Article

2006-06-07 Iraq

Al-Qaeda makes gains in the Sunni Triangle

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Posted by Dan Darling 2006-06-07 03:58|| || Front Page|| [7 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I smell bullshit. Why are we reporting this propaganda? Sure, there is an element of truth to this. But the best propaganda always holds a kernel of truth.

I'm not educated enough to debate this or to find the flaw in this piece of propaganda, but my nose is sensitive and I can smell bullshit from a long ways away.

Posted by 2b 2006-06-07 04:15|| 2006-06-07 04:15|| Front Page Top

#2 dont know about Saladin prov, but Ramadi is clearly a huge problem - as in 90% of the city in insurgent hands. US mil says its not like Falujah - cause in Falujah, we were completely out of the city, which is not the case in Ramadi. Ramadi is the capital and largest city in Anbar. We've sent in our reserve brigade from Kuwait to add to coalition forces in Ramadi.

Diyala is where Baquba is, I think, and there have been lots of reports of incidents, but beyond that I dont recall having heard stuff that would support this.

Maybe hes exaggerating (after all, the new guy has some incentive to blame the old guy, and establish a baseline from which its more possible to show improvement) but it sounds to me more like someone facing facts.

Posted by liberalhawk 2006-06-07 09:24|| 2006-06-07 09:24|| Front Page Top

#3 Than why don't you let the marines kill the motherf*ckers so they can come home. Quit crying every time somebody fires off a weapon.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2006-06-07 10:17|| 2006-06-07 10:17|| Front Page Top

#4 Standard stipulations: this stuff is harder than it looks, there may well be things we don't know, and attaining at least a minimally acceptable outcome is still highly probable.

Having said all that, it certainly seems like our resolute irresolution and aversion to offense, our focus on AQI instead of on the Sunni and criminal substrates that are its sine qua non, and the infatuation with social work vs. imposing our will have all been a predictable disaster.

A Baghdad security plan will be launched next week (rhetorically). Time will tell, but I'm sick with doubt that it will be decisive or serious. Hard to imagine a serious campaign being tolerated by the Sunnis in the govt. So we'll get some b.s. like weapons confiscations and temporary surges of IP or IA in certain areas - though no isolation of the neighborhoods everyone knows are the core of the problem.

Our female employees report there are now areas where women venture outside without a hijab at their peril, and where other ridiculous fundamentalist norms are enforced through intimidation. This was not the case even 6 months ago. Right here in Baghdad. Preposterous.

Basra is so bad that I'm told the regional embassy office should probably be closed. The security situation is untenable, local employees have quit or been killed, the UK forces provide minimal support. A mess.

All of this has essentially been chosen by our leadership - none of this was inevitable, most of it was easily avoidable.

Keeing the standard stipulations in mind, many of us here simply cannot understand how everyone from Dubya on down through the chain to Casey or the corps CG could have watched security developments in the last year and been satisfied. Political gains have been great - and their momentum completely unexploited through offensive action.

I keep thinking of Curtis LeMay as he was given the helm of the XXI Bomber Command in the Marianas and told to produce results with the B-29s, or else he'd follow his predecessor and be relieved. Knowing only what I know, I'd have been very tempted to give Casey the same ultimatum a year ago.

I'm told the corps CG now minimizes contact with the development and governance people - he has been openly challenged at so many meetings about the obviously deteriorating security situation. And these are the people who have to help deliver the social and economic improvements the CG mistakenly believes are the prerequisites to security success.

We'll prevail, but seems to me the leadership has been very poor in the last two years. There's a degree of infatuation with complexity and indirection in an environment that's as keyed to a simple calculus of power and domination as any on Earth.

Posted by Verlaine in Iraq 2006-06-07 12:37|| 2006-06-07 12:37|| Front Page Top

#5 VII's comment should be promoted to an Opinion post. That was a great rant and very important. Thanks.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-06-07 13:12|| 2006-06-07 13:12|| Front Page Top

#6 As depressing as it was, thanks for the honest assessment Verlaine.

Posted by tu3031 2006-06-07 13:12|| 2006-06-07 13:12|| Front Page Top

#7 ...and I agree with Nimble.

Posted by tu3031 2006-06-07 13:13|| 2006-06-07 13:13|| Front Page Top

#8 "Than why don't you let the marines kill the motherf*ckers so they can come home. Quit crying every time somebody fires off a weapon."

Maybe cause that wouldnt help?

Look. Theres about 20,000 insurgents. Theres ALWAYS about 20,000 insurgents. Despite our guys (and recently, the Iraqi forces also) doing a good job of killing and arresting insurgents by the thousands, for years now. Theyre not making more deadenders. And Centcom continues to report 90% of the footsoldiers are Iraqis, not foreign jihadis. So where are the insurgent replacements coming from? Gotta be from the general Sunni Arab population.

Unless somebodys got another 200,000 or so US troops to send, and the will to send em, we aint gonna win this without pealing off part of the insurgency through a deal of some kind. And you cant do that at the same time you adopt Roman Empire rules of engagement.

Now Im as impatient as anyone that its taking so long for a deal in Baghdad, but I dont see a better strategy than that.

Posted by liberalhawk 2006-06-07 13:35|| 2006-06-07 13:35|| Front Page Top

#9 " the development and governance people - he has been openly challenged at so many meetings about the obviously deteriorating security situation. "

I could sympathize with him. Here are people who dont engage in combat, who dont command combat soldiers, hectoring him on why, with a fraction of the troops he needs, he cant maintain the security to make their jobs easier. Go ahead, fire Casey. See who else wants that job, under those conditions.

Posted by liberalhawk 2006-06-07 13:38|| 2006-06-07 13:38|| Front Page Top

#10 This whole ruse is because the Iraq parliament has been playing politics with who runs the departments with guns. The kurds should kick some ass and bury the survivors where they lay.

Posted by wxjames 2006-06-07 15:19|| 2006-06-07 15:19|| Front Page Top

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