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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Progress, But Still Bleak - WaPo reports from Iraq |
| 2005-06-10 |
| (About half edited out, for length. Registration req'd) BAIJI, Iraq -- An hour before dawn, the sky still clouded by a dust storm, the soldiers of the Iraqi army's Charlie Company began their mission with a ballad to ousted president Saddam Hussein. "We have lived in humiliation since you left," one sang in Arabic, out of earshot of his U.S. counterparts. "We had hoped to spend our life with you." But the Iraqi soldiers had no clue where they were going. They shrugged their shoulders when asked what they would do. The U.S. military had billed the mission as pivotal in the Iraqis' progress as a fighting force but had kept the destination and objectives secret out of fear the Iraqis would leak the information to insurgents. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #9 learning to tell a q from a g is also hard. my apologies. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-06-10 16:38 |
| #8 I agree, LH that learning to live with ambiquity is pretty hard. I try to find the silver lining in the gloom and doom. My complaint is that I do not believe the press has learned to live with the ambiguity, and they ought to! Maybe their confidence rating would go up? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2005-06-10 15:16 |
| #7 why do they have to be so hard to find cause despite progress, that when you think about it, is pretty incredible, things there are still pretty damned screwed up. Many on the left dont seem to understand that just cause stuff is pretty damned screwed up, the long term trend is good. Many on the right dont seem to understand that just cause the long term trend is good, things are pretty damned screwed up. learning to live with ambiquity is pretty hard. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-06-10 15:10 |
| #6 Interesting, LH. I did see a bit of sunshine, but not as much as you did. Good points. Now .. why do they have to be so hard to find? The "fundamental, perhaps irreconcilable differences" made me gag. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2005-06-10 15:05 |
| #5 Things are going to change according to their schedule, not our politics back home," said Sgt. Jonathan Flynn, 36, of Star Lake, N.Y. "You can't just put an artificial timetable on that." Sergeant Flynn's message is the real takeaway here. Are you listening, Senator Kennedy? Senator Byrd? Chairman Dean? Vice President Cheney? |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-06-10 15:03 |
| #4 "Young Iraqi soldiers, ill-equipped and drawn from a disenchanted Sunni Arab minority, say they are not even sure what they are fighting for. They complain bitterly that their American mentors don't respect them." this is big and good news. Yes, this looks a pretty pitiful unit, with lots of problems. But this is a Sunni Arab unit, and youve got to believe things are a lot better in the Shiite and Kurd units. The mere fact that these guys joined the army, and are doing anything positive at ALL is good news. And yes, youve got to recruit Sunni Arabs - you DONT want the entire Sunni population to think this is a war against them. I presume the US military chose this unit for the reporter for a reason - on the one hand they WANT to discourage the notion that things will be easy - but i think they also want to signal to the more understanding that yes, they ARE recruiting and training Sunni Arab units. Theres more here than meets the eye, folks. And my sympathies to the WaPo reporter whos out there in the war zone, and produced a pretty informative piece. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2005-06-10 15:01 |
| #3 Young Iraqi soldiers, ill-equipped and drawn from a disenchanted Sunni Arab minority The real story is why the Americans are bothering to train the Sunnis at all when the Kurds and Shiaa are more than happy to do the job. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-06-10 14:39 |
| #2 I don't doubt that this Iraqi unit was unfit by American standards. I don't even doubt that a lot of the other Iraqi units are equally bad. There are other units that are pretty good and anyway, they don't have to be good. They just have to be good enough. |
| Posted by: mhw 2005-06-10 13:16 |
| #1 Typical WaPo doom drivel The Iraqi Mil blogs/Mil sites give a much more accurate feel. |
| Posted by: Red Dog 2005-06-10 11:36 |