Pfc. Joshua Nance, 18, said he feels Las Vegas supports the troops going to Iraq. "As far as everybody I've ever run into, yes, they support us. Absolutely."
<...>
While the soldiers discussed their views on the war at the Army Reserve facility on East Sahara Avenue, Reid, the senate majority leader, delivered a speech on the Senate floor, responding to criticism from Bush.

"The partisans who launched attacks on my comments are the same ones who continue to support a failed strategy that hurts our troops," Reid said.

Related:

Once again - Scott Ott satire becomes reality.

If you're an active duty troop, now might be a good time to sign the Appeal for Courage.

Michelle Malkin has been collecting responses from the troops.

Several milbloggers have responded from Iraq, too - you'll find them here and here.

And I'll be there soon enough myself. Will keep you posted.

Re: Lynch-ing

I'm seeing in some of the comments a little more bad intent assumed for the PVT Lynch story than perhaps is warranted. One of the primary reasons this story went down the way it did back in '03 was the heroism of SGT Donald Walters.

Initial reports are always wrong and always believed. In this case, as is apparently customary, information was leaked to the press--but the spectacular fighting and untimely death of SGT Walters (who was captured, fought as a wounded lion, and finally shot in the back) got the wrong attribution initially. At that point the "attractive blonde in trouble" alarm, which forces all networks to change their programming exclusively to the ABiT until the next one comes along, went off.

Please remember SGT Walters, a cook in a convoy who did what he should not have had to do.

The sick, smarmy bias of the AP

In case you didn't know, the latest causalities from Iraq came through the wire.

Nine U.S. soldiers were killed and 20 wounded Monday in a suicide car bombing against a patrol base northeast of the capital in Diyala province, a volatile area that has been the site of fierce fighting, the military said.

The attack came on a day when insurgents struck across Iraq, carrying out seven other bombings that killed at least 48 people.

Of the 20 wounded in the attack on Task Force Lightning in Diyala, 15 soldiers were treated and returned to duty while five others were evacuated to a medical facility for further care, the military said. An Iraqi civilian was also wounded.

Identities were not released pending notification of relatives.

Know this, the pictures that go with stories are carefully picked from a broad and deep selection - and approved by an editor. There are few mistakes. In case you missed it, in addition to unrelated pictures taken by stringers of a Iraqi mourner - there is only one picture of an American in the article - U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker. This is a larger picture of the one they chose for him to represent the US side of the death of 9 soldiers.

Disgusting smarmy a55hats at the AP. In case they change it later, here is the screen cap. Why do they think no one will notice? Why do they think it is funny? I think I know why - and it makes me sick.

Cross posted at CDR Salamander.

Re: Lynch-ing

Here's the original story:

Pfc. Jessica Lynch, rescued Tuesday from an Iraqi hospital, fought fiercely and shot several enemy soldiers after Iraqi forces ambushed the Army's 507th Ordnance Maintenance Company, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition, U.S. officials said yesterday.

Lynch, a 19-year-old supply clerk, continued firing at the Iraqis even after she sustained multiple gunshot wounds and watched several other soldiers in her unit die around her in fighting March 23, one official said. The ambush took place after a 507th convoy, supporting the advancing 3rd Infantry Division, took a wrong turn near the southern city of Nasiriyah.

Several officials cautioned that the precise sequence of events is still being determined, and that further information will emerge as Lynch is debriefed. Reports thus far are based on battlefield intelligence, they said, which comes from monitored communications and from Iraqi sources in Nasiriyah whose reliability has yet to be assessed. Pentagon officials said they had heard "rumors" of Lynch's heroics but had no confirmation.

Reminder

Registration for the 2007 MilBlog Conference will close on Friday, April 27. On-site registrations will be not be allowed. Click here to register.

Irans New Protectors

vai Reuters

April 23 (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran would not halt its disputed atomic activities under any circumstances in an interview with Reuters and an Iranian television station on Monday.

Q: ... is Tehran ready to hold direct talks with the United States to resolve those international issues it faces?

A: We have always expressed our readiness for talks ... We are ready to hold talks but under one condition which is the presence of international media and the talks should be broadcast live.

And another Re: Busy Days

Now how to take this analysis to another step?

I linked to milblogger Dave Thul here last week. Vis his blog (Foreign and Domestic) SSG Thul writes from Anbar province. His latest entry is a response to Harry Reid - and a look at progress in Anbar.

He also writes letters to the Minneapolis Star ribune (he's a Minnesota Guardsman - a member of the unit that was extended in Iraq due to the surge).

The second way I know that my fellow soldiers want to stay is that they have been saying so in a petition to Congress. At the AppealForCourage.org website, more than 1,500 service members in less than a month have signed an appeal for redress, the officially authorized method for the military to ask Congress to right a wrong, asking Congress to stop calling for retreat and to support our mission.

He's starting to be noticed - and not just here. Over at NRO, W Thomas Smith wrote about SSG Thul today:

“Obviously Appeal for Courage can’t pretend to speak for all servicemembers, and our experiences can’t cover all of Iraq,” Minnesota National Guard Staff Sgt. Dave Thul, currently serving with the U.S. Army’s 34th Infantry Division, tells NRO. “But with the lieutenant in Baghdad and myself in Al Anbar province, we do have the two most volatile areas of Iraq covered. And what I can tell you from Anbar is that this is no longer the ‘wild west’ the media reported on even just six months ago.”

Thul serves as a committee-member with Appeal for Courage, but his primary duty is convoy escort. He frequently travels the roads from the east end of Al Anbar all the way to the Jordanian and Syrian borders.

“While I can't go into specific intelligence, I can tell you that the number of IEDs — by far our biggest threat — have dropped dramatically in the 12 months I’ve been here,” Thul says from his post in Al Asad, Iraq, just north of Ramadi. “Whereas it was once common to find two or three IEDs everyday by my company alone, we now have entire weeks where we have found none.”

Thul says the “the quality” of the insurgents he and his fellow soldiers have encountered, has dropped. “Where we once encountered IEDs that were well hidden and elaborately constructed, we now find most of the IEDs before they can be detonated against us,” he says. “They are hastily emplaced, poorly if at all camouflaged, and some don’t even detonate.”

Thul is also seeing a much greater Iraqi police presence in Anbar, as well as civilians flagging them down to tell them about weapons caches and suspicious men and activity in the area.

“These are the types of things that just aren't being reported back home,” he says. “But to hear the media and some politicians talking, you'd think the war was already lost and that the entire country is burning.”

If you're active duty - sign the appeal for courage. As I noted before, us military type folks are reluctant to do this sort of thing (and arguably service is enough in iteself - another good reason to say thanks to Dave) but if we remain silent then we won't be heard. (The appeal has already outdrawn the months older, highly funded and well organized astroturf campaign appeal for redress)

And introduce a friend to Dave.

Hearing or Lynch-ing?

Army Times:

Cpl. Pat Tillman’s mother and brother, along with former Pvt. Jessica Lynch, are scheduled to testify Tuesday at a congressional hearing that will focus on the initial and inaccurate reports of Tillman’s friendly fire death in Afghanistan and Lynch’s capture and rescue in Iraq.

“Misleading Information from the Battlefield” will begin at 10 a.m. in Room 2157 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

During the hearing, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will examine why inaccurate accounts of those two incidents were disseminated, the sources and motivations for the accounts, and whether the appropriate officials have been held accountable, according to the committee’s Web site.

"Well now - can you tell us who exactly in the Pentagon told you young Ms Lynch was in a guns-blazing fire fight with the Iraqi hordes?"

"Because I'm not really here - this is just a line of questioning Greyhawk would like to see"

I suspect that at worst, someone in the Army (or the media) is guilty of trying to create a hero in one case, and perhaps trying to protect a hero in the other. Inevitably, those folks fumble when attempting message control - especially when they don't realize that's what they're going to be accused of doing by masters of the art.

Given the near-complete* absense of all those actually involved in this nefarious conspiracy from the hearing room, the inevitable conclusion of these hearings will stand as little more than conspiracy theory, with some delightful sound bites from the "victims" for good measure.

Re: Re: Busy Days

Now how to take this analysis to another step?

RE: Definitions

Ohh so many years ago...I was a bag boy(we fetched Golf bags from the storage room) at Ellington Ridge Country Club.
Joe Lieberman was a member of the club and a junior Lawyer for the Connecticut Department of Consumer protection...chasing down unscrupulous businesses that took unfair advantage of 'the little guy'.
He always walked. ..had a canvas golf bag...if my memory serves me moderately priced MacGregor golf clubs(probably department store rather than pro-shop models), always treated the bagboys with respect and dignity.

Of all the political Wannabee's and self important pompous windbags at the country club(there were many)...Joe wasn't one of them.

How he got to be a US Senator is beyond me...Mensch is right.

A "How We Done It"

A genuine "Golden Oldie" of the war business that sheds light on "achievements of which all Americans can be justly proud, but about which most of them have little or no knowledge."

A link to which can be found here

Re: Crack

People in Baghdad are asking the same questions.

If we look at how the media handles the situation we'll find something like this almost everywhere;

Dozens killed, scores wounded in attacks suggest failure of security measures…

It's as if the speaker here wants to only emphasize the defect in security measures in a way that honestly angers and disgusts me.

When shall they realize, if ever, that we are dealing with brutal crimes against humanity, a genocide against the people of Iraq? Why don't people talk about the cruelty of the crimes and expose the obvious goals of the terrorists behind the crimes?

Isn't it everyone's duty to expose the criminals, describe their sick ways and purposes and alert the world about the danger?

Where are the media when terrorists use chlorine poisonous gas, acids, and ball bearings to kill and hurt more and more civilians in utter disregard to all written and unwritten laws, ethics and values?

I understand it's the duty of the media to practice scrutiny over the work of governments but isn't it equally their duty to expose criminals and their evil deeds?

It's frustrating to see the media turn a blind eye to the nature of the crimes and open fire on an honest endeavor to restore peace to a bleeding nation. I'm sure the terrorists are pleased by the coverage. Why not, when their crimes are being portrayed as successful breakthroughs against the efforts of Iraq and America it's likely motivating them to keep up the killing.

Would it be "hate speech" to expose the terrorists for what they are?

Definitions

Mensch (Yiddish מענטש; also mentsch, mentsh, mensh, or mench)

1. A German noun meaning a "human".

2. A decent responsible person with admirable characteristics.

3. Joe Lieberman:

Senator Lieberman's Statement on Majority Leader Reid's Comment that the Iraq War is "Lost"

WASHINGTON - Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) today made the following statement in response to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's comment that the Iraq War is "lost:"

"This week witnessed horrific terrorist attacks by Islamist extremists in Iraq, killing hundreds of innocent civilians and leading Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to declare that the war is 'lost.'

With all due respect, I strongly disagree. Senator Reid's statement is not based on military facts on the ground in Iraq and does not advance our cause there.

Al Qaeda's strategy for victory in Iraq is clear. They are trying to murder as many innocent civilians as possible in an effort to reignite sectarian fighting and drive us to retreat from Iraq.

The question now before us is whether we respond to these terrorist attacks by running away as Al Qaeda hopes - abandoning the future of Iraq, the Middle East, and ultimately our own security to the very same people responsible for this week's atrocities - or whether we stand united to fight them.

This is exactly the wrong time to conclude that we have lost the war in Iraq, or that our new strategy has failed. Instead, we should provide General Petraeus and his troops with the time and the resources to succeed. We should not surrender in the face of barbarism."

SmokeScreens

via Fox

SCHUMER(ed Dem Senator): OK. Well, what Harry Reid is saying is this war is lost — in other words, a war where we mainly spend our time policing a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis.

We are not going to solve that problem. And we could stay three months or three years, and as soon as we leave, the Sunnis and Shiites, who have had 100-year enmity against one another, would continue shooting.

The war is not lost. And Harry Reid believes this — we Democrats believe it — if we change our mission and focus it more narrowly on counterterrorism, going after an Al Qaida camp that might arise in Iraq. That would take many fewer troops out of harm's way. That's what we're pushing the president to do.

Pretty in Pink

If you're coming to the MilBlog Conference, better bring something pink.

Re: Busy Days

I'm glad you got an Instalanche on that post, Greyhawk. It's a powerful analysis.

Now how to take this analysis to another step?

Something there is that doesn't love a wall

...and not everyone wants to live in a gated community:

CAIRO, Egypt: Iraq's prime minister said Sunday that he has ordered a halt to the U.S. construction of a barrier separating a Sunni enclave from surrounding Shiite areas in Baghdad after fierce criticism over the project at home.

The challenge to the U.S. initiative came as Nouri al-Maliki began a regional tour to shore up support from mostly Sunni Arab nations for his Shiite-dominated government as sectarian violence persists despite a nearly 10-week-old security crackdown.

The U.S. military announced last week that it was building a five kilometer (three mile) long and 3.6 meter (12 foot) tall concrete wall in Azamiyah, a Sunni stronghold in northern Baghdad whose residents have often been the victims of retaliatory mortar attacks by Shiite militants following bombings usually blamed on insurgents.

U.S. and Iraqi officials defended plans for the barrier as an effort to protect the neighborhood, but residents and Sunni leaders complained it was a form of discrimination that would isolate the community and a large protest was scheduled for Monday in the area.

Pacifism and The War

George Orwell - 1942

Pacifism. Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist. This is elementary common sense. If you hamper the war effort of one side you automatically help that of the other. ..... Mr Savage remarks that ‘according to this type of reasoning, a German or Japanese pacifist would be “objectively pro-British”.’ But of course he would be! That is why pacifist activities are not permitted in those countries (in both of them the penalty is, or can be, beheading) while both the Germans and the Japanese do all they can to encourage the spread of pacifism in British and American territories. ....

I would note Iraqi's get their heads lopped off if they speak out against AlQueda...

Busy Days

John Boehner:

Earlier this year, top Democrats in both houses of Congress refused to attend a bipartisan briefing offered by General David Petraeus to discuss the challenges in Iraq. Next week they’ll have another chance when the General comes to Capitol Hill to brief lawmakers in the House and Senate on our progress in the Global War on Terror.

General Petraeus was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate to be the U.S. commander of the Multinational Force in Iraq. He has a clear track record as a straight-shooter and as someone who gets things done. So one has to wonder why next week’s important briefing almost didn’t happen. According to Roll Call, when the Pentagon tried to schedule the briefing through House Democrats they were declined – twice – because Democrats were originally “too busy” to schedule anything.

(Via The Tank)

Update: Additional thoughts here. Short version - Republicans should be careful what they ask for.

War Escalates

via Reuters

XXXXXXX, April 21 (Reuters) - Shells pounded XXXXXX on Saturday, killing at least 73 people to swell a death-toll already in the hundreds from this week's battles between militant Islamists and allied XXXXX and YYYYYYYY troops......The escalating war has also sent more than 321,000 residents -- nearly a third of XXXXXX total population.....

The name of the country isn't Iraq...

The, er, um... Late News of Afghanistan

A little late today - a tea price crisis, cricket, Afghan-Pak fence shooting and the Tagab, all found here.

Oops...they did it again again!!!

vi AP

Yesterday -

Then, in a Web video aired Thursday, the Islamic State in Iraq(ed AlQueda) named a 10-member shadow government "Cabinet" in an apparent bid to present the coalition as an alternative to the U.S.-backed, Shiite-led administration of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

MUQDADIYAH, Iraq (AP) - At least two major insurgent groups are battling al-Qaida in provinces outside Baghdad, American military commanders said Friday, an indication of a deepening rift between Sunni guerrilla groups in Iraq.

First rule of being a guest in someone elses house...don't try to take over the house....

The Faces of Defeatism

Idea stolen from a comment to this Daily Kos entry.

Heh.

Update: How spineless? Austin Bay shows us:

“Now I believe myself . . . that this war is lost, and that the surge is not accomplishing anything, as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday,” said Reid, of Nevada.

But then he carefully squiggles, weaves, and pedals:

“The (Iraq) war can only be won diplomatically, politically and economically, and the president needs to come to that realization,” Reid said.

What a slickee boy. It’s lost, but can only be won, if…Hmmm.
***
It would be refreshing if Reid even had the courage of his defeatist convictions.

Appeasement in our time

Smokng Crack

via The Scotsman

An insurgent coalition yesterday announced an "Islamic Cabinet" for Iraqi as it attempted to provide an alternative to the country's US-backed administration.

I can not believe that anyone living in the FREE WORLD would describe the Islamic State of Iraq as an 'Insurgent Coalition'. What kind of crack are these people smoking...the Islamic State of Iraq will brutally murder anyone who disagrees with them.

Flashpoint

Michael Totten, from Kirkuk. Read it all.

Then read Patrick Lasswell's account, too.

Send a Message

Michelle Malkin:

Active-duty military readers and military bloggers: If you'd like to send a message to the treacherous Harry Reid--who just declared the war in Iraq lost today--e-mail me or leave a trackback. I'll reprint/link them here as they come in.

Eleven, however, is right out.

War Reporting: Most Satisfactory?

LTC Gian P. Gentile writes in the Army Times, via Danger Room:

From my foxhole-view as a tactical battalion commander in western Baghdad in 2006, the American press, although not perfect, has reported the reality of the Iraq war. Contrary to what most believe in the American military, as well as some conservative columnists and a few politicians, the American press does give a reasonably full, fair and balanced picture of what is happening in Iraq…

And during my tour in 2006, I spent about two hours every day reading about Iraq through stories told by reporters from the major national and local newspapers and news services and, at times, watching TV newscasts from the major networks. The stories told by the American press, for the most part, matched what I saw happening on the ground. It was my sense that the embedded reporters who spent time with my unit during 2006 really tried to tell the story of what we saw as our successes…

It is my opinion that the American military’s ongoing condemnation of the American press’s reporting of the Iraq war has more to do with its own mistaken belief that the American media lost the Vietnam War and has less to do with the current reporting on Iraq. I also believe that because the American military fears so deeply the loss of support of the American people over Iraq as an outgrowth of Vietnam it tends, wrongly, to allay these fears by blaming the American press for not reporting enough of its successes in Iraq.

Kris Alexander adds the uber-smmuurrrt Phil Carter's take:

“I served with him on the 4ID [4th infantry division] staff -- he's f**king brilliant,” says Iraq veteran and writer Phil Carter about Lt. Col. Gentile. So I’m guessing if a “f**king brilliant” active-duty battalion commander says something like this, we should pay attention.

Lots of beef to be had with the press over their war reporting. But it never hurts to hear the other side....

Peace Agreements?

via DVIDS

TIKRIT, Iraq – Iraqi security and coalition forces continued operations in Buhriz, Iraq, Monday, clearing the Baqubah neighborhood of terrorist cells responsible for murders, kidnappings and emplacing improvised explosive devices.

The response by four tribes to these operations is a peace agreement in principle to stop antagonistic actions against each others people,” Sutherland added. “The people understand their future is in the stability offered by their ISF and not in the depth of despair offered by terrorists.”

And another Re: Slaughter

Friends, gathered together at this blog we have many individuals with sound background and knowledge of various aspects of things military. That's a strength - and a weakness. A weakness if we assume that others share a degree of background knowledge that in fact they lack.

F'rinstance, when I read something like this:

BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomber killed 12 people outside a Baghdad take-away shop on Thursday, one day after 190 people died in a bombing blitz that brought into question the US-backed security plan for the capital.

Then (sometimes) I realize that the most fundamental, unclassified bits of information I know are not common knowledge, and that though they are often damn well-known to those who raise "the questions", the answers are unknown to the people they are "asking".

That's hardly fair, is it?

So in the interests of fairness, perhaps this will help.

From the Front

Hoping to make good on my promise to link more front-line MilBloggers here.

Read this post from Desert Flier, then this one from Badgers Forward. No excerpts, no explanations - just go.

(Thanks again to the Mrs, who has many more.)

Re:Re Slaugther

via Understanding Islam

Even though Ismael was Abraham's first son, God chose to fulfill His covenant through Isaac, his younger son. All the future prophets of God and the Messiah would appear only from the lineage of Isaac, the chosen son of Abraham, without any exception.

In favour of Sara and her son Isaac, agar and Ismael were expelled from the household of Abraham and consequently, from the heritage and lineage of the decendants of Isaac (Genesis: 21,10). The Arabian nations (the desert dwellers) are descendants of Ismael but not of Isaac. So, on that day, a great division was born between the children of Ismael and the children of Isaac and the Messiah.

Re: Chap's Re: Transition

General Sheehan had a real opportunity for his opinion to matter, turned it down, then promptly wrote an opinion piece for a newspaper.

It appears he's chosen the arena in which he feels most comfortable, and it ain't Teddy Roosevelt's.

Re: Slaughter

With 60% of the surge troops in place, do you think al Qaeda feels a sense of urgency? They can't stop the surge, but I do believe they believe they can get others to do so.

Almost 200 hundred dead in Baghdad. This isn't "sectarian violence" - though it may ignite that fuse. Given recent developments, these attacks were the work of al Qaeda and any groups with wich they remain allied. But it does stand (as the media describes it and as the attackers intended) as one of the bloodiest days of the war - certainly since the March 24 attacks.

Some might claim the March 24 attacks were timed so the news would coincide with that of the House vote on the Iraq Withdrawal Bill. Some might notice that this week's attacks coincide with the return of congress from Spring Break, with the Iraq Bill once again foremost on the agenda.

No doubt that's just coincidental. (Likewise, predictable.)

RE: TRANSITION THE MISSION

Gard? Bob Gard? That bucket of FOD? He is beyond pale. I put him on my "Wall of Shame" back in AUG 04. He has a history of doing things such as...

- Wanting to be nice to Milosevic and admit that we are bad for doing what we did in Kosovo (the poorly run campaign is a valid argument, just General Gard is off center in his analysis).
- Hanging out with Senator Harkin about landmines.
- Second guessing our pilots in Iraq and calling them murderers.
- Accusing the US on not giving a damn about civilian casualties (that’s right General, we paint dead babies on our aircraft).
- Investing time with the poorly named wingnuts in the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation as their “Senior Military Advisor”.
- Chilling with the guys at anti-Iraq Veterans for Common Sense

If you have any questions about the quality of the Democrat's Generals - just read up on Gard. He has been the Left's "House General" for quite awhile.

Re: Transition The Mission

'Hawk,

Did you see Gerd Schroeder's polemic about a similar subject? He's pretty angry about it.

Iran and the Taliban

Andy McCarthy at NRO tips us off to a NY Times article, reporting a recent seizure of an Iranian arms shipment to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

In further commentary, McCarthy highlights a Thomas Joscelyn piece from a year ago that explored earlier evidence of Iranian cooperation with the Taliban:

Tom Joscelyn wrote this Weekly Standard piece a year ago about a high-ranking Taliban detainee at Gitmo who has acknowledged providing security for a meeting between Taliban leaders and Iranian officials in the weeks after 9/11, during which Iran pledged to help the Taliban in its war against the U.S. As Tom details, there is great reason to believe Iran has made good on this pledge — including by letting Taliban and Qaeda fighters escape into Iran after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in October 2001.

Conventional wisdom from foreign affairs analysts and intelligence community types, of course, is that Iran despises the Taliban and, consequently, is likely to be “even more” helpful to us in Afghanistan than the Iraq Study Group farcically assumes it could be in Iraq. Maybe we should reassess, no?

(More commentary and excerpts over at Dadmanly.)

Guard Equipment Shortfalls

The Chief of the National Guard Bureau (NGB), Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, urges Congressional appropriators to increase Guard funding to close equipment shortfalls, as reported at Military.com.

While LGEN Blum acknowledges that Guard soldiers deployed overseas are “superbly equipped and superbly trained ... and we want for nothing,” Guard units confront serious equipment shortages back home. From Military.com:

"The National Guard today, I am sad to say, is not a fully ready force," the general said. "Unresourced shortfalls still exist that approach $40 billion to provide the equipment and the training that I personally feel your Army and Air National Guard are expected to have to be able to respond to the citizens of the United States."

I doubt any readers here will need any primer in the basis for these criticisms, but just in case. When we first invaded Iraq in 2003, there were certainly units (in isolated cases) that had to convoy into Iraq whose unit vehicles were inadequately armored. (In many more cases, unit commanders and motor maintenance performed aggressive vehicle retrofits to enhance their defensive capabilities against improvised explosive devices (IED). No doubt, many were unsuccessful or less conscientious, but that can be attributed to a lack of command attention and diligence in preparing for their mission.

I know, because our Motor Mechanics up-armored over twenty vehicles, which allowed our Battalion to execute a “Ground Assault Convoy” (GAC) the 600 odd miles from Kuwait to our base in Tikrit. Units prepare for their duty in Iraq in staging areas in Kuwait, and motor pool advisors and support units in Kuwait supplied units with specially designed kits to up-armor their vehicles. Hence the disparaging nickname, “hillbilly armor.”

I’m not going to argue – here – about the wisdom of ground-convoying a Military Intelligence (MI) unit into Tikrit. Admittedly, our up-armored HUMVEES were not as well-protected as the factory-armored HUMVEES we fell on (left behind by the 1st ID unit we replaced, who themselves inherited said vehicles from the 4th ID). But they were good enough, and would have significantly decreased casualties from an IED.

Re: Transition

On April 18, 2007, Iraqi authorities assumed responsibility for maintaining the security of Maysan Province in southeastern Iraq. The transfer, known as Provincial Iraqi Control, was directed by the Iraqi Ministerial Committee on National Security.

Maysan is the fourth (of eighteen) Iraqi provinces where security control is now in the hands of Iraqis, with Coalition forces standing ready to provide assistance if needed. In a ceremony on July 13, 2006, Muthanna province was the first to transfer. The second province to transition was Dhi Qar in September, followed by Najaf in December.

More Slaughter

via AFP

BAGHDAD (AFP) - An avalanche of car bomb attacks on Shiite districts of Baghdad slaughtered 160 people on Wednesday and delivered a savage blow to the credibility of two-month-old US security plan.

The terrorists were less than content to have this be the main Iraq story of the day.

AMARA, Iraq, April 18 (Reuters) - Iraq plans to take security control of all its provinces from foreign forces by the end of the year, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a speech read out by a senior official on Wednesday.

Transition the Mission!

AKA "Re: the further politicization of the military"

Last year the Democrat's favorite retired generals had two goals: get rid of Don Rumsfeld, and get more troops into Iraq:

Batiste and two other retired officers spoke before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, a rump group with little legislative clout but access to a proper Senate hearing room. And Batiste made up for lost time.

"Donald Rumsfeld is not a competent wartime leader," said Batiste, wearing a pinstripe suit, calling himself a "lifelong Republican" and bearing a slight resemblance to Oliver North. "He surrounds himself with like-minded and compliant subordinates who do not grasp the importance of the principles of war, the complexities of Iraq or the human dimension of warfare. . . . Bottom line: His plan allowed the insurgency to take root and metastasize to where it is today."
<...>
Batiste and his colleagues offered their solution: more troops, more money and more time in Iraq.

"We must mobilize our country for a protracted challenge," Batiste warned.

"We better be planning for at least a minimum of a decade or longer," contributed retired Marine Col. Thomas Hammes.

"We are, conservatively, 60,000 soldiers short," added retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who was in charge of building the Iraqi Security Forces.

Flanked by two former Army retired generals Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) blasted President Bush for “clinging to a failed escalation strategy” in Iraq and “failing our troops and our country.”

One general went so far as to say that active duty military officers were being used as “props” by the Bush Administration.

Reid is scheduled to meet with the White House this week to negotiate the Iraq supplemental spending bill Congress passed before Easter recess that contains a timetable for withdrawal. President Bush has vowed to veto any bill that would cut funding for the troops or dictate a withdrawal date, but Reid said “the President is not going to get a bill that has nothing on it.”

With a banner behind them that said “Support the Troops” and “Transition the Mission” Reid stood with Ret. Lt. Gen. Robert Gard and Ret. Brig. Gen. John Johns and said that the surge should be abandoned.
<...>
Gen. Johns said active service military officers, like Gen. Petraeus, were being used as “props” by the administration. “The American people need to be told the truth. The only reason I speak out as a retired officer is the President, as all Presidents do, use the active duty military as props to make it appear that the military is united behind his policy.”

Speaking of props, let's give props to the Dems for flexibility, message control (did you know those retired generals were calling for a troop surge?) and the capability to reduce any national security position to a bumper sticker.

MilBlog Conference Stuff

Due to catering orders, etc., we're going to cut off registration for the 2007 MilBlog Conference at midnight on April 27. All registrations must be made in advance, on-site registration will not be available. If you've been sitting on the fence and haven't registered, better hurry.

For potential sponsors, we still have a few packages available. Programs and signage are going to print on Monday, so if you want to purchase a sponsorship, the clock is ticking.

Matt's getting ready, he's already rallying the troops for cocktail hour(s).

Friends and Neighbors - and Others

Friends and neighbors:

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, visiting the Middle East, will urge leaders to back Iraq’s government and to put aside their doubts about Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s ability to curtail sectarian violence, a senior Defense Department official traveling with Mr. Gates said on the plane trip here.
<...>
Mr. Gates is on his third visit to the region since taking office in December.

Saudi Arabia has agreed to forgive 80 percent of the more than $15 billion that Iraq owes the kingdom, Iraqi and Saudi officials said yesterday, a major step given Saudi reluctance to provide financial assistance to the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad.

CBS TV promotes torture

Kyndra Rotunda writes in the Wall Street Journal (subscription only):

CBS's hit series "Criminal Minds" recently aired an episode entitled "Lessons Learned," where FBI agents traveled to Guantanamo Bay and coaxed a confession from a known terrorist detainee that led to the prevention of an anthrax attack on a Northern Virginia shopping mall. The point of the story was that the regular interrogation tactics (pictured as brutal assaults on the prisoner) were not working, and that the military should adopt the enlightened methods of the crack interrogators from "Criminal Minds."

Having served as an Army Judge Advocate General's Corps officer in Gitmo, a legal adviser to criminal investigators pursuing leads in the war on terror, and a Military Commissions prosecutor, I have first-hand knowledge and experience about what happens there. And here is the ironic truth: The military has outlawed some of the "Criminal Minds" interrogators' tactics -- in response to pressure by the international community.

On TV, an analyst observed the detainee's behavior from an adjoining room behind two-way glass for revealing body movements and language. Subtle movements and body language signaled which statements were true and which were false, leading to a breakthrough that saved lives. In reality, when such a tactic was used at Gitmo the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called it "torture." Gitmo authorities used to employ Behavior Science Consultation Teams (BSCTs, pronounced "biscuits"), trained psychologists/psychiatrists who did exactly what the TV analyst did: used psychology to help interrogators learn the truth. But the ICRC considered their role in planning and assisting with interrogations "a flagrant violation of medical ethics." The military responded by curtailing the role of BSCTs.

Meanwhile, in Sudan...

NYT:

A confidential United Nations report says the government of Sudan is flying arms and heavy military equipment into Darfur in violation of Security Council resolutions and painting Sudanese military planes white to disguise them as United Nations or African Union aircraft.

In one case, illustrated with close-up pictures, the report says “U.N.” has been stenciled onto the wing of a whitewashed Sudanese armed forces plane parked on a military apron at a Darfur airport. Bombs guarded by uniformed soldiers are laid out in rows by its side.

I expect a strongly worded statement within weeks, perhaps even going as far as demanding all such planes be immediately repainted.

Update: Well, this is interesting: The United Nations will be deploying attack helicopters to Darfur, with Sudanese approval.

The plan to bring in a “heavy support package” was first proposed last August, subject to Sudanese approval. The Sudanese balked, but finally agreed when the UN allowed that the helicopters would not be used in offensive operations. Not entirely clear why that needed to be spelled out.

Wargaming VA Tech

Several people, including myself, have suggested that an armed citizen -- whether a veteran or a civilian who had trained in defensive combat -- might have been of some use in lessening the impact of the VA Tech killer. The evidence seems strong, between the Appalachian Law School events and other events across the country where just such things have happened.

Nevertheless, a skeptic (and friend of mine) suggested a wargame. I think that's a worthy exercise, given that we ought to want to build the skills and expertise necessary to prevent such atrocities in the future.

Anyone with military, law enforcement or other relevant experience is invited to respond. I would like to tap this good community to help strengthen our country against future tragedies of this type. Please follow the link and offer your thoughts; feel free either to criticise my suggested tactics, or to offer examples and scenarios of your own.

Re: The Extension

Or "Leaking on the Troops"...

For those who weren't aware: someone leaked the story:

Q Could you just clarify, you're changing the policy establishing an upper limit of a deployment. But does that mean that all the units that are deployed to Iraq are now extended -- all the Army units are now extended to 15 months?

And can you also tell us why you're making this announcement publicly now at the same time that the troops and their families are hearing it, because normally that's done -- they get notified first.

SEC. GATES: All the units that are there and all the units that will deploy are now extended -- will be extended to 15 months...

In terms of why we're announcing it simultaneously with the unit commanders, I'll be very blunt. Some very thoughtless person in this building made the unilateral decision yesterday to deny the Army the opportunity to notify unit commanders who could then talk to their troops 48 hours before we made a public announcement. And I can't tell you how angry it makes many of us that one individual would create potentially so much hardship not only for our service men and women, but their families, by giving -- by letting them read about something like this in the newspapers.

Anger and dark humor as U.S. troops learn of longer tours

Word of the extension arrived shortly after midnight at the rambling, two-story country villa near the Euphrates River that the soldiers from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, have turned into a joint American-Iraqi military base.

The news landed almost by accident - First Sergeant Jody Heikkinen spotted a story about it on the Internet - and the company officers were caught off guard. "We're trying to figure out what it means," said Captain Chris Calihan, 31, commander of Bravo Company.

"I was praying for a year" deployment, said Audrey Frohnhoefer, whose husband, Capt. Tom Frohnhoefer, is serving his third tour in Iraq with the 3rd Infantry Division, based in Fort Stewart, Ga. "The worst part about the whole thing is that we know what to expect, and we don't want to do it," she said in a telephone interview from her home in Savannah, Ga., as her infant and toddler daughters cried in the background.
<...>
Congressional Democrats railed yesterday against the decision to extend Army tours, calling it a further buildup of a war that has no end in sight. They called on Bush to change what they termed a "failed strategy" in Iraq that continues to stress U.S. forces to the breaking point.

General Petraeus wrote this letter to military family members.

And you won't read about it in the papers, but deployed GIs are now finding out what really happened.

Duty in the Desert

This milblogger seems to know his business:

An active-duty U.S. Air Force pilot; flown mostly C-130s during my career at numerous locations, to include a tour as instructor pilot at the C-130 schoolhouse at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, teaching new pilots how to fly the Hercules. Did a stint as Director of Operations, Chief Pilot, and Chief of Stan-Eval at a rapid-response C-130 unit specializing in high-priority, sensitive projects and test flights. Also served as an advance agent for Air Force One directly supporting the President of the United States. Married my best friend and we have 3 children that keep us very busy.

Herky driver LtCol Patrick writes Duty in the Desert, an excellent new milblog. Bookmark him, read him daily, and be sure to check out his remembrance of downed F16 pilot Major Troy Gilbert.

From the Front

Reflecting on great milblog posts from years gone by reminds me once again that I've done a pretty piss-poor job of linking fellow GI Joes lately. Fortunately, Mrs G has been keeping up. Via her running of the Milblogs Ring and construction of the Daily Dawn Patrol, here are a couple bloggers currently in Iraq.

SSG Thul, new MilBlog Ring member, writes from Iraq:

On the main highway running through Al Anbar, the Iraqi Police are now seen daily.

When I got into country a year ago, this road was very dangerous, and the US military was the law. Now the Iraqi's are starting to police themselves. And you have to give them credit for courage. The military wont let any soldier outside the wire without full body armor and a fully armored vehicle. The IP's travel in commercial grade Chevy's and Ford's. Minimal body armor and little to none on the truck. They get paid less than us and face more risk than us. But they are standing up for their country, and for their own safety and freedom. Marine and Army units are constantly coming into Iraq to replace other units and take up the mission. But these guys are the last replacements. They are the ones we will eventually turn the country over to.

Outlaw 13, on the exension:

I found out earlier this week via AFN (Armed Forces Radio Network) (thanks to some WEASEL, who I will discuss below) that I may have to stay in Iraq up to fifteen months instead of the twelve that was usual. As you might imagine the news was disappointing to most if not everyone around here. Philosophically and militarily, I can understand the reasoning behind the move, but it doesn't make it any more palatable to the soldiers that are affected by it.

While I was home on leave the disconnect between our society at large and what is going on over here and in Afghanistan couldn't have been more apparent to me. It is no wonder that people are "tired" of the war. Every day they are fed news about nothing but car bombings, bridges being blown up, Iraqi politicians threatening to leave the government...bla bla bla etc etc. Unless one digs for it you can never find the success stories only the obituaries. So it doesn't surprise me that this announcement of extension was met by a rousing Bronx cheer announcing how this is somehow symbolic of our impending doom, how the chickens are coming home to roost and we are committed to failure. The only thing the extension is symbolic of is the fact that our Army is a LOT smaller than it was in 1991 and to be able to accomplish what needs to occur to ensure success and still allow Soldiers time with their families this move needed to be made.

More later.

Re: Crossroads

Men in Black:

Taking Chance:

Re: PBS Crossroads Series

I've heard some controversy about the series because of an episode that was yanked. Frank Gaffney thinks that's for political reasons.

Anybody else watching America at the Crossroads?

It’s series of 11 two hour independently produced documentaries about the War on Terror on PBS, it will be showing two hours each night all week long.

Last nights episode was titled “Jihad: The Men and Ideas Behind Al Qaeda”, I missed the first half last night because I was watching Drive. The hour I did watch definitely caught my interest, the series went back though the entire history of the main players and dove in the reasoning. Spooky stuff.

Tonight’s first hour is titled “Warriors”. The film crew caught an IED attack during filming and the attack that followed; you could feel the fear and adrenalin through the screen, after the attack and evacuating their casualties, the same guys go back out on patrol. It’s quite a statement about what our guys are going through.

War Criminals

via ABC

KABUL, Afghanistan Apr 16, 2007 (AP)— The Taliban and other militant groups are committing war crimes by targeting Afghan civilians, killing nearly 700 last year, according to a report issued Monday by Human Rights Watch

It only took HRW 5 years to figure it out...credit where credit is due.

Sadr's Run

According to Reuters, American Democrats have at least one sympathetic ally in Iraq:

BAGHDAD — Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his ministers to quit Iraq’s government on Monday in protest at Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s refusal to set a timetable for a U.S. troop withdrawal.

Sadr’s populist movement, which draws its support mainly from Iraq’s Shi’ite poor, holds six ministries and a quarter of the parliamentary seats in Maliki’s fractious Shi’ite Alliance, a coalition of Shi’ite Islamist parties.

While Sadr was instrumental in Mr. Maliki becoming prime minister last year, the move is unlikely to significantly weaken the government since Sadr’s movement does not hold any key cabinet portfolios. It could actually help Maliki by giving him a freer hand to pursue his political policies.

Al-Sadr's ministers will "withdraw immediately from the Iraqi government and give the six Cabinet seats to the government, with the hope that they will be given to independents who represent the will of the people," said Nassar al-Rubaie, head of al-Sadr's bloc, reading a statement from the cleric.

Al-Sadr, who wields tremendous power among Iraq's majority Shiites, has been upset about recent arrests of his Mahdi Army fighters in the U.S.-led Baghdad security crackdown. He and his followers have also criticized Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for failing to back calls for a timetable for U.S. troops to leave the country.

BAGHDAD — A key Shiite Muslim bloc in Iraq's government pledged Sunday to quit over Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's refusal to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, a move that would further weaken the country's leadership at a time of soaring sectarian violence.

Blasts from the past

What do the Battle of Salamis, the defeat of the Spanish Armada, some U-boat sinkings, a dry dock in France and the Battle of Okinawa have in common?

Some old ideas that never quite fade away.

As set out here.

Re:The (Further) Politicization of the Military

via The Center for Public of Integrity

Research Triangle Institute is an independent, non-profit research organization based on a 180-acre campus in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. RTI is the fourth-largest non-profit contract research organization in the United States. From 1990 to fiscal year 2002, the company received slightly more than $1.2 billion in U.S. government contracts

Board of Governors member Gordon R. Sullivan served as the chief of staff to the U.S. Army from 1991 to 1995

Global Warming is going to be a another big government trough to feed from. General Sullivan is just making sure his benefactors get more than their fair share of the pork. Let's not assign to him anything as nobel as "being part of a political cause".

The (Further) Politicization of the Military

First it started with various retired generals uttering public denunciations against the Iraq war. Of course, the MSM loved it and promoted these men to no end. This raised the spectre that some of these retired brass really liked being taken seriously again. So it was almost inevitable that this would prompt some of these same people to use whatever "authority" they had engendered to speak on decidedly non-military issues. Accordingly, I give you:

US generals urge climate action

Former US military leaders have called on the Bush administration to make major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

In a report, they say global warming poses a serious threat to national security, as the US could be drawn into wars over water and other conflicts.

They appear to criticise President George W Bush's refusal to join an international treaty to cut emissions.

Among the 11 authors are ex-Army chief of staff Gordon Sullivan and Mr Bush's ex-Mid-East peace envoy Anthony Zinni.

Can anything good come from this? Does this do anything but further REDUCE the perception that the military is above and beyond the petty policy squabbles that so frequently infect domestic politics? If the military become increasingly seen to be "taking sides" in decidedly non-military/non-defense issues, doesn't that turn us into nothing more than another special interest group that has opinions on EVERYTHING--and hence--can be ignored on most of them?

Kind of like a uniformed People for the American Way.

Yes, I realize that the report attempts to shoehorn the climate change argument into a "national security" argument, but that just underscores the damage to the military's credibility as a "neutral" actor when groups like Zinni, et al. try to define everything within the context of national security.

No More Tiny Bubbles

Don Ho has died.

Don Ho, an entertainer who defined popular perceptions of Hawaiian music in the 1960s and held fast to that image as a peerless Waikiki nightclub attraction, died yesterday in Honolulu. He was 76.

The cause was heart failure, his daughter Dayna Ho said.

Mr. Ho was a durable spokesman for the image of Hawaii as a tourist playground. His rise as a popular singer dovetailed with a visitor boom that followed statehood in 1959 and the advent of affordable air travel. For 40 years, his name was synonymous with Pacific Island leisure, as was “Tiny Bubbles,” his signature hit, which helped turn him into a national figure.

Re: Chap didn't title his post

Okay, Chap got an interesting discussion started here. My response started as a comment, but the original is sliding down the front page and I think this might be worth continuing as it addresses broader issues than the single post. We're on the tip of an iceberg here, I suspect Chap is aware of that, too - his subtle link is a well disguised grenade, and I don't think it's a dud.

On political activity in the military: We have obvious rules that limit us - can't participate in events or solicit funds in uniform, can't use government resources, can't call for violent overthrow, can't disparage certain elected officials, etc. But obviously, as with any rules, there are black, white, and grey areas. I'm about to wade into those, making some generalizations based on my experience.

A Maritime Terrorism Reminder

An interesting essay on Al Qaeda's Maritime Threat can be found here.

And some additional stuff here.

Update: Fixed first link.

A guy walks into the doctors office...

The Doc says, "I've got good news and bad. Which do you want first?"

"Define bad", says the patient, who turned out to be a newspaper reporter, so none of the remainder of the conversation mattered.

While I was Sleeping

via MNF-I

Press conference with Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander, Multi-National Corps - Iraq, April 13, 2007

Last week in Ramadi, there were nine attacks total. During the same week a year ago, there were over 84 attacks.

I think it is safe to say that a Profound shift in the nature of the insurgency in AlAnbar has occurred.

The Emperor's Tailor

The newly ascended Democrat majority in Congress have obviously decided to make their fabled “cooked intelligence” trope the centerpiece of their legislative legacy. Senator Carl Levin plays Brother Grimm in their myth-making in the Senate, and shows no sign of having any interest in truth (or full disclosure).

Thomas Joscelyn, writing at Weekly Standard, summarizes the facts, long-in-evidence, that refutes Levin’s untruthful crusade against “pre-war intelligence.”

This will of course make no difference to the willfully or constitutionally ignorant. Levin, oddly, can’t really be numbered among these, since he knew the factual basis for Intelligence behind our decision to invade Iraq, back when we did so, and has only changed his tune for political opportunity since.

Joscelyn finds startling the Post lead-in on the story:

"Captured Iraqi documents and intelligence interrogations of Saddam Hussein and two former aides 'all confirmed' that Hussein's regime was not directly cooperating with al-Qaeda before the U.S. invasion of Iraq."

If critics want to take that route, there’s no point in further discussions, at least if you want to keep them rational or logical.

But what of the documents that somehow “confirmed that Hussein’s regime was not directly cooperating with al-Qaeda before the U.S. invasion of Iraq"?

Children of Terror

Several of my colleagues have the great good fortune (in my opinion) of monitoring open source intelligence sources as part of their paid, full-time job. One passes along a heart-rending story that somehow never appeared in major mainstream media (MSM), although elements of the basic story have been reported elsewhere.

The story passed on to me was reported by Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN). According to their website, “IRIN is part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, but its services are editorially independent. Its reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations and its agencies, not its member states.” I admit to being astounded that a UN-associated entity is publicizing this story. I would be even more astonished if human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International ever paid any attention to crimes of this kind.

So what does IRIN convey in its report that could break your heart? That al Qaeda intentionally targets handicapped children and their families to use as fodder for their terrorism. Nothing the MILBLOGGERS haven’t heard before, but about as far away from the image conveyed by the MSM for how cruel and inhuman are the enemies of a free Iraq.

Suffice it to say that AQ resembles nothing more completely than the monsters in Nazi Germany who dreamed up the Final Solution as a means of ridding their Ideal society of undesirables and the “impure.” (There’s a very good reason many of us call them Islamofascists, after all.)

RE: Biden Time

Greyhawk already took Senator Joe Biden to task over the latest of his usual foolishness (Washington Post, April 12), but I noted yesterday that Fred Kagan did so as well over at the Weekly Standard.

Biden, readers may recall, recently fell upon what he views as the inevitable partitioning of Iraq into its respective sectarian parts, ethnic and religious, as the answer to all questions about Iraq. Biden was long been one of those lesser lights who has had to seek attention in the shadow of his more prominent peers.

Biden, ever lugubrious in speechmaking, nevertheless has been much less adept at politicking, at least as measured by media attention. I am sure he thinks he’s stumbled upon the winning differentiator among his Democratic Presidential rivals, by seizing as strategy, the net result he thinks will happen anyway. This will make him look wise and prescient in one pseudo-policy, or so he must think.

The problem is, Biden gets it wrong, according to Kagan. As demonstrated visually by the inapt metaphor of the “water balloon” of our current surge efforts in Iraq, Biden wears only a lip gloss deep comprehension of the situation in Iraq.

(Excerpts from Kagan's fine rebuttal, and more commentary, over at Dadmanly)

This dude really needs to be reading guys like us more often. Maybe then he'd stop bugging guys in chat rooms.

Ten Commandments Of Counterinsurgency From Afghanistan

The Foreign Policy Research Institute has a good email bulletin service, with articles that may be of interest to folks interested in such things. One of the latest "E-Notes" I got in the mail while on travel was one with the above title, available in its entirety from ROFASix. Greg Mills is the author, and it's a good summary for people who aren't too familiar with the ideas.

John Nagl over at the Small Wars Journal blog also had an interesting article about moral dilemmas in counterinsurgency. He's been talking with NPR, which surprisingly enough isn't treating him as automatically eeeeevil so much as some kind of alien being. Which, for NPR, is sometimes the best you can get. Excerpt:

...He remembers working closely with an Iraqi police chief who provided valuable intelligence. Then, he learned that the man he had trusted was supporting the enemy -- "providing weapons, ammunition, body armor to the insurgents in Fallujah who were then fighting the Marines. And against some of my soldiers."

Nagl said he found himself "faced with a horrible dilemma."

"What do I do to this police chief who has clearly risked his life to help us? Every time I think about it, I wonder if I did the right thing. But ultimately what I decided to do was -- nothing. My assessment was that for Ishmael to stay alive this is the minimum he had to do -- this is the minimum tax he had to pay to the insurgents."

Austin Bay on MNF-I Staff Judge Advocate

Interesting profile by Austin Bay in today's Washington Times on the Multinational Force-Iraq Staff Judge Advocate, COL Mark Martins.

Arguably, Col. Mark Martins runs the most multifaceted, pressure-packed and press-scrutinized law practice in the Middle East.
Col. Martins serves as staff judge advocate for Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I), which makes him Gen. David Petraeus' top legal adviser.

He is prepared for the job. Col. Martins' military career began with a tour leading an airborne infantry platoon. His resume is a record of demanding military law assignments, including a stint in the office of the chairman of the joint chiefs. His academic record speaks volumes: first in order of general merit in his class at West Point, Rhodes Scholar with first class honors at Oxford, Harvard Law School and Law Review.

The piece does a good job distilling what, beyond the more nuts and bolts job of trial work and investigations, the JAGs in theatre are accomplishing.

However, Col. Martins, his staff and civilian legal personnel serving with other U.S. agencies in Iraq have an even more complex and, in my view, more critical assignment. These legal experts are helping Iraq's nascent democratic government implement the rule of law.
Replacing the violent whims of ideological, theocratic or tribal tyrants and terrorists with democratic law is a slow, frustratingly incremental process, but nevertheless a strategically essential and potentially decisive endeavor if peace, justice and genuine security are your goals.
In a phone interview from Baghdad, Col. Martins told me that in his estimation the Iraqi government made a small but significant step on April 2, when the Iraqi judiciary opened criminal trial proceedings in its new Rule of Law Complex in Baghdad.

Too cool.

A Gift to the MilBlog Conference

BloodSpite and Calimus have generously donated a server, and their services, to the MilBlog Conference. They are going to provide the Chat Room, free of charge, to us. This is great news and will allow our "virtual" attendees to talk amongst themselves during the conference. Thanks guys.

For those who want to participate in a dry run, and I would appreciate as many people as possible, they're going to go through it tonight at 10:00 EST. Let's log on and try it out.

Gotta be ready for primetime.

Divorce numbers

Army Times:

Divorce in the nation’s military was no higher after four years of war than it was in peacetime a decade earlier, despite the stress of long and repeated tours of duty.

A yearlong study by Rand Corp. says divorces rose from 2.5 percent of military marriages in 2001 to 3 percent in 2005. But that is still short of a previous Pentagon theory that marriage breakups had been soaring due to the strain of fighting the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, lead researcher Benjamin Karney said Thursday.
<...>
Rand’s National Defense Research Institute — a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Pentagon — found in the new study that after declining from 1996 to 2000, divorces rose gradually in the following years. Divorce, separation and annulments across all branches of service rose to 3 percent of military marriages in 2005 — the same as in 1996 when soldiers did not routinely face the battlefield deployments that are common today, Rand said in a statement.

There’s no comparable system for tracking the national or civilian divorce rate, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in 2005 that 43 percent of all first marriages end in divorce within 10 years.

“Everyone is saying that they are very, very stressed, but the genuine stress isn’t necessarily leading to elevations in divorce,” Karney said.

Those who will bear lifelong wounds of body, mind, or spirit from Iraq gain little consolation from the fact they represent a small percentage of the total. But they are heroes among us, and we do them disservice in assuming their numbers are so large as to make them simply average.

News of Afghanistan - Friday the 13th Edition!

Evil Spock, denouncing Prime Minister Prodi, Talib - dead and/or weird, letters to the editor and the HIG deploring violence (WTF?!) all in this non-superstitious installment of the news.

LCS-3 cancelled

Just plain huge news for those concerned with the future of the fleet.

The Navy has terminated its contract for the third Littoral Combat Ship because it could not come to terms with builder Lockheed Martin on a modified contract, officials announced Thursday afternoon.

For those who do not know, LMT was set to build one of two options for the LCS. General Dynamics has the even numbered LCS hulls. LCS-1 is in the water - LCS-2 not yet. GD's LCS is showing similar cost trends, and shares the not-ready-for-prime-time CONOPS.

Good news though. When you go from $270 to $410 million and have yet to even validate the mission systems for what is just a fast Corvette - someone need a pop up-side-da-head. SECNAV Winter is on target. Better to take the hit now and fix shipbuilding than to have a TIffany Fleet that isn't worth (literally) half of what you payed for it. Ouch, but a good ouch.

Mama mama look at me...

...Look what the Air Force done to me...

Sorry, don't know why that old cadence call popped into my head.

But speaking of Drill Instructors, let's check in on former USAF Staff Sergeant Michelle Manhart:

“Some people say, ‘She had her 15 minutes of fame. Now shut up,’” Manhart says. “Some say, ‘Girl, take it for all its worth.’”

Manhart says she does not plan to shut up. She is hustling to spin her high-profile punishment into a lasting celebrity career.

In days, she’ll go to her next high-profile modeling gig, with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Manhart will pose wearing only an American flag for the group’s “I’d Rather Go Naked than Wear Fur” national campaign. In coming weeks, her Los Angeles agent will negotiate with reality TV producers and try to secure a World Wrestling Entertainment diva role.
<...>
Nowhere does her infamy burn brighter than at Lackland. Yet Manhart walks the base with Playboy written all over her.

Literally.

Her white cotton Playboy long-sleeve T-shirt fits snug. Her lipstick-pink Playboy bunny pendant jingles when she walks. Her flip-flops glitter. Ask for her ID, out comes the metallic Playboy business card holder Manhart uses as a wallet.

Recruiting and retention numbers for March...

- here.

And take a look at this, too.

The Army's secret for success: They've reduced Basic Training from 14 weeks to nine!!!

Biden Time

Busy, busy, busy...

Screw Iraq:

Bush's Troop Initiative Doomed, Biden Says

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said yesterday that the Bush administration's "surge" strategy in Iraq is doomed to fail and criticized Gen. David H. Petraeus for offering what he called an overly optimistic assessment of the situation on the ground.

Biden, in an attempt to separate himself from the crowded Democratic presidential field, also asserted that none of his principal rivals for the nomination has offered a viable plan for success in Iraq.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a presidential candidate, called yesterday for the use of military force to end the suffering in Darfur.

"I would use American force now," the Delaware Democrat said at a hearing before his committee. "I think it's not only time not to take force off the table. I think it's time to put force on the table and use it."

In advocating the use of military force, Biden said senior U.S. military officials in Europe told him that 2,500 U.S. troops could "radically change the situation on the ground now."

Biden's key point - that the media is telling all the "good news" possible from Iraq - is an absurdity. But it could seem plausible to the casual observer for the simple reason that they aren't. While he himself may or may not know the "rest of the story", his best hope is that Americans remain woefully uninformed.

He claims that the media accurately reports that Sadr has gone "to ground -- for now", (while Sadr is indeed in hiding, his call for his troops to attack American soldiers and our ongoing battles with them must be ignored to fully embrace this point), dismisses the Coalition work with the Anbar Salvation Council as "purported", and uses the recent suicide bombing in Tall Afar as al Qaeda intended it to be used. There's a "rest of the story" there too, but it didn't make the papers.

Victory Speech at VMI

Loved it. More at OPFOR, plus...pretty pictures!

Re: Yet another Question, etc.

By the way, I should add that this:

After four years of war, 3,200 American deaths, 23,000 U.S. troops wounded and possibly in excess of 100,000 Iraqis killed, U.S. policymakers are now making what may prove to be their worst mistake yet: They may be on a new collision course with Moqtada al-Sadr.

U.S. forces backed by Iraqi troops were reported Saturday in fierce clashes with Sadr's Shiite Mahdi Army militia in a bid to wrest control from it of the southern Iraqi town of Diwaniyah.

Here's today's:

Flags of al Sadr

Scourge, a military member blogging from Iraq, on Sadr's recent "peaceful protest":

My forward operating base was both rocketed and mortared the night before protests, as were several other bases in my area. All on orders of Jaysh Al Mahdi.

Their daily campaign of torture and murder is unabated.

I'm not sure how one could define this as peaceful.

Re: Help Wanted

I suggest the search include clerks in leather goods stores with a reputation for tippling.

You know, like this guy.

Help Wanted

Apply White House, Washington, D.C.:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Help Wanted: White House seeks high-profile manager of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to coordinate competing agencies and make sure President George W. Bush's unpopular strategy is implemented.

In a tradition of presidential trouble-shooting, the White House is considering creating a "war czar" post in the National Security Council and has put out feelers to some retired generals to see if they would be interested.

By the way, if you're a retired 4-star and pass on the chance to have your opinion matter, you might not want to follow up by giving your opinion to the press.

Yet Another Question Re: Raising Questions

Or "Damned if you do, damned if you don't".

The old (from a few weeks ago) conventional wisdom on the surge and Sadr:

The Mahdi Army may choose to wait out the Americans by taking a low profile for the duration of the surge. If so, this will be helpful to US troops, but, of course, it will have done nothing to break the power of the Shiite militias.

But that forces the enemy to adapt their strategy to to our approach; in this case forcing the media to quickly generate a new "conventional wisdom". Here's the first attempt:

After four years of war, 3,200 American deaths, 23,000 U.S. troops wounded and possibly in excess of 100,000 Iraqis killed, U.S. policymakers are now making what may prove to be their worst mistake yet: They may be on a new collision course with Moqtada al-Sadr.

U.S. forces backed by Iraqi troops were reported Saturday in fierce clashes with Sadr's Shiite Mahdi Army militia in a bid to wrest control from it of the southern Iraqi town of Diwaniyah.

Sadr running around Baghdad: Iraq in bloody sectarian civil war.

Sadr fled to Tehran: Dangerous power vacuum in Iraq.

Sadr lying in a big hole in the ground underneath US ordnance dropped from a great height: Beloved martyr whose death will be a recruiting tool across the Muslim world.

AP Neutrality

The Associated Press (AP) works very, very hard to make sure that worldwide (and particularly US) public opinion remains convinced that Iraq is a disaster, a civil war, and an ill-advised foreign occupation.

Sure, you can read between the lines to get the real story, but the writers, freelancers, and editors at AP really don’t want you to do that. That’s why they structure their “reporting” the way they do.

First, consider the headline that AP chooses for their report: “Iran may be helping Iraqis build bombs.” (Note: The headline may change over time, as part of the game as played AP is to first use inflammatory, misleading, or subjective headlines that they later “clean-up.”)

Note that the source for their story, the US Military, did not apply any qualifiers to their statements of fact:

BAGHDAD - Iran has been training Iraqi fighters in the assembly of deadly roadside bombs known as EFPs, the U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.
EFPs, or explosively formed penetrators, hurl a molten, fist-sized lump of molten copper capable of piercing armored vehicles.

"We know that they are being in fact manufactured and smuggled into this country, and we know that training does go on in Iran for people to learn how to assemble them and how to employ them," Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said at a weekly briefing. "We know that training has gone on as recently as this past month from detainees' debriefs." In January, U.S. officials said at least 170 U.S. soldiers had been killed by EFPs.

Twisting Words and Numbers

via Civilian Newspaper called AirForceTimes posing as a Military Publication

Medical crews airlifted 850 wounded in March

The headline implies something that isn't....

OEF Wounded Statistics(pdf)
OIF Wounded Statistics(pdf)

As of March 24th,2007 there have been a total of 682 WIA in OEF medivacs and 7267 OIF WIA medivacs.

Back to the propaganda mouth piece

Since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom, the Air Force has flown 40,902 patients from combat zones.

Di Fi

A

(Background here.)

Marines Target-ed

Iowa Voice:

Two Marines in their dress uniforms - the ones with white hats, khaki shirts and blue trousers with red stripe - say they were accused of recruiting at a Target department store here and told to leave.

“We weren’t recruiting,” according to Cpl. Carlos Rodriguez, 22, who said he returned in October from his second combat tour in Iraq. “I just popped in to say hi to a guy I went to high school with. He works there.”

But an assistant manager who saw Rodriguez and the other Marine apparently thought otherwise and showed them the door, according to both servicemen.

I've never had any problem wandering through my local Target (or any other store) in uniform - but in my neighborhood about a quarter of the folks spending money in any local establishment are dressed just like me.

Re: Lozano

John Byrnes, author of the New York Post piece quoted below, has been blogging about the case here.

Spc. Mario Lozano

The New York Post:

Spc. Mario Lozano of Manhattan remembers the moment in Baghdad that changed his life forever - when, with eyes "the size of apples," he saw a vehicle barreling directly toward him and he opened fire.

"You have a warning line, you have a danger line, and you have a kill line," said Lozano, speaking out for the first time about the March 4, 2005, "friendly fire" incident in which he shot from a Humvee machine-gun turret at the vehicle, hitting an Italian war correspondent and killing an Italian intelligence officer.

The nightmare resumes for Lozano, of New York's Fighting 69th Infantry Regiment, next week - when he'll be tried in absentia by Italian officials on charges of murder.

"Anyone inside 100 meters is already in the danger zone . . . and you gotta take them out," Lozano told The Post from his brother's Chelsea apartment.

"If you hesitate, you come home in a box - and I didn't want to come home in a box. I did what any soldier would do in my position."

The resulting machine-gun burst hit Giuliana Sgrena, who had just been released by kidnappers, in the shoulder and killed Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari, who had negotiated her release. The vehicle was racing to catch a plane home to Italy at Baghdad Airport, Lozano said.
<...>
Lozano said he had no choice: Like all grunts, he knew all too well what a car bomb could do. Two days before, "two good soldiers died on the road in the same way," he said.
<...>
Lozano and his dad, Mario Sr., blame Sgrena, a correspondent for the Communist paper Il Manifesto, for their nightmare. They criticize her for not making sure that her vehicle's whereabouts were known to the Army and then making a buck off the situation.

Sgrena, 57, was recently in New York promoting her book, "Friendly Fire: The Remarkable Story of a Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq, Rescued by an Italian Secret Service Agent, and Shot at by U.S. Forces."

"I'm sure her life isn't like mine," said a bitter Lozano, who works for his dad's construction business when he's not pulling National Guard duty.

"She's making money. She's famous. Meanwhile, I gotta live with the fact that a guy got killed because he didn't comply with orders and I was that guy who pulled the trigger."

Re: Re: Raising Questions

What was once seen as a Victory for AlQueda
via WaPo

BAGHDAD, Sept. 5(Ed 2005) -- Fighters loyal to militant leader Abu Musab Zarqawi asserted control over the key Iraqi border town of Qaim on Monday, killing U.S. collaborators and enforcing strict Islamic law, according to tribal members, officials, residents and others in the town and nearby villages.

could end up being a critical turning point

via UPI(March 2007)

Had al-Qaida in Iraq, the organization presumed to be behind most of the terrorist activity in the town, not overplayed its hand, al-Qaim might still be the same killing ground for U.S. forces it was between 2003 and 2006.

I'll place the lag between cause and effect closer to the 18 month mark.

Re: Raising Questions

The Devlin Report was outdated by the time it was leaked late last year.

December, 2006:

Last week the WaPo began their coverage of the Devlin report with this:

The U.S. military is no longer able to defeat a bloody insurgency in western Iraq or counter al-Qaeda's rising popularity there, according to newly disclosed details from a classified Marine Corps intelligence report...

...but shortly after acknowledged a key point (without explaining why it was key):

The Marines' August memo, a copy of which was shared with The Washington Post, is far bleaker than some officials suggested when they described it in late summer.

Of course, in the months between the writing of the report and its publication in the Post, the formation of the Anbar Salvation Council and its declaration of war on al Qaeda and its allies gained the group support from the Iraqi government and coalition forces. This had changed the Anbar situation fundamentally and significantly - to the point where the Devlin memo was without current significance. ("Overcome by events" - or simply "OBE" as we say in the military.)

But since the WaPo has never seen fit to report any of that news, the Devlin report may have seemed like news to them.

Raising Questions?

via AP

Still, on his visit (ed Marine Gen)Conway was told by numerous American commanders throughout Anbar that the tide had shifted against the extremist group al-Qaida in Iraq when Sunni tribal sheiks who previously opposed U.S. forces decided to start cooperating instead.

If Conway's upbeat interpretation of recent developments in Anbar proves correct it will raise questions about the intelligence assessments last summer and fall of Col. Peter Devlin, who was the top intelligence officer at Marine headquarters in Anbar. Devlin reported that the political and security situation was grim and getting worse, and he said there was almost nothing the U.S. military could do to stop the insurgency.

NYT Gets it Wrong (Again) on Desertion Story

Late last month the NYT floated a narrative trial balloon regarding the Army. The new narrative was that desertions in the Army had risen slightly due to to stresses of deployment and was hitting particularly hard those soldiers facing second or third deployments.

That claim was bunk.

How come nobody ever quotes me? Here we have an entire article in the NYT in which several "Army lawyers" are quoted anonymously, and am I one of them? No! Of course, they probably didn't ask because I'd have told them their whole premise is horsepucky. But I digress...

But since apparently nobody at the NYT reads this blog, the NYT decided to run again with this latest manufactured meme, but with some slight revisions.

North Korea Not Likely to Meet April Deadline

Seriously, is anyone really surprised by this?:

The U.S. chief nuclear envoy Christopher Hill has admitted that it is improbable North Korea will shut down its nuclear facilities by a mid-April deadline due to the delayed transfer of assets frozen in the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia, AP reported. A Feb. 13 agreement reached in six-nation talks in Beijing requires the North to shut down its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon by April 14 in return for a first shipment of energy aid.

Keep in mind that the funds in question were frozen by the Chinese bank at the US’s request due to being linked to counterfeiting and money laundering of US currency. Also keep in mind that the return of the money was never part of the Agreed Framework 2.0 that was agreed upon in February during the six party talks. The return of the money is something that North Korea has decided on their own to add to the agreement.

You can read more about the latest North Korea reneging at One Free Korea.

Fixing It Up

The freeze ray is a great idea. Since it has to be a joint civil-military agency, though, we wouldn't make it a command as such. I'd say we should call it the Climate Re-Adjustment Program. For the orbiting freeze ray, I favor the name Shivering High Order Ordinance Transmitter.

I'm sure Operation CRAP-SHOOT will work at least as well as the "ban everything" approach. Plus it should secure the budgets of both the Air Force and CIA's DST forever.

Re: Home are the Sailors

In many ways, the Royal Disgrace that we saw over the last couple of weeks is, if nothing else, a great negative example to use when training our junior leaders.

I don't focus on the junior Seamen and Marines, if led properly they would have done their job. No, my issue is with the officers - mostly the happy-face LT Felix Carman.

Should he get money for interviews or his story? He says he would probably give most of it to charity. Harumph. I think the good LT should be given one thing, many one things.

A great candidate for the Order of the White Feather.

More Force Adjustments

DoD Announces Force Adjustments

The Department of Defense announced today the alert of additional replacement units for deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. These units, consisting of four National Guard brigade combat teams, will deploy consistent with the Secretary of Defense's new policy of mobilizing reserve component units for a maximum of one year at any one time.

These Reserve units are not scheduled to begin deployment until December 2007. They are receiving alert orders now in order to provide them the maximum time to complete their preparations. It also provides a greater measure of predictability for family members and flexibility for employers to plan for military service of their employees. The final determination of whether these units will deploy will be made based on conditions on the ground in Iraq.
This alert is not associated with the current troop surge. These units would deploy as replacement forces for formations currently operating in Iraq. There are approximately 13,000 personnel in these four brigades.

Specific units receiving alert orders include:

39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Little Rock, Ark.
45th Infantry Brigade, Oklahoma City, Okla.
76th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Indianapolis, Ind.
37th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Columbus, Ohio.

DoD will continue to announce major unit deployments as replacement units are identified.

Thinking there might be a few bloggers/spouses in that mix...

Well then, this should fix everything right up

The Boston Globe:

WASHINGTON -- The CIA and Pentagon would for the first time be required to assess the national security implications of climate change under proposed legislation intended to elevate global warming to a national defense issue.

The Navy, I'm sure, will insist the freeze ray be ship-mounted...

The fall of Baghdad, the birth of "insurgency"

April 9, 2003:

Down by the river, Blue Platoon leader Lt. Laughlin reported that the militants using the mosque as cover were dressed for martyrdom, with Islamic headbands. Capt. Chris Carter said the locals had reported that these were jihadi fanatics who had crossed into Iraq from Syria. Other units had encountered them. Large numbers reportedly entered Iraq in recent weeks to fight the American invasion.

“We captured one the other day who told us 5,000 Syrians had crossed the border to commit acts of suicide,” Carter said. “The Iraqis don’t like it because they are occupying their homes and drawing our fire on them.”

Another thing to blame Josephus Daniels for

It inspired uniform changes, and had the military competing with private industry. It was a trading item that greased the wheels and kept the midnight oil burning. Presidents Jackson and Eisenhower were involved.

And everyone, it seems, knows how to make it better than anyone else.

Details here

Re: Home are the Sailors

Take a deep breath, calm down, and be sure to read the update to the Sailors story below.

Distant Thunder

Following a rapid attack northward from Kuwaitt, American forces found themselves at the gates of Baghdad four years ago this week. While casualties had been relatively low to that point, among other expectations for protracted urban combat in Saddam Hussein's capital city was the possibility of tens of thousands of American troops "sent home in bady bags".

Jules Crittenden was embedded with elements of the 3ID during the ensuing Thunder Run - an attack that collapsed the Hussein regime in hours rather than weeks or months. His ongoing series detailing his experiences in those days offers first-hand insight into the execution one of the most audacious military plans in history.

6 April:

I ran into LTC deCamp. I asked what he could tell me about the next day’s assault. He confirmed what we had heard. We were going into Baghdad at dawn. Maybe just for the day, maybe overnight. We were going to take the palaces, just to make the point. Col. Perkins, the brigade commander, wanted parking validation for 80 tanks in downtown Baghdad.

Anger Management

Military moms meet their congressman, and get the Adam Sandler treatment. Video here - watch Congressman Paul Hodes avoid answering their questions by insisting they are too angry for reason:

Q: Do you not believe we have an obligation to these people [Iraqis]?
A:Um, well, there's clearly nothing I'm going to be able to say to address how angry you feel...
Q: I'm very angry, I have a nephew that has served two tours of duty, is scheduled to go back a third time. He will be in Iraq when you cut your funds, and yes, that makes me very angry.
A: You may misunderstand my motivation, and what the impact of this will be if this is passed. There's nothing I'm going to be able to say given how angry you are...
Q: I feel very strongly that you're endangering our soldiers... If this Congress was sitting during World War II, we would be having this discussion in German right now.

Mohammad Munaf

The Washington Post:

U.S. Citizen Sentenced To Death In Iraq Loses Appeal

A federal appeals court in Washington ruled yesterday that U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction to intervene in the case of a U.S. citizen who was convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to death in an Iraqi criminal court, deciding that prior case law prevents the judges from hearing a petition challenging his detention.

Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed a lower court's decision to dismiss the case of Mohammad Munaf, who has been in U.S. custody in Iraq since May 23, 2005. Munaf had asked U.S. courts to review the nature of his incarceration, via a habeas corpus petition, but the three judges unanimously decided that his conviction in a foreign court precludes them from stepping in.

Re: Home are the Sailors

One wonders what stories they might tell...

Uhhh, make that sell:

THE 15 British service personnel held captive in Iran have been given special permission to sell their stories to the media, in a break with the rules that has drawn swift criticism.

"One of the great things about our armed forces is their professionalism and dignity," said the opposition defence spokesman, Liam Fox. "Many people who shared the anxiety of the hostages' abduction will feel that selling their stories is somewhat undignified and falls below the very high standards we have come to expect from our servicemen and women."

A former military chief, who asked not to be named, added: "If you are still serving with the military you do not go round flogging your story to anyone."
<...>
Among the first to benefit is Leading Seaman Faye Turney, the only woman in the party. She was not among the six sailors and marines who appeared at last Friday's news conference at the Royal Marines base at Devon where they were reunited with their families.

Leading Seaman Turney, 26, who was paraded on Iranian television during her captivity, is understood to have agreed to a £100,000 ($240,000) deal with a commercial television channel for a special program due to be broadcast tonight, as well as with a tabloid newspaper.

Update: Then there's this:

Amid the deaths and the grim daily struggle bravely borne by Britain's forces in southern Iraq, one tale of heroism stands out.

Private Johnson Beharry's courage in rescuing an ambushed foot patrol then, in a second act, saving his vehicle's crew despite his own terrible injuries earned him a Victoria Cross.

For the BBC, however, his story is "too positive" about the conflict.

The corporation has cancelled the commission for a 90-minute drama about Britain's youngest surviving Victoria Cross hero because it feared it would alienate members of the audience opposed to the war in Iraq.

Major General Lynch

Major General Rick Lynch, Commander, Multi-National Division -- Center (Iraq) interviewed by 3ID's "hometown" (Savannah, Ga) reporters.

More details on progress in Iraq here.

SEAL statue frightens parents

Navy SEAL Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny Dietz Jr., fell in action in Afghanistan in 2005:

Petty Officer Dietz, 25, was awarded the Navy Cross, the service's second-highest award for valor after the Medal of Honor, for fighting off an ambush by insurgents in Afghanistan despite being mortally wounded. His actions were credited with helping a fellow Navy SEAL escape.

Littleton, Colorado, plans to honor his sacrifice with a statue:

Plans for the memorial began last summer when the city started working with Rep. Tom Tancredo, Colorado Republican, and the Dietz family. The family raised $42,000 to cover the costs, with no public funding involved.
<...>
A bronze sculpture of Petty Officer 2nd Class Danny Dietz Jr. showing him cradling his rifle across his chest is scheduled to be unveiled July 4 at Berry Park here, where he grew up and attended school. The statue was modeled after a photo of the young serviceman.

But a group of parents wants the city to recast the statue or place it elsewhere, arguing that the site, near three elementary schools and two parks, is a hub for young children who could find the weapon disturbing.

"While our hearts go out to the family of this brave young man, we have serious concerns regarding the graphic and violent detail the statue portrays," stated a flier distributed recently in a nearby neighborhood.

Campaign for Victory

Starting at.....

VMI! WaPo:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will launch a high-profile effort next week to convince Americans that the Iraq war is winnable, embracing the unpopular conflict with renewed vigor as he attempts to reignite his stalling bid for the presidency.

With the Virginia Military Institute as a backdrop, McCain plans to argue in a speech on Wednesday that victory in Iraq is essential to American security and that President Bush's war machine is finally getting on track after four years, aides and advisers said.

Goldberg at The Corner sez: I think this is a bold, brave and possibly even smart move on McCain's part.

Yup. My vote goes to the candidate who is going to see this thing through (and..ahem...ones that use my beloved alma mater as a backdrop for victory speeches). The entire Democratic field and a few Republican candidates are dancing around the dicey Iraq issue right now. They'll have to fully address it eventually..with a clear position and clear strategy, but McCain is facing it head on, right now...acknowledging that we'll probably still be in theater 2008...and committing his campaign to victory.

"Brave, bold, and smart" is a pretty accurate way of framing it, methinks.

Hotel Tango: The Corner

The Surge at 60%

MNF-I

3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) arrives in theater

Multi-National Corps – Iraq PAO

BAGHDAD – Multi-National Corps-Iraq welcomed a third U.S. brigade this week to assist the Iraqi Security Forces in support of Fardh Al-Qanoon. The brigade from Ft. Benning, Ga., will assist Iraqi Security Forces in reducing violence and protecting Iraqi citizens. This Brigade will complete arrival in Baghdad by April 8.

The brigade includes more than 3,000 Soldiers.

The 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division will be deployed in and around the city of Baghdad. Their mission will be to assist Iraqi Security Forces to clear, control and retain key areas of the capital city in order to reduce violence and better protect the Iraqi populace.

RE: Expanding My Mind

Billions of people across the world face hunger, severe water shortages and displacement as a result of increased temperatures, an international panel of scientists and politicians concluded yesterday.

viaReaon Magazine

Earth Day 1970 provoked a torrent of apocalyptic predictions. "We have about five more years at the outside to do something," ecologist Kenneth Watt declared to a Swarthmore College audience on April 19, 1970. Harvard biologist George Wald estimated that "civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind."

Insight

A video interview with General Ra'd Majid Al-Hamdani, former commander of the 2nd Corps of the Iraqi Republican Guards from Iraq's Al-Baghdadiya TV, at Memri.

Transcript here.

Excerpts:

Ra'd Majid Al-Hamdani: Let me give you another example. In 1994, I commanded the Republican Guards Al-Madina Al-Munawara division. At the time, the leadership thought we should regain Kuwait. I was the most veteran division commander...

Interviewer: In 1994?! Regaining Kuwait?!

Ra'd Majid Al-Hamdani: In September, 1994.

Interviewer: Who brought this up?

Ra'd Majid Al-Hamdani: The supervisor of the Republican Guards [Qussay] presented the position of President Saddam Hussein, the chief commander of the armed forces. This was at the Republican Guards headquarters, in the presence of the commander of the Republican Guards, and the commanders of the six corps we had then.

Interviewer: He met with the corps commanders?

Ra'd Majid Al-Hamdani: Yes. He asked us: "What military capabilities are available to the Republican Guards to carry out this mission?" I was the first commander to talk...

Interviewer: Was this political madness, or what?

Ra'd Majid Al-Hamdani: I think the siege took its toll and was weakening the Iraqi people, and apparently this was one of the options.
<...>
Interviewer: Where was Saddam Hussein during the war? Was he in Baghdad? Did he move from one place to another? Was he in the operations headquarters of the chief-of-staff?

Ra'd Majid Al-Hamdani: According to my information, he was in Baghdad, and would come to the operations rooms of the Republican Guards and the army. He moved from one place to another in this way. One of the brothers told me that on April 7, he raised his fist to show that victory was ours. This was on April 7...

Interviewer: While the Americans were...

Ra'd Majid Al-Hamdani: Inside Baghdad.

Interviewer: You met with him and knew what he thought. How could the chief commander of the armed forces... Let's set politics aside – he was a military commander as well, so how could he say those things?

Ra'd Majid Al-Hamdani: Let me quote something he said once. Whether I agreed with him at the time or not is another matter. He said: "Victory will be ours, we will definitely win, because we are the only army in the world that still fights for the sake of Allah, and Allah will not abandon this army until it wins, and I am telling you that the Americans will reach a desert near Baghdad, and there we will bring America to its knees. Then, I will send you to liberate Palestine. The reason Allah will help us bring America to its knees..."

Interviewer: Did you hear this from him?

Ra'd Majid Al-Hamdani: I heard it myself from President Saddam Hussein.

[...]

Interviewer: But what about the facts? Did anyone ask him what the grounds were for such a victory?

Ra'd Majid Al-Hamdani: In our private meeting in 1994, which I mentioned earlier, I said to him... He was tired of hearing the facts that were presented to him in this way. He said to me: "Look, you think one plus one equals two. But for me, it could equal ten, because I have a mission."

(Via the Dawn Patrol)

Expanding your minds

In order to broaden the appeal of MilBlogs I've decided to throw some non-military news up.

Enjoy.

New York Men At High Risk of HIV Eligible for Circumcision

New York health officials are considering initiating a campaign that proposes circumcision for men at high risks of contracting AIDS.

Officials at the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said the planned campaign to encourage the procedure was inspired by a recent World Health Organization announcement backing circumcision as an effective way to prevent the syndrome, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday that he was still not sure what role the city should have and that this was a plan in working progress, not knowing “whether it's something that the government should be involved in, or just giving advice and making sure that people get educated.”

More hunger, drought, and hurricanes on the way as the world warms

Billions of people across the world face hunger, severe water shortages and displacement as a result of increased temperatures, an international panel of scientists and politicians concluded yesterday.

10 Reasons (Besides Howard Stern) Why Sanjaya's Still On 'Idol'

Whether it's entertainment value, pity, the media or contrariness — it's working.

Florida felons to get voting rights back

Some felons in Florida will be getting their right to vote back.

Republican Governor Charlie Crist and the state clemency board have today approved a rule that restores voting and other civil rights.

The state attorney general strongly objects.

Crist has long favored making it easier for felons who have done their time to once again vote. He says it's a matter of justice.

There is compromise in the plan. Murderers and other violent felons will still need a hearing or review.

War foes go to public for winning answers

Democratic policymakers searching for a winning argument for why it's time to get out of Iraq have ditched expert advisers - and appealed to the public for help.

New of Afghanistan - 53rd Edition

Cell phones, Dutch "restraint", microfinance, floods, earthquakes and super bazaar! All here.

Re: CNO has spoken

Among all the other issues, it seems there might be a little difference in UK tactics:

There was criticism, too, that the Cornwall's boats were sent close to the Iranian border without enough firepower or support. American boarding parties usually have four patrol boats with at least two standing off to provide covering fire.

H/t: NOSI

The CNO has spoken

To build off some of the questions Grayhawk and SMASH have brought up - the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Mullen (a Surface Warrior Officer) had a one-on-one interview earlier today with CNN. I cannot find it on their site, but that is OK - I remember what the CNO said.

The question was asked, twice, something to the effect, "What would our Sailors and Marines have done in a similar situation the British servicemembers found themselves?"

The CNO was very short and to the point. I paraphrase, but not too far from his actual words,

My Sailors would not have been taken prisoner.

Carry on.

A New Pragmatism

The New York Times published an OP Ed today, written by a couple of academics, extolling the virtues of resolving any and all differences with Iran by acquiescence, concession, willful ignorance, or submission to Iran.

Yes, I’m quite sure that would make Iran less belligerent. As a model for negotiation, however, Nasr and Takeyh provide a breath-taking example of “winning consensus” by surrendering every objective in contention. Iran clearly subscribes to the North Korean school of conflict resolution, and in this Op Ed, the Times suggests that we would benefit playing the same game with Iran.

Only a career diplomat or foreign relations academic could so thoroughly hold to artifice as reality and ignore inconvenient truths. Missing in this OP Ed is any mention of two facts very inconvenient for the authors’ hypothesis.

One is that Britain benefited in any way from the “successful resolution” of this crisis, other than the minor achievement of (possibly) saving the lives of 15 British Marines. (Possibly, as we cannot know for certain to what ends Iran might have put the captives, beyond the obvious PR benefit they well and fully derived.) Rather, Britain was humiliated, and completely exposed as one of the Paper Lions her very real non-state and state enemies consider her to be.

The other is that, rather than the benign “status-quo power” the authors portray, Iran has been an active participant in directing, fomenting, and supporting armed violence and terror attacks against US and coalition forces, Iraqi Security Forces, and Iraqi civilians of all ethnic groups and allegiances. More to the point, for the authors to contend that Iran “abandoned the goal of exporting its revolution to its Persian Gulf neighbors at the end of 1980s” reveals them as willfully ignorant, or propagandists.

This is the New York Times, so one might be tempted to presume that anyone invited to write an Op ED for the Times on matters of Iran might, by design intent, be a propagandist. That makes them perhaps of the same stripe as the Editorial Board.

I am sure Nasr and Takeyh are very well versed in the Persian object of their admiration. But either they advocate for a committed cause, are not as well schooled as they think, or are genuinely dishonest. There is that much disconnect between the diplomatic situation they describe, and the gritty self-interested aggression of the Iranians, that clearly refutes the basis of their proposition.

(Futher commentary over at Dadmanly.)

It all worked out in the end for Vietnam didn't it??

via Retuers

(Washington, DC, April 6, 2007) On the eve of Bloc 8406's first anniversary, members of the group, which calls for greater political freedom in Vietnam, still face harassment and abuse, including imprisonment, Human Rights Watch said today. The Vietnamese government should end its persecution of citizens trying to exercise their rights to free expression and assembly, Human Rights Watch said.

Re: Experts

James Baker, co-chair of the Iraq Study Group:

Unfortunately, more than 100 days after the Iraq Study Group released its report, we are further than ever from a consensus. Recent narrow votes in the House and Senate, largely along partisan lines, illustrate our country's continuing division on this critical issue.

The best, and perhaps only, way to build national agreement on the path forward is for the president and Congress to embrace the only set of recommendations that has generated bipartisan support: the Iraq Study Group report. The Iraq Study Group was composed of five Democrats and five Republicans. Each of us has strong wills and views. But we managed to find consensus for 79 recommendations that we suggested be carried out in concert. Our leaders could still use this report to unite the country behind a common approach to our most difficult foreign policy problem.

The report does not set timetables or deadlines for the removal of troops, as contemplated by the supplemental spending bills the House and Senate passed. In fact, the report specifically opposes that approach. As many military and political leaders told us, an arbitrary deadline would allow the enemy to wait us out and would strengthen the positions of extremists over moderates. A premature American departure from Iraq, we unanimously concluded, would almost certainly produce greater sectarian violence and further deterioration of conditions in Iraq and possibly other countries.

Democratic policymakers searching for a winning argument for why it's time to get out of Iraq have ditched expert advisers - and appealed to the public for help.

Questions have been raised...

...he said, in passive voice.

Via comments on Smash's post:

Check out the post at Red State. He did some homework on the positions of the players...seems the RHIB was at least 4 miles from home plate (YIKES!) (oh, still in 50' with a 28' draft...)

Posted by xformed at 2214Z

...even if they couldn't fire unless fired upon, a warship is d***ed intimidating and a dash towards the site would have seemed in order. I'm sure there might be some recommended rule about minimum depth, but that Captain had a boarding party in danger. If the thing draws 25 feet, you take it to 26, maybe less.

In Other Training News

via Defenselink

Q Thank you, General. The debate back home is about the funding, and there seems to be some discrepancy between when exactly the Congress's failure to fund the war is going to start affecting the troops on the ground.....

GEN. CALDWELL:But I can tell you from over here, it's going to have an immediate impact in the sense that the MNSTC-I element that we have is charged with building, equipping, helping to develop the Iraqi security forces, and that is going to have an impact on them. Now to what degree? You know, we can get into a lot more specifics, but they are already starting to feel the effects of not having this funding.

Someone in Washington needs to get a clue.

Re: Home are the Sailors...

Now that they're safely home, I have to ask:

The Royal Navy and Marines are not subject to the same Code of Conduct which governs U.S. military personnel who are captured by the enemy. But had they been, how many of the articles would they have violated?

Also, to my knowledge, most U.S. Navy VBSS (Visit, Boarding, Search & Seizure) teams aren't currently required to go through SERE training. In light of recent events, should we revisit this?

U.S. Military Code of Conduct copied in extended entry, for reference.

Training

February

At least 143 soldiers joined Fort Stewart's 1st Brigade too late to participate in a final combat exercise before their units deployed to Iraq.

Last week, one of those soldiers - Pvt. Matthew T. Zeimer, 18 - was the first from the brigade to be killed when he was hit by enemy fire in Ramadi, the stronghold of Iraq's Sunni insurgency.

Zeimer arrived at Fort Stewart on Dec. 18 after basic training and deployed to Iraq just a few weeks later. He missed the brigade's intensive four-week mission rehearsal in October when more than 1,300 trainers and Iraqi role-players came to the post as part of the most realistic training program the Army offers for Iraq operations.

He concludes with:

Very little public information is available on Private Zeimer’s death, so we have no way of knowing whether additional training would have helped.

News from Sadr City

In spite of the location, I suspect the usual suspects in this one:

In a sign of opposition to the sweep, a U.S.-Iraqi security center in Sadr City, a Shiite Muslim stronghold in Baghdad, came under attack by mortars and a suicide car bomb. Two security officers and two civilians were hurt.

The car bomber was halted by blast barriers at the front gate and detonated his payload about 350 yards from the center's main building. A mortar round struck inside the compound about the same time.

The security center, like others around Baghdad, was set up as part of the U.S.-Iraqi crackdown launched Feb. 13 to stem sectarian violence in the capital.

Other Sadr news:

BAGHDAD — Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday fired two senior members of his movement after they met with the top U.S. military officer in Iraq, a lawmaker close to the anti-American cleric said.

Salam al-Maliki and Qusay Abdul-Wahab, members of parliament in al-Sadr's bloc, were having dinner at the home of former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari on Monday when Gen. David Petraeus, arrived, the legislator said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

More incarcerated sailor news

Hassan "the father of jihaad" says: "Not Guilty":

A former Navy sailor pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges that he supported terrorism by disclosing secret information about the location of Navy ships and the best ways to attack them. The sailor, Hassan Abujihaad, 31, of Phoenix, was arraigned in United States District Court in New Haven. He has been held in bail since his arrest last month in Phoenix. His lawyer, Dan LaBelle, filed a motion on Tuesday asking that Mr. Abujihaad be released based on conditions determined at a hearing. Mr. LaBelle has said his client has a job and two small children. A hearing on the request is scheduled for April 11. Mr. Abujihaad, who was employed at a U.P.S. warehouse in Phoenix, is accused in a case that began in Connecticut and followed a suspected terrorist network across the country and into Europe and the Middle East.

RE: Grandma Makes Peace

Several commenters have objected to the “silly” reference I made previously to “Grandma” Pelosi.

Obviously, the reference to Speaker Pelosi as Grandma was sarcasm. But it’s sarcasm with intent, to make a point that should be just as obvious.

Speaker Pelosi and her party genuinely believe that much of the "problems" we experience are directly attributable to the President and his administration, not Global terror networks and their state sponsors.

Speaker Pelosi, who stressed her credentials as a "Grandmother" throughout the 2006 Congressional Campaign, embraced the symbolism in her matronly role by saying that the Government would be given back to our children, and even had dozens of little scamps all over the House the day the new Representatives were sworn in.

Pelosi and her cohorts are convinced that the Bush Administration displays a combative, belligerent, and "cowboy" style in US Foreign Affairs. They have continually made reference to the "cowboy" style of the current Commander in Chief. They are convinced that the "Global War on Terror" is a construction of propaganda. Each major act of war or terror that Iran, Syria, "insurgents" in Iraq perpetrate is excused and justified by an "aggressive" and "offensive" US Foreign Policy, run by Bush and Cheney.

In contrast, Pelosi believes that a gentler Diplomacy is possible with tyrants, dictators, authors of oppression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other forms of brutality and crimes against humanity. Speaker Pelosi quite intentionally plays off her grandparent status, presenting herself as the wise (but quite stylish) elder, who can introduce a more sophisticated foreign policy, as imagined by the Democrats.

You don't think Speaker Pelosi wasn't intentionally calling her Grandmother persona to public mind? I can't think of a better depiction of Speaker Pelosi than coifed in her headscarf. How reminiscent of a Babushka or head covering of Slavic grandmothers.

She and her party view terror and national security as amenable to kindness, gentility, politeness and elder wisdom. Those of us who fight the war against terrorists [not to be called a Global War on Terror] know such thinking is not only foolish and juvenile, but dangerous as well.

Sometimes, evil is evil and wrong is wrong. The British Marines, patrolling in Iraqi waters, did not need to apologize for doing their jobs. They did not offend nor did they break any laws or violate any code on conduct in fulfilling a mission, one that started with the removal of a brutal tyrant and sponsor of terror, and continues in securing an Iraqi Democracy. Iran, on the other hand, violated both the letter and the spirit of the Geneva Conventions to which they are a signatory.

Democrats, led by their Grandmother Speaker, think the Bush Administration has worsened national security, exacerbated tensions with tyrants, fueled anti-American sentiment the world over, and created a Global War on Terror that is imagined, with no real enemies, but rather just big misunderstandings, in effect caused by our own aggression. We need to make nice with Iran and Syria, we need to understand them, talk to them, and not let these misunderstandings be misconstrued as acts of war against the Paper Lions. Such, Britain has already become, under Democratic “leadership” we shall soon be too.

So Grandma Pelosi it is. When and if she and her party are willing to join us in this fight against terrorists and their state sponsors [not to be called a Global War on Terror], we can treat her differently, but with no less respect. For what can be more worthy of respect than a Grandparent? If she doesn’t retain absolute moral authority, she must have just about the next best thing.

But still not home...

...and mommy misses him so:

WASHINGTON — The parents of "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, who is serving a 20-year sentence in the country's toughest federal prison, stepped up their request for his release Wednesday by noting that the first U.S. war crimes tribunal in Guantanamo Bay recently resulted in a sentence of nine months for an Australian detainee held in U.S. custody since late 2001.

"John has been in prison for more than five years," said his mother, Marilyn Walker. "It's time for him to come home."

Lindh's lead lawyer, James J. Brosnahan of San Francisco, called the effort "a simple cry for justice."

Update: Wasn't sure whether to add this item to this story or the one below, so I flipped a coin:

A gag order imposed by a U.S. military commission preventing confessed Taliban militiaman David Hicks from talking to the media likely can't be enforced once he returns to Australia, the attorney general said.

Hicks, who last week admitted to aiding al-Qaida, will be sent to a prison in his hometown of Adelaide before the end of May to serve a nine-month sentence, under a plea deal agreed at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

One condition of the deal is that he must not speak to the media for a year _ including during the three months after his scheduled release from prison on Dec. 31.

Told by an Australian Broadcasting Corp. television interviewer late Tuesday that the gag order meant nothing and that Hicks would be able to talk to the media, Australia's Attorney General Philip Ruddock replied: "I suspect you're probably right."

Home are the Sailors...

... home from the sea
according to this tale
from the AP

LONDON — A British navy crew returned home Thursday from Iranian captivity to the relief of a nation, after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced their surprise release and ended the two-week crisis. The 15 sailors and marines broke open champagne and changed into fresh uniforms on the flight home. After landing, they smiled and stood at attention before being whisked by helicopter to the Royal Marines base at Chivenor, southwest of London.

Update: in earlier news:

BAGHDAD, April 4 — American officials are reviewing an informal request from the Iranian government for an envoy to visit five Iranians who were imprisoned after an American raid in northern Iraq in January, an American military spokesman said Wednesday.

The spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, said at a news conference that the request was “being assessed at this time.” He added that the Americans had conducted the raid to go after people suspected of carrying out illegal operations in Iraq. The general did not say when the Americans might approve or reject the request.

Dressed for Success

Responses to these two images probably define the fundamental split in America today.

The Experts Have Failed

Looks like the Democrats haven't found any Generals worth listening to lately:

Democratic policymakers searching for a winning argument for why it's time to get out of Iraq have ditched expert advisers - and appealed to the public for help.

Rank-and-file supporters have been asked to explain to the party why the troops should be brought home. And the best grass-roots tacticians could replace politicians as the public face of the Democrats.

"We want people like you to explain why it's time to end the war and bring our people home," party spokeswoman Karen Finney said in a circular sent to members.

One significant problem the Dems have with experts is their near unanimous view of the hell hole Iraq will become if the US were to withdraw on their timetable, and the implications of that for the region and the rest of the world.

Here's what happened the last time the Democrats tried to consult experts. Fortunately, reporters were able to keep most of this information under wraps, and the "listen to the Generals" lie is still alive and well.

Here's another expert they won't want to hear:

Q: "What would you like to say to those who want American troops to leave Iraq tomorrow?" A: "I can only imagine the tragic consequences that would follow...and the blood... and the price we'd have to pay....a disaster..."

That's via Marc "Armed Liberal" Danziger's Victory PAC. He's looking for military family members and former GIs who'd like to appear in future videos, too. Contact info here.

The Long Shadow of Abu Ghraib

Bing and Owen West write of progress in Anbar (and the Anbar Salvation Council) in the WSJ's online Opinion Journal. Among many positive notes, this caution:

There remain problems that require military solutions, however. Neither the coalition nor the Iraqi government is prepared to imprison the sharp increase in killers like Abu Muslim who are being netted in the surge in Baghdad and the tribal awakening in Anbar. No one wants to take the heat from the mainstream press that would accompany the construction of prisons and the indefinite incarceration of several tens of thousands of insurgents.

In response to the 2003 abuses at Abu Ghraib, the U.S. military and the Iraqi government instituted a catch-and-release system that Sweden would find too liberal. Unlike uniformed prisoners who in past wars were held until the war was over, in Iraq most detainees are released within a few months. To some, this represents a scrupulous adherence to the rule of law, with every insurgent provided the right of habeas corpus.

To the sheiks, it is both naïve and deadly. The Iraqi judicial system in Anbar is nonexistent. Locals are quick to relate stories of killers who returned to murder those who snitched. So it's no surprise that while most insurgents are arrested, some simply disappear.

A previous look at the initial impact of the Abu Ghraib story on the larger war and the obvious implications for today's operations here. (With quotes from many, including Bing West.)

Israel Objects

via Reuters

WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuters) - Objections by Israel are delaying Bush administration plans for a major arms sale to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies aimed at deterring Iran, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Quoting unnamed senior U.S. officials, the Times said on its Web site that Israel was concerned the advanced weapons would erode its military advantage over regional rivals.

Israeli officials came to Washington in recent months to argue against parts of the planned sales, according to the newspaper.

Re: Medals

Specific OIF and OEF medals already exist, and rumor has it they were a source of consternation among some who preferred the more generic GWOT "E" and "S" series . The options are now more than a bit confusing to some, for the record I prefer the specific campaign medals.

For what it's worth: the Afghan medal takes precedence over the Iraq, and both are immediately above the GWOT E, which is just above the GWOT S.

But we've created two issues here - one is the medals, which matter to varying degrees to us but to others not at all.

The second is semantic on the surface, but has depths which some would rather not plumb. Some might like to pretend the issue is whether the name is a good one, but lets accept facts up front - the existence of such a battle as the Global War on Terror by any name is the fundamental point of debate, and the issue is far from semantic. (And far from sane in a post-9/11 world.)

But if "War on Terror" is a bit controversial, then how much longer 'til "Operation IRAQI FREEDOM" gets the congressional axe? Put differently, if the Dems are willing to go the route of declaring GWOT a mere "colloquialism" does that mean in not acting they accept the appellation OIF, and all it implies?

Well, well, well

What have we here?

A pattern, perhaps?

Generals, PAOs, and Army Culture.

Dusty and I are having a chat on that subject over at my place. Come on over and add your opinions. This was triggered by Michael Yon's RUBS #3.

Re: Afford?

By the way, can anyone, pro- or con- the war, explain why spending an extra $100 billion then leaving is a good idea? (I'm really more interested in the anti-war response.)

The only rational explanation I can come up with is that the whole supplemental is intended to send a message.

A message to the Shiite dominated Iraqi government to get the militia's under control and address the legitimate grieviences of the Sunni minorty.
A message to "anti-occupation" groups of what long term US intent is.
A message to the Sunni minority that if they really want a civil war they can have one.

Everyone agrees a portion of the Iraqi problem requires a "Political Solution"....I would quote John Warner(A right wing hawk if there ever was one) speaking to General Petraus..."Leave the Politics to Us".

I would note that the Sadr City Offensive...which had the potential to be the bloodiest battle of the war by orders of magnitude has gone exceedingly well.

The other explanation is that various members of Congress just vote whichever way the wind blows.

Grandma Makes Peace?

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi makes an independent, unauthorized trip to Syria to make diplomatic overtures to Syrian President Bashar Assad, as reported by the Associated Press. Her trip immediately followed her visit to Israel earlier this week.

Her message to both countries: Grandma Speaker wants the kids to stop that bickering and just get along.

Obviously believing Foreign Policy to be well within the ken of the average Grandparent, US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi makes nice with Dictator Assad in Syria. This is contrary to US Foreign Policy, as constitutionally conducted by the Executive Branch. Her go-it-alone diplomatic initiatives are, however, entirely in line with the desires of new Democratic Party majorities, who view the constrictions of the US Constitution as quaint, and ever malleable and adaptable to whatever they want at any moment.

The problem is, there are excellent reasons the founders invested powers and responsibilities for foreign policy with the Presidency. Not least among them, the United States must speak with a unified voice on matters of International Relations. When Speaker Pelosi starts doing her wise old Grandmother shtick with foreign dictators, elevating them to co-equal status with Democracies and allies such as Israel (or the US for that matter), she confounds and acts against US national interests, however wrong and misguided Grandma Pelosi believes them to be.

CNN: Iran To Free British Sailors And Marines

CNN is reporting that Iranian President Ahmadinejad is meeting with the British hostages as they are being freed, after he "pardoned" them as "a goodwill gesture for the Iranian new year which began last week".

'Bout effin' time. Now we'll see if the Brits let their people tell the press what they wen't through during their captivity, or if part of the agreement to free them included a clause to not cause the Iranian regime any "undue embarrassment".

GWOT - begone!

I am not sure what the purpose behind this really is... but I suspect it might be a little awkward when it comes to awards of the GWOT or GWOT-E.

Some Rep (D) would have to mention that a constituent was awarded the _________ Service Medal or ___________ Expeditionary Medal?

Go figure.

Afford?

Senator Harry Reid:

REID: AMERICA CANNOT AFFORD BUSH STRATEGY ANY LONGER

Washington, DC—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, released the following statement today after comments made by President Bush at the White House:

The President today asked the American people to trust him as he continues to follow the same failed strategy that has drawn our troops further into an intractable civil war. The President's policies have failed and his escalation endangers our troops and hurts our national security. Neither our troops nor the American people can afford this strategy any longer.

Democrats will send President Bush a bill that gives our troops the resources they need and a strategy in Iraq worthy of their sacrifices. If the President vetoes this bill he will have delayed funding for troops and kept in place his strategy for failure.

Unless, of course, you are absolutely unconcerned about how the press will cover the story.

By the way, can anyone, pro- or con- the war, explain why spending an extra $100 billion then leaving is a good idea? (I'm really more interested in the anti-war response.)

Finally, here's how "the Pentagon" will respond if funds aren't made available in time. Because I already know there's no answer to my question above, I'll repeat here that the pork-laden bill to stop the surge and withdraw troops from Iraq is not the supplemental Iraq and Afghanistan funding bill that will ultimately (and hopefully soon) have to be debated in congress - it's a political ploy, and a dangerous one to be conducted in time of war.

Re: Dizzy? Maybe it's from all the spin

Consider the sourcevia SanDiego Online

NEW YORK – Kim Gamel, a veteran correspondent and editor for The Associated Press, has been appointed to the new position of news editor in Baghdad......Before joining the AP, Gamel was a reporter for The Moscow Tribune in Russia

I'd note that Ms. Gamel was frequently quoted by various hard left rags while she was working for the Moscow Tribune.

Neverland

Michael Ware has made this point repeatedly and emphatically during his 15 minutes of fame:

This has been done time and time again. U.S. generals and U.S. representatives have often been able to conduct such walks.

But Congressman Mike Pence says this:

We were the first group of American dignitaries ever to tour parts of Baghdad since the beginning of the war.

Anyone have evidence to the contrary?

*Recently Hillary Clinton gave a news conference from there in which she declared the American people think the mission will fail, and more recently the Pelosi/Murtha duo shot through like shite through a goose to talk to the troops about "the intelligence that got us into the war."

Dizzy? Maybe it's from all the spin...

Congessman Mike Pence, (D-In), was there:

John McCain is a national figure and a maverick. We have had our differences on issues but never on the object of this journey. John McCain, himself a former Navy airman and Vietnam P.O.W., is the third generation of his family’s extraordinary American military leaders. He has never wavered in his belief in the justice of our cause in Iraq. He was the first leader in Congress to call for a surge of U.S. forces in Iraq. He commands the respect of our generals on the ground and the Iraqi leaders who recognize him as a national leader in America. I think his personal story of heroism and his lineage also give him real currency in the Arab world. Sheikh Sattar greeted him in Ramadi with the words, “we know of you and know of your proud family of warriors and we respect you.” It was an extraordinary privilege for this small-town boy to travel with this national figure for his first visit to Iraq since the surge began. This would be a journey of firsts.

A couple details Pence left out: Sheikh Sattar is the leader of the Anbar Salvation Council, I hope that name is familiar (but if not, read this, then this, this, this, this, this, this, and this...). And if McCain is a third generation GI, his son the Marine is a fourth.

But the spin I'm talking about isn't from Pence or McCain, it's from the folks who will make sure that Michael Ware is the only voice heard on this trip. Every minute of air time and every column inch of newsprint devoted to Ware decrying the accusations that he laughed at a press conference is a minute or an inch that could have reported on Iraq.

But given how those reports usually go, perhaps that's for the best. (Egregious example follows...)

I'm Dizzy

Will it ever end?

There are people who could clear this up, and I have to admit - I want to know the real story. Not sure why, but I do.

Hey Look

I've got another column up over at Townhall.com. One where I use lots of important sounding military phrases and words like "paradigm."

I wanted to title it "IRAN IS TEH SUXOR!!!!!" but Mary Katharine wouldn't let me. She also spell-checked the hell out of it....did you guys know there was an "h" in dinghy? Seriously.

Cross Posted at Home Base.

Made in Iraq

In case you missed it, my Navy buddy Patrick Lasswell is traveling with Michael Totten in Iraqi Kurdistan. In his latest report, from Suliamaniya, Lasswell and Totten discover a high-tech Iraqi water bottling plant, complete with robots.

Last week I spotted something amazing, formed into the base of my water bottle was a bold announcement: the bottle was made in Iraq... We got in touch with our fixer and he arranged things so that a few days after noticing the imprint, we were standing next to the machine making them and the man who got things working in Iraq, Salar Fakhri. The factory Salar built was unremarkable to me at first because everything seemed perfectly in order. Then I remembered that my personal standard for factories is my experience at Intel circuit board and computer production plants in Oregon. Salar has brought high technology standards to Iraq. People moved around the machinery in lab smocks taking care to keep the line moving smoothly. There was no yelling over the equipment noise, no frantic action to avert disaster at the last minute, no hint of grime on the equipment, and nothing to suggest that this was anything but a modern industrial plant.

Read the rest.

Re:Re: Ware Video

Security is 90% Illusion. I religiously renew my drivers license on the prescribed date...even though I've only ever been stopped by a policeman twice in my life. The fine for driving without a license is a lot less then 30 years of renewal fees.

Things like presence patrols...high Government officials glad handing in markets etc. add to that illusion. The illusion of security actually creates securty.

The "Broken Window" theory of law enforcement says that if you enforce "J-Walking" and "Littering"...other crime will drop as well.

It does...as it creates the illusion of Security. The Illusion os security creates real security, as people will volunteer more information to the police when they feel secure. How many police/troops would one need...if all the citizens regularly phoned into the police and gave them the address of bad people? "Officer...that thug you were looking for...3 houses down."

Everything AlQueda does is to detroy that illusion. I'm all for an open and free press...but let's understand the cost...everytime CNN does an "All is Lost Broadcast"...that is beamed into millions of Iraqi homes....who then conclude that it is unsafe to co-operate with the police....the job gets harder.

One More Chance

If you missed Robert Stokely's interview this afternoon with Andrea Shea-King, you missed a lot. It was riveting to listen to Robert introduce us to his son, talk about the grieving/coping process and how Gold Star Families support one another.

Photo of Robert and Andrea taken in the studio today:

Robert's interview was so compelling that Andrea held him over for two segments. But, if you missed it, you have a chance to hear it at approximately 10:05 EST when Robert's portion of the broadcast will be replayed. Click here to listen. Don't jump out after the first segment because Robert stays on for two more.

Someone in the chat room, where there wasn't a dry eye, commented on why we have to hear from Cindy Sheehan so much, but people like Robert Stokely are brushed under the rug by the mainstream media. Indeed.

Rare Ware Video

Unnamed sources have provided this blog with some out takes:

Update: Actual video of the McCain Baghdad presser here. (Via Instapundit) No support whatsoever for the Drudge story.

Now back to the two comments Ware did make that tell a different story. The first was from the Wolf Blitzer interview that began the story, Ware's characterization of congressional Iraq withdrawal demands as "artificial deadlines that are going to get vetoed by the president" that "even if they were to pass through the legislative process, would only serve al Qaeda and Iran, America's enemies"

The second, from the actual Soledad O'Brien interview in which Ware said McCain's ability to walk armored and under guard in Baghdad wasn't "a sign of the real progress of the surge which the senators should be talking about."

That's the real story - but both interviewers let the comments slide without asking the obvious followup questions in favor of the more sensationalist angles.

Which validates McCain's actual central point - not that he can stroll through a Baghdad market, but that the media won't tell you the real story.

My last rock post

Thanks to many of you, a Gold Star Mother was able to dedicate a rock garden in memory of her fallen son yesterday. Rocks from all fifty states were sent to Marcia Kincaid, almost one-third of which came from milbloggers and our readers. Thank you.

I'll soon have photos, and possibly video, of the dedication ceremony.

Today at 4:00 EST, Gold Star Parents Robert Stokely and Marcia Kincaid will appear on the Andrea Shea-King Show. Tune in here at 4:00 EST to listen to Andrea's interview with these amazing parents, and to join the chat room.

Re: Ware UPDATED

Ware responds.

Update: Was Drudge wrong?

Fed Up and Fighting Back

MY FRIEND MARC DANZIGER IS FED UP.

I'm a liberal Democrat (pro-gay marriage, pro-choice, pro-progressive taxation, pro-equal rights, pro-environmental regulation, pro-public schools) who supported and supports the war in Iraq. As I tell my liberal friends "Did I miss the part where it was progressive not to fight medieval religious fascists?"

But instead of complaining, he's doing something about it. You can help.

Re: Zbig making the rounds

Since Brzezinski is no longer a senior government official (and hasn't been one for almost three decades, thank God!), I'm guessing that the UCMJ no longer precludes me from calling him a highly educated moron. An academic stuffed shirt. A total nimcompoop.

He was a disaster as Carter's National Security Advisor, and continues to embarass himself to this day.

There, that feels much better!

Re: Re: Ware

The first rule of being "our man" somewhere...is that if you take a vacation...someone else will be sitting in your chair.

How many nights did "CBS News with Dan Blather" not have Dan Blather?

BTW...if anyone sees Dan...ask him whether he can identify the difference between Taif and the Afghan/Pakistan Border?

Re: We-ah

Well, that's how *I* like to say his name.

Re: What to Make of This

Seriously, there is only one answer.

A Chat with General David Petraeus

Hey, who has an exclusive interview with General Petraeus posted??

Yeah that's right. OPFOR.

God, we rule. Seriously, we do.

Re: What to Make of This?

I think C-Cpan is a fairly low budget operation. Covering two events simulatneously is probably beyond their capability. They were probably also quite surprised by the turnout of "Gathering of Eagles".
So the problem with not covering "Gathering of Eagles" was that there were already commited to covering yet another Media Benjamim "Communists 'R Us" production.

I 've watched Brian Lamb for ages...decent enough guy...tries to stay neutral.

I'd like to see someone debate Media Benjamim on C-Span...I nominate Grim, or maybe we can get one of the Fadhil Brothers from Iraq to debate that Totalitarian Apologist.

Re: Ware

Ware has a bit of a history of splitting hairs.

That said, he has very much "been there". One can read that linked account with various interpretations, of course - especially in light of Buck's comments and this one at PowerLine's forum (on assumption it is authentic).

Inarguably, it seems to me he very much needs a vacation.

But has anyone seen an actual transcript (or video) of what went on in Baghdad between Ware and McCain? I'm aware of the Drudge interpretation - I'm looking for the real deal.

(Disclaimer: I'm on record.)

Re: Michael Ware(ing) Thin

Blast from the past alert: Just over one year ago I sent the following email from Mosul to Hugh Hewitt upon seeing an Anderson Cooper satellite feed segment featuring Ware, Hewitt, and Mike Yon on CNN. At the time, Ware seemed particularly in love with himself for being allowed to hang out with the jihadists without being beheaded. Hmmm, I wonder why they found keeping him alive had more utility for them them videotaping his execution?

I heard the interview on CNN with Mike Yon and yourself and that irritating Aussie. (All I can think of when I hear him is Robert Downey Jr.'s "Wayne Gale" portrayal in Natural Born Killers).Let me just say Cooper's argument that troops only "hide out on their bases" and don't see the "full picture" like those brave embeds do is total nonsense. They embeds are the ones never leaving the bases, and they are left to interview the support soldiers that never leave the wire either.

The infantry platoons spend more time out in the streets than any normal Iraqi would, and we spend up to 12 hours a day patrolling throughout the city and actually seeking out trouble wherever it may be. And we keep this pace up for a year straight. What Iraqi or reporter can make that claim? So to say we don't know what's going on is preposterous.

Journalists like Michael Ware are glory hounds (you can hear it in his voice) that come to Iraq to make a name for themselves as "war correspondents", and the only way they can do that is if all they do is cover nothing but blood and guts and gore. It's not exactly great copy to file a report that says, "I spent eight hours on patrol and absolutely nothing remarkable happened and I was bored stiff." That would be the truth on the majority of patrols, but it's not exciting and no one wants to read that so it's not going to get filed.

What to Make of This?

C-SPAN declined to cover the Gathering of Eagles a couple of weeks ago, but they did cover "the other side." Many people complained about this decision. Suddenly, C-SPAN seems very interested in pro-troop events.

C-SPAN sent me an e-mail last night asking, "Are there plans for any upcoming pro-troop events?"

After I finished laughing, I replied that the Gathering of Eagles are working on a rally with Rolling Thunder on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, but that we are not ready to make a formal announcement. (We still aren't, FYI.)

This morning, C-SPAN called me and asked me if I knew of any support the troops rallies happening soon anywhere in the country.

Powerline is right...

...about what's wrong with Michael Ware.

Maybe Ware was drunk; that would be consistent with his own description of how he spends his time in Baghdad. But he is an extreme manifestation of an all too common phenomenon--the journalist as advocate rather than neutral observer. One of the many problems with a reporter who becomes an activist, agitating for a particular side of a public issue, is that he loses any hope of objectivity. Having publicly committed himself to the proposition that everything that happens in Iraq is a disaster, having publicly ridiculed those who pointed to optimistic developments, how can anyone trust that Ware's future reporting is giving us anything like the straight story from Iraq? And what does his conduct say about his employer, CNN? How much confidence can we have in their reporting from Baghdad, or anywhere else?

Not much, I would argue.

Me Being a Merc and All

As Hawk put it so kindly...

I have a new post up at B5 called War for Profit.

Even Less Rational...

Here's another press whopper that can go on file with that "$120 billion dollar bill to fund Iraq and Afghanistan":

More than 600 Iraqis have been killed in sectarian violence since March 25, most in a series of high-profile suicide bombings.

Even in Tall Afar, where revenge killings followed a truck bombing declared "the deadliest single strike since the war began four years ago" the government rapidly got the situation under control.

Iraqi troops entered Sunni areas and a curfew was imposed, AP said, while Tal Afar police were confined to bases and were being replaced with officers from Mosul.
<...>
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office ordered an investigation and the U.S. command offered to provide assistance.

Ali al-Talafari, a Sunni member of the local Turkomen Front party, said the Iraqi army had arrested 18 policemen accused in the shooting rampage after they were identified by Sunni families. Shiite militiamen also took part, he said.

Further solidifying the unity of the city’s inhabitants, Abdallah added, “Sunni and Shiite came together to hold one mass funeral for the victims of the terrorist violence.”

Re: rational, rations, whatever...

The cynic in me says all congress ever wanted was the $40-odd billion in pork, and that they'll be willing to trade the withdrawal provisions for that. The bill should be vetoed on the pork provisions alone, and the president says he will.

Note this whopper from your original link:

The Senate last week approved a bill providing $123 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And thereafter friendly "reporters" will refer to the finished product as simpy a "bill providing $140 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The ultra-leftists will feel they got the biggest shaft, but the al Qaeda faithful who've been loyally piling up corpses as fast as inhumanly possible might disagree.

Quote of the Day

"We're always testing the waters."

Hat Tip: Becky, who has more.

A Rational Voice?

Obama Says Congress Will Fund The War:

SIOUX CITY, Iowa - If President Bush vetoes an Iraq war spending bill as promised, Congress quickly will provide the money without the withdrawal timeline the White House objects to because no lawmaker "wants to play chicken with our troops," Sen. Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) said Sunday.

I mean, it's not enough to get my vote or anything....but hey, it's something.

A Victory Ship Named Liberty

A former merchant ship. Laid up in reserve. Called to duty.

Torpedoed. Strafed. Attacked by PT boats.

She withstood the attack. 34 of her crew died. Her skipper was awarded the Medal of Honor.

The whole affair wrapped in controversy.

Details here.

Zbig making the rounds

Zbignew Brzezinski is making the rounds spouting off his theories on the impact of a rapid withdrawl of US Forces from Iraq. I'm not going to atempt to debate him...but let is own words of 1998 speak for themselves.

Via SeattleTimes Sept 19,2001

In an interview three years ago, former National Security Adviser Zbignew Brzezinski answered a question by asking one: "Which is more important in world history? The Taliban or the fall of the Soviet Empire? A few over-excited Islamists or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?"

Sweeps week in Paliwood

Greyhawk posts on Trouble in Sadr Chity

A US airstrike in Sadr City has killed sixteen people, according to reports on official al-Iraqiya television. ...CNN Arabic reports that a source "high" in the Iraqi Interior Ministry has confirmed the attack, saying it came at 2:00 AM, local time.

From MNF-I

(BAGHDAD, Iraq – Despite reports from individuals and some media organizations Coalition forces were not involved in air strikes over Sadr city on Friday.

The real deal....

via AlBawaba

The amount of votes Shatha had received from Iraq alone was almost seven million totaling a cost of five million dollars, reported the London based daily, Elaph.

The entire Middle East was watching 'Star Academy 2007'.....even a phony bombing story on CNN couldn't peel people away.

Re:Kim Jong-il and Hitler, What's the Difference?

Hitler wasn't in charge of guarding the ChiCom's Southern Flank. Glorious Leader Kim will die of a sudden illness the moment the ChiComs have no further use for him.(He is an embarrassment)

The US-ChiCom's have some trust building to go thru before Glorious Kim meets a less than Glorious Death.

Re: Kim Jong Il and Hitler, What's the Difference?

Hitler had a mustache.

Kim Jong-il and Hitler, What's the Difference?

Maybe someone can tell me what the difference is after watching this.