Al Qaeda is losing in iraq

"Marriages split al Qaeda Alliance" Washington Times By David R. Sands - Iraq's Sunni tribes began turning against al Qaeda when the largely foreign-run terrorist organization tried to arrange forced marriages with local women to secure their foothold in the country, according to a top counterterrorism adviser to the U.S. coalition in Iraq. Australian Col. David Kilcullen, who just completed a tour as senior counterinsurgency aide to U.S. commander Gen. David H. Petraeus in Baghdad, said in an extensive analysis that the decision by the Sunni tribes to break with al Qaeda could prove a major — if unanticipated — boost to President Bush's surge strategy in the country. "The uprising represents very significant political progress toward reconciliation at the grass-roots level, and major security progress in marginalizing extremists and reducing civilian deaths," Col. Kilcullen wrote Wednesday in the military blog Small Wars Journal (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog). With an estimated 30,000 Sunni fighters in Iraq now battling their former al Qaeda allies, "the tribal revolt is arguably the most significant change in the Iraqi operating environment for several years," he added in his entry titled "Anatomy of a Tribal Revolt." Mr. Bush has talked repeatedly about the improving security situation in Anbar province and other Sunni strongholds, saying the shift enhances the prospect for both security and political gains from the military surge. "The momentum is now on our side," Mr. Bush said this week in a speech to the American Legion national convention in Reno, Nev. "The surge is seizing the initiative from the enemy and handing it to the Iraqi people." But critics in Congress and in the antiwar movement warn that the Sunni shift may be temporary, and could create its own problems for the embattled government in Baghdad. Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said yesterday the apparent decline of violence in some Iraqi communities could just be the result of sectarian cleansing that has driven Iraqi Sunnis and Shi'ites out of formerly mixed communities. War critics have also challenged administration assertions that sectarian killings have gone down in recent months. "For the last nine months, the surge has really failed to do anything the president said it would do," Mr. Katulis said. The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff are scheduled to meet with Mr. Bush today to give their assessment of the progress of the Iraq war, the Pentagon said yesterday, two weeks ahead of a crucial progress report to be delivered by the White House to Congress. Col. Kilcullen, writing for a small but influential military readership at the Web site, provides a level of detail about the Sunni tribal dynamic not previously laid out by U.S. military officials, and discusses the major pros and cons of the shifting security landscape. The Australian colonel said that the Iraqi government's own intelligence services picked up on the break between Iraqi Sunni insurgents and al Qaeda long before the U.S.-led coalition did, as it was developing in Anbar and other provinces over the past two years. The tactic of forced political marriages was standard for al Qaeda, according to Col. Kilcullen, used successfully in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere to "embed" the international terrorist network in the local kinship and tribal network. But in Iraq, he wrote, "the tactic seemed to have backfired," in part because the radical Islamist movement failed to appreciate Iraq's brand of Islam. Forced marriages outside the tribe have never been culturally accepted in traditional Iraqi society, and tribal leaders resisted demands for such marriages. Al Qaeda operatives responded by demanding — often violently — such marriages, killing one sheik and brutally murdering the children of another. "[Al Qaeda], with their hyper-reductionist version of 'Islam' stripped of cultural content, discounted the tribes' view as ignorant, stupid and sinful," the colonel writes. The Sunni revolt was fueled by other factors. Al Qaeda terrorist strikes disrupted long-established smuggling and trade routes. Sunni tribal leaders also suspect al Qaeda has established ties to Shi'ite Iran in a bid to defeat the United States in Iraq. The Sunni "awakening" now includes major tribes in Anbar, Diyala, Salah-ad-din and even parts of urban Baghdad, where tribal identities still linger among the urban population. The colonel noted that the Sunni revolt was not sparked by the U.S. military surge, and poses clear risks to the overall U.S. strategy. Among them: the creation of armed Sunni groups not under the full control of the central government; the opposition of some Shi'ite factions within the government and national police to working with Sunni tribes; and the "outside chance" that Sunni tribes that have "flipped" against al Qaeda could "flip back" if they see the central government as hostile. Col. Kilcullen said the major shift on the ground in Iraq may also be ignored in the mounting debate in Washington over Mr. Bush's surge strategy, which was a top-down plan aimed at giving Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and leading Iraqi factions in the Green Zone time and space to make deals. "To be perfectly honest, the pattern we are seeing runs somewhat counter to what we expected in the 'surge,' " he acknowledged, "and therefore lies well outside the 'benchmarks' " for progress that are at the heart of the war debate between the White House and Congress.

More air superiority for usaf

In ceremonies today at Lockheed Martin's aeronautics facility in Marietta, Ga., Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne formally accepted delivery of the 100th F-22 Raptor — arguably the hottest air-supremacy fighter on the planet — which will be assigned to the 90th Fighter Squadron at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska (the 90th FS will have 20 Raptors by fall 2008). According to Lockheed Martin:Raptors are currently assigned to five U.S. bases. Flight testing takes place at Edwards AFB, Calif. Operational tactics development is ongoing at Nellis AFB, Nev. Pilot and crew chief training takes place at Tyndall AFB, Fla. Operational Raptors are assigned to Langley AFB, Va. and at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska . Raptors will also be based at Holloman AFB, N.M., and Hickam AFB, Hawaii.

Strengthening our pacific defenses

Upgrading Military Communications Posted by RICHARD HALLORAN E-Mail This Permalink Email Author The basic commands of "shoot, move, and communicate" apply to a squad of riflemen on the ground, a flotilla of warships at sea, and an armada of bombers in the air. Of the three, communicate can often be the most decisive in making for success or failure. Or, as a battle hardened corps commander in the army once said, in colorful if somewhat inelegant language: "If you ain't got communications, you ain't got nuthin'." In the Pacific and Asia, the armed forces of the United States are undergoing perhaps the most extensive changes since World War II. As an essential element of that transition, the Army has begun to strengthen its communications apparatus to enable the Army of the Pacific to be transformed from an administrative headquarters to an expeditionary, warfighting command. Upgrading Army communications has so far revolved around two moves: * A signal brigade has been transferred from Fort Meade, Maryland, to Fort Shafter, Hawaii, to become a signal command responsible for Army communications In Hawaii, Alaska, Japan, and the southern island of Japan, Okinawa-and wherever else in the Asia-Pacific region that soldiers might be deployed. The 311 Signal Command is led by a major general, Donna L. Dacier. General Dacier was quoted in a unit publication as saying that when her command is fully operational, expected by the end of this year, the Army of the Pacific could take on any mission "and get safe, secure, and reliable communications from the foxhole back to the garrison." * A signal battalion has been moved from South Korea to Hawaii to handle the communications of combat units that might be dispatched to the far corners of the region that extends across the Pacific and Indian Oceans to the east coast of Africa. The 307th Signal Battalion is commanded by a lieutenant abocolonel, Timothy W. Walrod. Colonel Walrod, whose unit is also expected to be fully operational by the end of this year, was quoted as giving a wry bit of philosophy to his troops about leaving South Korea to become the newest unit in the Army of the Pacific: "We have no bad habits, no good habits. We have no reputation.(so) we must excel." Moreover, the transfer of this battalion to Hawaii reflects the steady reduction of US forces in South Korea as the South Korean armed forces have become capable of defending their nation from an attack by North Korea with minimal US help. That reduction has also been motivated by anti-American outbursts suggesting that US forces are no longer welcome in South Korea. In a similar move, the Air Force is transferring a combat communications squadron from South Korea to the island of Guam, which is being built up as a bastion in the western Pacific. That communications unit would support bombers and fighters at Anderson Air Force Base if the aircraft were sent into combat. Likewise, a "Red Horse" engineering unit is being transferred from South Korea to Guam to help construct new facilities to support aerial operations, what in military lingo is called infrastructure, meaning roads, water pipelines, electric power plants and grids, and sewage lines. In addition to providing communications, the signal command must maintain the security of its extensive network of message traffic, telecommunications, radio transmissions, and video conference calls. A team of about 15 soldiers has mounted a 24-hour watch in an operations security center to detect routine breakdowns and especially attempts by hackers to get into the network to disrupt it or to steal information. The center uses a defense in depth to protect the network that includes a series of checkpoints, firewalls, scanners, anti-virus programs and encryption devices, all intended to block intrusions.In the skies above, satellites called Ping Sweep and War Dialer monitors attempts to penetrate the network. China's Peoples Liberation Army, for instance, has begun to emphasize information warfare. A recent Pentagon report asserted that the PLA had established units "to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks, and tactics and measures to protect friendly computers systems and networks." A researcher at the conservative Heritage Foundation, John Tkacik, asserted in a recent essay that PLA units began attack US government networks in 2003. Several attacks were traced, Tkacik said, to a network in southern China. Other Chinese "hackers" were reported to have attacked British computer systems, the State Department, the Department of Commerce, and the US Naval War College.

Hammering al qaeda in diyala province

Weekly Standard Fallujah, Iraq OPERATION LIGHTNING HAMMER in Diyala province--part of Operation Phantom Strike--has flushed scores and perhaps hundreds of insurgents out of the Diyala River Valley northeast of Baqubah. At the end of last week, some al Qaeda fighters "counter-attacked"; not against the Coalition of course, but against innocent civilians. Initial reports suggested an undaunted insurgency. But as the details of the story emerged, they suggested quite the opposite. Many of the al Qaeda fleeing Operation Lightning Hammer have headed south along the seam formed by Coalition forces moving in strength between Baqubah and Baghdad--the way west was blocked by a screen of air assault squadrons, and the way north was blocked by the troops heading down from the north end of the valley. A little over a week ago, some of those fleeing were stopped near Kanan, a town several miles west of Baqubah, by what the military describes as "concerned local nationals"--basically, one of the neighborhood watch groups that are springing up all over Diyala province. Unfortunately for the insurgents, the local tribal sheiks had recently sworn allegiance to the central government, alliance to the Coalition, and enmity to al Qaeda. A firefight ensued and the al Qaeda group was hit hard, reportedly losing some 15 fighters in the engagement. Several days later, around sunrise on the morning of August 23, the al Qaeda fighters returned, armed for revenge. Initial reports had the number of attackers around 200, but initial reports in Iraq are almost always wildly exaggerated. Elements of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division (one of the units involved in the Lightning Hammer clearing operations) arrived later that day to do battle-damage assessments and interview the locals. According to their reports, this is what happened: In coordinated attacks that began around 6:15 a.m., al Qaeda fighters struck at two small villages outside Kanan. The attacks lasted approximately three hours. About 25 gunmen attacked the village of Sheik Thar to the east of Kanan, while about 18 attacked the village of Sheik Younnis to the west. During the attack, ten villagers were killed and eleven more injured, while 14 civilians were kidnapped--nine women and five children. The kidnap victims were related to Sheik Younnis, who was killed in the attacks. An Iraqi Army checkpoint was attacked, also near the village of Sheik Younnis. A mosque was also damaged (no word on the extent of the damage, but I was told that it was still standing--contrary to initial reports). In addition, two houses and an Iraqi Police checkpoint were destroyed by explosives. The villagers fought back, joined eventually by Iraqi Police. Local sources claimed many al Qaeda killed, but no word on how many; according to Sheik Thar, who survived the attacks, Al Qaeda loaded their dead onto trucks. There is no word on the fate of the hostages. Incidents such as this, horrifying as they are, need to be seen in their true light. The attackers of the Kanan incident did their cause no good at all. According to the military, many villagers told the visiting brigade commander that al Qaeda's brutality would only stiffen their resolve and cause other nearby villages to stand up against them. Al Qaeda is no longer master of events in Iraq. Since the surge in operations--and particularly since the start of Phantom Strike--they have lost the initiative. They attacked when and where they did because they are on the run and getting no local support. The attack was forced upon them by the dilemma they face: what to do with their weapons. On the move like this, exposed and with one safe haven after another falling to the Coalition, their weapons are a millstone. There are checkpoints and random patrols all over the place. If they keep their weapons, they risk being identified as insurgents and captured or killed. The surge in both Coalition and Iraqi Security Forces has been accompanied by a significant increase in the number of checkpoints on the major roads in the region. And now that the tribes are turning against them, the back-roads too have become dangerous. That is how the fleeing al Qaeda were ambushed to begin with--which is what led to attacks at Kanan. Faced with this dilemma, many al Qaeda fighters have elected to leave their weapons behind, perhaps to join the increasing numbers of former al Qaeda who are returning to their homes to beg the forgiveness--and receive the justice--of their tribes. The American troops that flooded some 28 locations in the Diyala River Valley turned up an abandoned al Qaeda command post that had only recently been thrown together, with all its communications and other equipment; the clearing operation also netted a small facility to treat the wounded and hundreds of weapons and explosives. But other fighters have not left their weapons behind. And some of those are now running from one hiding place to another in the farmland that lies east of the Baghdad-Baqubah highway, clinging to a small group of terrified women and children, with combat helicopters flying over head, heavily-armed Coalition troops on the move in every direction, and the end nearly upon them.

Hamas readying for new terror campaign

Israeli Says Hamas Is Training Hundreds Abroad By STEVEN ERLANGER JERUSALEM, Aug. 27 — Hamas has sent hundreds of its fighters abroad for military training, most of them to Iran, the Israeli Army’s deputy chief of staff says, and Israel has the names of more than 100 of them. Israel is watching as Hamas, in control of Gaza, is building an army there on the model of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, said the deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky, in a wide-ranging interview conducted 10 days ago at his office in Tel Aviv. He said Hamas was constructing positions and fortifications, building tunnels for fighting and smuggling in explosives, antitank weapons and more sophisticated rockets through the Egyptian desert. Hamas now has improved antitank missiles and mortars and possesses manufactured Katyusha rockets with a range of 10.6 miles, which it is keeping in reserve, General Kaplinsky said. But he said the military training was even more important. “If you let them do what they want to do for a long time, I believe it will be a challenge,” General Kaplinsky said. “I feel we have time to make the most of other possibilities. But if it continues in this way, I believe personally that one day we’ll have to do it” — send Israeli troops into Gaza in a major incursion. Hamas officials have denied that they are sending gunmen abroad for military training. They say that only some police officers have been sent, and none to Iran. But Hamas has been more open about its military efforts in Gaza since June, when it routed its rival Fatah forces in heavy fighting. Hamas, which is classified by Israel, the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organization, and which gets support from Iran and Syria, has a free hand in Gaza. Some leaders in the Israeli Army, including the commander of the southern division, Maj. Gen. Yoav Gallant, argue for an Israeli incursion soon. But his superior, General Kaplinsky, is in no rush for a lengthy campaign in the crowded cities and refugee camps. “We can do it tomorrow,” he said. “But we also understand the price. And given the way Hamas fights, we’ll hurt a lot of civilians, and we don’t want to do it.” The government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also does not want to damage new political progress with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who will meet again on Tuesday with Mr. Olmert in American-sponsored discussions of the principles of a final peace agreement. In Gaza, too, there are signs of disaffection with the heavy-handedness of Hamas, General Kaplinsky said, and Israel is not eager to provide Hamas an excuse to escape the difficulties of governing Gaza amid international isolation. On Sunday, the deputy director of Shin Bet, the internal security agency, told the Israeli cabinet that 40 tons of explosives had been smuggled through Egypt into Gaza since June, a sharp increase. He also suggested that Hamas leaders in exile in Syria were preparing a new round of terrorist attacks inside Israel to try to derail the recent rapprochement with Mr. Abbas, who leads Fatah. Israel has time to watch developments, General Kaplinsky said. “What happens with Fatah?” he asked. “What will be the Egyptian attitude, which may change? What will happen inside Gaza?” Israel and Mr. Abbas have an opportunity, the general said. “It’s maybe even a new era. But the Palestinians have to decide where they’re going, if they want the situation as in Gaza or not.” Hamas and another militant group, Islamic Jihad, can create political havoc, General Kaplinsky said. “The situation in the West Bank is very fragile,” he said. “Any mistake, any failure on our side to prevent terror can change the situation in a day. If tomorrow morning there is a suicide bomber in Jerusalem, we’d have to change a lot of things.” Hamas is strong in the West Bank, too, and Fatah’s hold there is problematic. Asked whether Fatah’s situation is different in the West Bank, where he spent three years as Israel’s commander, General Kaplinsky said: “I really don’t know the difference. I do know for sure the reason that Hamas is considered weak there is because of our security activities.” His job is to worry, he said. And his largest worry is Iran. Its nuclear program aside, he said, “Iran is involved in every instability in this region.” The other main concerns are Syria and Lebanon. Syria is building up sophisticated weaponry at a rapid pace. In the last three years, Israeli officials said, Syria has spent nearly $3 billion on weapons, half of that this year alone. By contrast, in 2003, Syria spent only $75 million. Neither Israel nor Syria wants war, General Kaplinsky said, but he said he worries about Syrian intentions and miscalculations. “We are aware of what we see, and we can’t ignore it,” he said, so Israel has increased its preparations in the north. “It would be very helpful for us to understand what they really want.” As for Lebanon, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Parliament’s foreign and defense committee on Monday that despite the presence of United Nations forces, which are not allowed to patrol the border with Syria, Hezbollah now has more rockets of all kinds than it did before last summer’s war, when it fired some 4,000 rockets at Israel. Israel considers Hezbollah, which was hit hard in the inconclusive war, unlikely to attack again this year. General Kaplinsky said Iran and Syria had replaced much of Hezbollah’s arsenal, “especially the long-range missiles.” Last summer, Israel’s major intelligence success was to know where those large missiles and launchers were hidden, and a majority of the launchers were destroyed in the first two days of the war, meaning that few large missiles hit Israeli cities like Haifa or even Tel Aviv. Asked if Israel possessed similar knowledge today, General Kaplinsky said he could not answer in detail, then added, “We know what we have to know.”

The Air force in iraq

USAF gets far too little credit for role in Iraq By ERIC MARGOLIS Toronto Sun WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Air Force's eyes seem to be everywhere. My July 29 Sun Media column about how the air force is the supreme instrument of U.S. global power, and the decisive role it plays in Iraq and Afghanistan, circulated around the Pentagon. As a result, I was invited this week to brief the U.S. Air Force's Strategic studies group -- known as "Checkmate" -- on the Mideast and southwest Asia. The last time I was in the Pentagon was during my army service in 1968, when I participated in command briefings for the chiefs of staff. For this edifice's 23,000 military and civilian personnel the chiefs are like Valhalla's gods. In the Pentagon's 17 miles of corridors, I half expected to see some lost Second World War officers still looking for an exit. Checkmate, planner of the crushing 1991 U.S. air campaign against Iraq, is an interesting outfit. Recently updated, its brainy commander, Brig Gen. Lawrence Stutzriem, reports directly to the Air Force Chief of Staff, four-star general Michael Moseley, who sits on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and advises the president. "Stutz," as he is known, is destined for senior command. He and his staff of majors and colonels are highly educated, smart, and have open, seeking minds that are often too rare in the stultified, bureaucratic military. The U.S. Air Force has always been the most progressive, forward-thinking of the services. Among Checkmate's jobs are innovative strategy, thinking ahead, and evaluating different strategic viewpoints. The USAF recently added cyberspace to its missions. Checkmate's Dr. Lani Kass, a former Israeli military officer, is heading a new office directing operations across the entire electro-magnetic spectrum. She and Stutz also spend a lot of time trying to implement Gen. Moseley's campaign to renew the "warrior spirit" in the air force's specialized "target and equipment-fixated" officers. This is the curse of specialized high technology. I saw the same phenomena during my own military service in the Vietnam era. Senior U.S. Army officers had become so specialized in technical fields that they had never learned the basics of war: military history, strategy, tactics. So I organized and taught seminars for colonels and generals on just these topics. "Now general," lectured 26-year old me, "let me explain how a pincer attack works." The USAF is fizzing with new ideas, but it is also not happy. The U.S. Army and Marines are getting most of America's sympathy and support for their role in Iraq. The air force, without which these wars could not be waged, and which provides decisive, 24/7 top cover for the troops with almost instant response, gets far too little credit. Ironically, the USAF is a victim of its own success. No U.S. ground troops have been attacked by enemy aircraft since 1953. The USAF has no enemies because it has shot them all down. America's air force fights so efficiently and seemingly effortlessly that neither the U.S. Congress nor public understand the enormous logistic, manpower, financial and technological efforts required to keep it dominating the globe's skies, space, and cyberspace. The over-stretched USAF has been in non-stop combat for the past 17 years. Its aircraft are getting dangerously old. B-52 heavy bombers are now 60. One B-52 pilot I met, nicknamed "Boomer," must have been near half his bomber's age. Tanker aircraft date to 1957. Many fighter aircraft are 24-years old. Non-stop operations over Iraq and Afghanistan are rapidly wearing out aircraft and men. New war looms Meanwhile, war against Iran is looming. Interestingly, a senior Pentagon source insisted, "the decision to attack Iran has not been made" and an attack is "unlikely." But many signs suggest the opposite. Official Washington is often accused of not knowing what's going on abroad. But there are many smart people in the Pentagon, CIA and State Department who do know. The problem -- and tragedy -- is their masters in the White House and Congress are just not listening.

US military veterans love rudy giuliani

RUDY'S 'ARMY' New York Post August 24, 2007 -- Military veterans are ready to salute Rudy Giuliani as their next commander-in-chief - but treat Hillary Rodham Clinton like a private. Giuliani is the most popular presidential candidate among vets and Clinton is the most unpopular, according to a Gallup poll released yesterday. Giuliani - a supporter of the Iraq war who obtained an occupational deferment during Vietnam - was viewed favorably by 64 percent of veterans. Only 29 percent disliked him. By comparison, 59 percent of vets gave Clinton an unfavorable rating. Only 37 percent gave her a thumbs-up, giving her the poorest overall rating. The Gallup survey suggested that a gender gap hurts Clinton, the only woman in the race. "Hillary Clinton is the only candidate who is viewed much more negatively than positively by veterans. Clinton would seem to be at a decided disadvantage among veterans, given that roughly 9 in 10 in the sample are men," said Gallup managing editor Jeff Jones. Giuliani's 64 percent approval rating among vets exceeded that of John McCain - a decorated Vietnam POW - who was viewed favorably by 52 percent of his comrades and unfavorably by 40 percent. "It's another sign that the mayor's message of staying on offense in the terrorists' war on us is resonating," said Giuliani campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella. While popular among all vets, Giuliani faces a tough battle for the military vote in a Republican primary. He gets 28 percent of the vote, compared to 25 percent for unannounced candidate Fred Thompson. The results are troubling for McCain, the only veteran among the top-tier candidates. Only 13 percent of the Republican vets support his candidacy - tied for third with Mitt Romney. There's a silver lining for Clinton: She is the favored candidate of veterans who are Democrats. She is backed by 41 percent of vets for the nomination, compared to 30 percent for Barack Obama.

Senator Lieberman is a true statesman and patriot

"Some of these opponents of the war are now turning their harshest criticism on our allies in Iraq instead of our enemies." As even many critics of the Iraq war now acknowledge, General Petraeus' counterinsurgency strategy is making real and significant progress in our fight there. Whereas a year ago, al Qaeda in Iraq controlled large swaths of territory, it is now being driven out of its former strongholds in Anbar and Diyala provinces by the surge in U.S. forces and their increasingly capable Iraqi allies. Whereas a year ago, sectarian violence was spiraling out of control in Iraq, it is now being damped down, and the militias that once terrorized Baghdad are being rolled back. Whereas a year ago, Iraq's Sunni Arab community was largely allied with the insurgency, more and more Sunnis are coming over to our side, to fight against al Qaeda.Forced by facts on the ground to acknowledge the progress of the American and Iraqi militaries since the new surge strategy started, some of these opponents of the war are now turning their harshest criticism on our allies in Iraq instead of our enemies. This is a mistake. Whatever the shortcomings of our friends in Iraq, they are not an excuse to retreat from the real enemies who threaten our vital national interests there. I share the frustrations about the performance of the Iraqi government. But the fact is, as my colleagues know, Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus are meeting every day with Iraq's democratically-elected leaders to help them reach compromise and reconciliation on a range of complex, painful, and existential issues. Political progress in Iraq depends on this kind of steady statecraft and patient diplomacy on the ground in Baghdad, rather than scapegoating and congressionally-ordered coups. Ironically, it was not so long ago that many in Congress criticized the Bush administration for what they described as its heavy-handed and patronizing treatment of our most important allies in the world. Now many of those very critics make the exact same mistake in their treatment of the Iraqis, whose citizens—lest we forget—are fighting and dying every day in the struggle against al Qaeda, and in far higher numbers than any other nationality. Ultimately, the choice we face in Iraq is not between the current Iraqi government and a perfect Iraqi government. Rather, it is a choice between a young, imperfect, struggling democracy that we have helped midwife into existence, and the totalitarian, terrorist regime that al Qaeda hopes to impose in its place, should we retreat. Indeed, while it is true there is no pure "military" solution to the violence in Iraq, it is worth remembering that neither is there any pure "political" solution. Al Qaeda in Iraq and other irreconcilable extremists must be defeated and destroyed in order for Iraq to be stable and free, and for the United States to be safe. Al Qaeda is not mass murdering hundreds of Iraqi civilians in suicide bombings because the Iraqi government hasn't made enough progress toward political reconciliation, but because al Qaeda is determined to destroy any hope of political reconciliation.We have made enormous progress in defending and advancing America's vital national interests in Iraq over the past six months against our two deadliest enemies in the world—al Qaeda and Iran. Realism requires that we recognize these gains, not dismiss or disparage them—and that we distinguish between our allies in Iraq, and our enemies.

Democrats backpedaling- trying to grab defeat

Democrats Refocus Message on Iraq After Military Gains Criticism Shifts to Factional Unrest By Jonathan Weisman and Anne E. KornblutWashington Post Staff WritersWednesday, August 22, 2007; Page A04 Democratic leaders in Congress had planned to use August recess to raise the heat on Republicans to break with President Bush on the Iraq war. Instead, Democrats have been forced to recalibrate their own message in the face of recent positive signs on the security front, increasingly focusing their criticisms on what those military gains have not achieved: reconciliation among Iraq's diverse political factions. And now the Democrats, along with wavering Republicans, will face an advertising blitz from Bush supporters determined to remain on offense. A new pressure group, Freedom's Watch, will unveil a month-long, $15 million television, radio and grass-roots campaign today designed to shore up support for Bush's policies before the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, lays out a White House assessment of the war's progress. The first installment of Petraeus's testimony is scheduled to be delivered before the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees on the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a fact both the administration and congressional Democrats say is simply a scheduling coincidence.

More Iraqi men joining the army in babil province

Concerned citizens lead Iraqi Army recruiting drive Monday, 20 August 2007 http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13442&Itemid=128 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) 25th Infantry Division KALSU — As concerned citizens stand up and secure their homes and communities against terrorists and militias all across North Babil, they are also standing up and leading the push for legitimate security forces in the area. Iraqi Army recruiting has reached a near record in the city of Iskandariyah and the surrounding areas thanks, in large part, to concerned citizens wanting to do more to help their families, friends and neighbors in the fight against militants. “More than 1,400 people have made the decision to join the Iraqi Army during the five-day recruiting drive,” said 1st Lt. Tyler Mitchell, of Wasilla, Alaska. “Due to sectarian violence, this is the first recruiting drive we have had this year.” The drop in sectarian violence can be attributed to an increased presence of Iraqi and Coalition Forces patrolling the area. With the increased patrols, ordinary citizens feel more secure and are willing to come forward and help the Security Forces, Mitchell said. One major area of help has come from volunteers in the Concerned Citizens Program, providing “As the citizens began standing up and taking back control of their communities and villages, the Ministry of Defense said it was finally time to hold a recruiting drive,” Mitchell said. “Once the recruiting drive was OK’d, we started publicizing it pretty heavily.” Using fliers and loud speaker announcements, 2nd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 8th Iraqi Army Divisioin and 1st Battalion, 501st Airborne, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, spread the word throughout the area, and people turned out in droves. Not everyone was accepted because of age limitations, weight problems or illiteracy, but those not accepted were told about the Concerned Citizens Programs sprouting up across the region. “If the men who were turned away by the initial recruiting drive are accepted into one of the Concerned Citizens Programs and prove their worth, hopefully that will lead to a contract in the Iraqi Security Forces,” Mitchell said. “The men who signed up are the same men who have lived under the threat of murder and intimidation for nearly a year,” he continued. “They are tired of being scared and they want to be a part of something bigger. They want a change and they realize that the time is now.”

we will have to take care of the iranians

Iranian agents training militias in Iraq http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL1922015320070819?sp=true By Ross Colvin BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence reports indicate there are about 50 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards training Shi'ite militias in how to use mortars and rockets in southern Iraq, a U.S. general said on Sunday.In Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini dismissed the accusation as "completely baseless". U.S. Major-General Rick Lynch, whose forces south of Baghdad are battling a mixture of Sunni Islamist and Shi'ite militants, said many of the 25 soldiers killed in his area in the past 60 days were hit by what the U.S. military calls "indirect fire"."The enemy is ramping up indirect fire attacks. The enemy is more aggressive. The great concern is about the Iranian munitions he is using," Lynch told reporters in Baghdad."We have some members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. They are facilitating training of Shi'ite extremists. In my battle space ... we think there are about 50 members."U.S. officials and military commanders have stepped up their accusations against Iran in recent weeks, charging Iraq's neighbor of playing a spoiling role to influence a September progress report on the war due to be presented next month.Lynch said U.S. troops had so far failed to seize any weapon shipments coming across the Iranian border and that no Revolutionary Guards member had been captured in his area of responsibility.However, he said his troops had captured 217 weapons with Iranian markings on them since April, in a period coinciding with an increase in rocket and mortar attacks on U.S. soldiers.Intelligence suggested that explosively formed penetrators, a particularly deadly roadside bomb that has claimed the lives of scores of U.S. soldiers, were being built in Iran and then smuggled into Iraq to be assembled there.Iran has denied such charges and blames the 2003 U.S.-led invasion for the sectarian violence between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs that has killed tens of thousands. GEORGIAN BRIGADE Lynch's deputy, Brigadier-General Ed Cardon, said a blocking force of about 2,000 Georgian soldiers was to be deployed in Wasit province southeast of Baghdad to thwart the smuggling of any weapons from Iran.The province shares a 200-km (120-mile) stretch of porous border with Iran. It has only one official border crossing but there are a number of smuggling routes north and south of it.Lynch, whose "battle space" includes the "Triangle of Death", a notorious Sunni Arab militant stronghold, and rival Shi'ite militias, has launched a series of operations to block the flow of weapons and fighters into Baghdad and stop the area being used as a launchpad for attacks.U.S. troops have begun an offensive in provinces bordering Baghdad, targeting al Qaeda and Shi'ite militias, to buy time for Iraq's leaders to broker a workable power sharing deal between Shi'ite Muslims, Sunni Arabs and Kurds"We believe we have the enemy on the run. We are in a pursuit phase," Lynch said.He said there had been a 20 percent decline in violence in his area in the past 60 days, from 20 attacks a day to 16, and a 36 percent decline in civilian casualties.

Progress in Diyala Province...

Baqubah to resume local food production http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/public-affairs-baqubah-food.htm First large shipment of grain to Diyala mill celebrated Story Sgt. Patrick Lair 115th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment BAQUBAH, IRAQ— After the fight to retake an Iraqi city is over, the struggle to reconstruct a functioning government is the fist order of business. That’s why U.S. and Iraqi forces were excited recently to witness local trucks arrive, accompanied by the Iraqi Army, at a Baqubah flour mill with 560 tons of imported wheat to feed the people of Diyala province. “This is one more piece to the larger puzzle of providing normalcy here,” said Lt. Col. Fred Johnson, deputy commanding officer of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. “It’s probably the most important thing we’ve done.” The grain, imported from the U.S., will be milled, sacked and distributed to the local population as part of the Public Distribution System, an Iraqi program dating back to the 1980’s. The program began during the Iraq-Iran War as a way for the government to provide necessities such as fuel, chai, sugar, flour, rice, tomatoes, soap and cooking oil to the people who need it. An estimated 45 percent of the people depend on these services. When Al-Qaida took over Baqubah, the provincial capital, the distribution system largely collapsed. Truckers were afraid to haul the food, workers were afraid to show up to work, the mill closed and food prices soared, Johnson said. “From our perspective, this city was done,” said Diyala province Assistant Governor Amed, who withholds his full name for security reasons. U.S. forces cleared the city of enemy insurgents earlier this year, often engaging in heavy combat operations from one street to the next. Iraqi and U.S. officials immediately set about restoring essential services and attempting to rebuild the people’s trust in local government. “This city is making the transition from a ghost town to what it is today. What’s been done is phenomenal,” Amed said. In addition to autonomous food production, other changes can be seen. Sixty-seven stores in the downtown market have recently reopened their shutters. Water and sewer lines were repaired by the municipal government without U.S. financial support. Decreasing fuel prices have led to a rise in civilian vehicle traffic. Women, once forced by Al-Qaida to cover themselves in black veils, move about town in colorful clothing and families walk freely through the streets. While the fight against armed combatants is highly visible, the fight to restore order often takes place behind closed doors, Johnson said. “The biggest problem has been our lack of understanding of how Iraq works,” the lieutenant colonel said. “Our ignorance of the system undermined our ability to provide what the people expected.” The system of what people expect was learned through long conversations with local sheikhs and government officials, often in smoke-filled offices over cups of chai or seated around the family living rooms of local leaders. “Dialogue is the key to what we’re doing here,” Johnson said. “But this is huge. Now that they see they can provide for themselves, we’re not needed here anymore.” The Baqubah mill is expected to employ around 100 local workers in addition to truck drivers. At full production, the mill is capable of processing 200 tons of grain per day.

Iraqi Sunnis killing Al Qaeda by the bushel now..

Sunni Former Insurgents now fighting and killing Al Qaeda throughout Iraq http://billroggio.com/dailyiraqreport/2007/08/iraq_report_sunni_insurgents_v.php Diyala Province 17 August- Al Qaeda in Iraq continues to face opposition from Sunni insurgent groups. In the Buhriz district in Diyala province, the 1920s Revolution Brigades assisted Iraqi police in fending off an attack of upwards of 60 al Qaeda fighters. Multinational Forces Iraq identified the Sunni insurgents as the "Baqubah Guardians," however IraqSlogger reported the al-Ishreen Revolution Brigades (1920s Revolution Brigades) engaged in the fight. Multinational Forces Iraq described the fighting, and notes the coordination between the insurgent group, the local police, and US attack helicopters: In an unprecedented combined action in Diyala Province, Iraqi police and citizen volunteers defeated a coordinated attack of approximately 40-60 al-Qaeda terrorists in the southern Burhitz area of Baqubah, Wednesday, and killed an estimated 21 insurgents, wounding more. As the terrorists entered the city of Burhitz, a group of concerned local citizens, called ‘Baqubah Guardians,’ and IPs stationed in Burhitz engaged the first wave of attackers, killing seven. At least two suicide bombers were killed before they reached their intended targets, with the bomb vests detonating prematurely. The IP notified the Provincial Joint Coordination Center and requested Coalition Force attack helicopter support after the first engagement. Attack helicopters arrived and engaged another large group of heavily armed fighters staging near the first attack site, killing or wounding an estimated 14 terrorists. The 1920s Revolution Brigades previous drove al Qaeda in Iraq out of Buhriz, with the help of US forces. The battles between the 1920s Revolution Brigades and al Qaeda began in April. The Anbar Salvation Council, through its ties in the 1920s Revolution Brigades, helped organize the anti-al Qaeda resistance in Buhriz. As these groups work with the US and Iraqi security forces, they are being integrated as local police or as provincial security forces. The degree to which Sunni insurgent groups have turned against al Qaeda and are working with US troops and Iraqi security forces is an underreported story in the war. Approximately 25,000 Sunni insurgents from groups such as the 1920s Revolution Brigades, the Jaysh Mohammed, and the Islamic Army of Iraq have turned against al Qaeda at the behest of their tribal leaders. "Tribe members and others who agree to support Iraq's government have to sign a pledge form and consent to biometric scans of their fingerprints and retinas so their data can be kept on file," USA Today reported on August 6. "They are also vetted by the Iraqi government." The strategy of turning the tribes and insurgent groups has been successful in Anbar, and is being applied inside Baghdad, Diyala, Salahadin, Ninewa, and Babil province. This is reconciliation at the micro level. Al Qaeda is threatened by this development and is actively targeting members of groups that have turned on them. The Kurdish Regional Government has stepped in and deployed about two companies, numbering about 340 troops total, of the Kurdish Regional Guards to provide additional security in the region. US troops and Iraqi Army soldiers from the 3rd Division are providing assistance to the recovery effort, and US air assets are providing air transportation to the wounded. US and Iraqi security forces have lunched two sweeps against al Qaeda in the North since the bombings in the Yazidi villages. Iraqi soldiers from the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, which is based in northern Ninewa province, captured seven suspected terrorists in the village of Abu Bareyj on August 14. Iraqi security forces captured eight terrorists during raids in Mosul and the Hamrin Ridge region. A sniper cell leader in Mosul and the leader of an Al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist smuggling cell in the Hamrin Ridge region were among those captured during the raids. Further south in Balad, US forces killed six al Qaeda operatives and captured 26 during a series of operations from August 9-14. On the Shia terror group front, Coalition forces captured "a highly sought Special Groups weapons facilitator before dawn Thursday northeast of Baghdad." Three Special Groups operatives were killed and five others were captured during the raid. "The captured high priority individual was responsible for smuggling explosively formed penetrators (EFP), Katusha rockets and other weapons from Iran into Iraq," Multinational Forces Iraq reported. "The target was also responsible for the distribution of those weapons to Special Groups and extremist militants operating throughout Baghdad. The weapons smuggler had direct ties to senior militant leaders and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Qods Force." The Special Groups are essential Iraqi-born Qods force operatives.

Us surge working in iraq

BY DAVID LERMAN August 16, 2007 WASHINGTON To hear Virginia Rep. Thelma Drake tell it, the buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq is making good progress in securing the country and combating terrorists."We heard repeatedly that the surge is working," Drake said Wednesday, after returning from a weeklong trip to the Middle East that included a day in Iraq."We are the ones on the offensive now. Al-Qaida is on the defensive. Iraqi security forces are truly standing up."Illinois Rep. Janice Schakowsky, who accompanied Drake on the trip, reached the opposite conclusion."I believe overall the surge is a failure," said Schakowsky, a Chicago liberal who co-founded the Out of Iraq caucus in the House of Representatives. "What I came away with was that Iraq was a huge distraction from the real war on terror."The conflicting conclusions from lawmakers who traveled together in Iraq underscore how perceptions of the war have crystallized among Washington politicians. Rather than offering new insights, congressional "fact-finding" trips appear mostly to reinforce existing views.And those views often divide along party lines. Drake is a Republican, Schakowsky a Democrat.Schakowsky, in a conference call with reporters, acknowledged the deep divide among the traveling six-member House delegation made up of four Republicans and two Democrats."Drake, a conservative from Norfolk who has been a stalwart defender of President Bush's Iraq policy, struggled to explain the divergent views of her colleagues."Maybe people see what they want to see," she said.Lawmakers had intended to visit the al-Anbar province in western Iraq, where the military has pointed to success recently in combating al-Qaida, but the trip was cut short when the House stayed in session longer than planned.In Baghdad, the delegation met with Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The trip also included a visit with Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurdish leader.Drake argued that security in Iraq has improved since the troop surge, pointing to a meeting the delegation had with four local sheiks - two Sunni and two Shiite - in a northern part of Baghdad. American troops, working with local sheiks, rid the neighborhood of insurgents, she said."These sheiks could not say enough about how thankful they were to America," Drake said. "They were very clear to me they were working together."Schakowsky acknowledged that security might be improving in some neighborhoods. But she said the surge has failed to provide the conditions, as hoped, for a political reconciliation among Iraq's warring factions.

Good News from Iraq

http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/seven/08152007/postopinion/editorials/good_news_from_iraq_editorials_.htm New York Post August 15, 2007 -- News out of Iraq continues to be encouraging: High-profile attacks have fallen nearly 50 percent since the start of the troop surge, USA Today reported this week. Gen. David Petraeus, commanding the war in Iraq, says hundreds of al Qaeda fighters were killed or captured in just the past month alone. Tips about the enemy are up fourfold over the last year - to some 23,000 a month. "Tribes and people are starting to stand up and fight back," said Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, deputy commander of the U.S. division north of Baghdad, in the USA Today report. "They are turning against al Qaeda." It's a sign of the preliminary success of a number of operations now under way, as troop strength has finally reached the maximum planned by the surge. To think that just a month ago, Democrats were trying to pull the plug on Iraq. Maybe they feared exactly what is happening: The tide in Iraq seems to be turning in America's favor - and that spells bad news for the Dems, who've pinned their own political fates on the White House failing in the war. Democrats aren't the only ones who have suddenly gone mum: Little by way of saber-rattling has been heard from the mullahs' motor-mouth in Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The shifts, in rhetoric and on the ground, could portend, well . . . anything. The enemy may be laying low, figuring they can't bear - at the moment, anyway - the high cost of additional attacks and confrontations. Or they may be re-arming for a major offensive. Surely they've by no means ended their violence completely, even temporarily: Yesterday, suicide bombers killed at least 175 people and wounded 200. But Coalition forces aren't letting up, either: This week, they launched a third major campaign, Operation Phantom Strike, aimed at disrupting al Qaeda and Iranian-backed operations. The verdict is still out on Iraq. Far-left Democrats may yet force a premature pullout. But Americans can hope for the best. There's no reason to cut this war short.

Good news and operational energy in iraq

http://tank.nationalreview.com/post/q=ZWFmZGZlYzc2YzY5MDllMzc0OGVhNTczY2VlMGJjMDk= W Thomas Smith, 13 August 2007 AL TAQADDUM — There is so much more to the story of Iraq — specifically Al Anbar — that I've yet to have time to get into here at "The Tank:" Good news about amazing progress that I can't wait to explain once I begin my more detailed NRO stories over the coming weeks. There is also quite a bit of ongoing operational energy in this region of the country. Yesterday, for instance, one of the 13th MEU patrol bases just down the road from where I was positioned — and operating out of — was hit by the "mujh." It was basically a drive-by, but with lots of automatic weapons fire. We returned fire. Thankfully, no casualties. Returning to TQ, I rode in the "rover" vehicle: Basically, a convoy security vehicle that races up-and-down the length of the convoy, blocks road intersections as the convoy passes, and is responsible for tactically responding to any portion of the convoy that gets hit. Because the bad guys also read what we write, there is so much I am not able to disclose about what we are doing out here, how we do it, and what we know the enemy is up to. What I can say is that his ability to combat us is degrading: Less military grade munitions in the make-up of his IEDs. More homegrown, fertilizer-based explosives, which are just as deadly, but proof that he is running out of stuff. Also, the "Anbar Awakening" — the big turnaround here where the local community leaders, the sheiks, etc. are rejecting the blood and murder-tactics of AQI — is taking a serious toll on the mujh, who are desperately trying to regroup in the desert or falling back toward Baghdad where they are running up against our surge forces. The insurgency is still strong here. But I can tell you from all the evidence I am seeing, the snippets of tactical intel I am sometimes privy to, and the strategic impact of "the surge," the enemy's days are numbered. And this is not a new thing. This is a product of our effective counterinsurgency efforts since at least as far back as 2005. All I can say at this point is; don't let the likes of Harry Reid kid you. This war is far from being "lost" ... unless he is able to force the hands of the guys who are winning.

Us forces on the offensive once again..

U.S. forces launch new offensive in Iraq http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/swissinfo.html?siteSect=105&sid=8102335 August 13, 2007 By Ross Colvin BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi forces launched an offensive against al Qaeda and "Iranian-supported" Shi'ite militants across Iraq on Monday in anticipation of an expected surge in violence. U.S. commanders fear militants will step up attacks on U.S. soldiers or launch a "spectacular" attack on civilians to try to influence the debate over the war in Washington, where a keenly awaited progress report on the new U.S. military strategy in Iraq is due to be presented to Congress in September. In Baghdad, leaders of Iraq's divided Kurdish, Shi'ite and Sunni Arab communities held a series of bilateral talks ahead of an expected summit this week.The summit is aimed at healing the deep mistrust that has paralysed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's national unity government and plunged it into its worst crisis."Everything will be on the table. It is like the days when we were forming the government, except that Maliki himself is not going to be replaced," said a Shi'ite official familiar with the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity.Those taking part in Monday's preparatory bilateral talks were Maliki, Deputy President Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni and member of the Accordance Front; President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd; Deputy President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a member of the powerful Shi'ite Supreme Islamic Iraq Council; and Masoud Barzani, the leader of Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdish region.The U.S. military described Operation Phantom Strike as "a powerful crackdown" jointly carried out by Iraqi troops."It consists of simultaneous operations throughout Iraq focused in pursuing AQI (al Qaeda in Iraq) terrorists and Iranian-supported extremist elements," it said in a statement.The U.S. military says Iran has stepped up its support for Shi'ite militias, giving them more weapons and training, to hasten the departure of U.S. troops. Iran denies giving any aid.The statement gave no details of the operation or how many of the 162,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq were involved.U.S. forces have launched a series of offensives in recent weeks, particularly in beltways around Baghdad that have become safe havens for al Qaeda car bomb networks and Shi'ite militias.Lieutenant-General Raymond Odierno, the day-to-day commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, told Reuters in an interview at the weekend his forces were adapting their tactics to counter an expected surge in militant attacks over the next month.The top U.S. military commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker are due to present a report to Congress in September on the success of the troop build-up and Iraqi political progress towards reconciliation.U.S. President George W. Bush has sent 30,000 extra troops to Iraq to give Maliki's Shi'ite-led government breathing room to agree a real power-sharing deal between the warring sects.U.S. forces have claimed successes in reducing the level of sectarian violence following the capture or killing of a number of al Qaeda leaders, strikes against Shi'ite militia cells and operations to clear areas of militants and then hold them.But a reluctance to compromise by the main political blocs means there has been little political progress. Legislation seen as crucial by Washington to reconciliation and ending sectarian bloodshed that has killed tens of thousands has stalled.It includes laws on sharing Iraq's oil wealth and easing restrictions on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party serving in the civil service, reforming the constitution and setting a date for provincial elections. Maliki's government has also been hit by walkouts.The main Sunni Arab bloc, the Accordance Front, has quit, following in the footsteps of ministers loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who withdrew in April in protest of Maliki's refusal to set a timetable for a U.S. troop withdrawal.The Accordance Front complained Maliki had marginalised them and ignored demands for the provision of improved services to majority Sunni Arab provinces, a greater say in security matters and the release of prisoners detained without charge.Ministers loyal to former interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi began a boycott of cabinet meetings last week, saying Maliki had ignored a list of demands they had submitted in February.

More progress on political front in Iraq

Iraq works slowly on developing a process http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/kevin_ferris/20070810_Back_Channels___Iraq_works_slowly_on_developing_a_process.html Progress is slow, but government is on the right track. By Kevin Ferris 10 August, 2007 Gen. David Petraeus greets Abdel Sattar Abu Risha, a tribe leader in Anbar province. The summer recess of Iraq's parliament sent a worrisome signal to Americans concerned about U.S. troops bearing more than their share of the war's burdens. So it's up to the high-level elected officials left behind to send a different signal: They are ready to move on benchmarks designed to promote national reconciliation, including provincial elections, de-Baathification, and a plan to share oil revenue. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of multinational forces in Iraq, would like to see signs of such readiness emerge from meetings scheduled for next week, though he recognizes the difficulty of the task ahead. "To be fair to them, they are dealing with fundamental issues that will shape Iraq for the foreseeable future, so it's somewhat understandable that there's a good bit of wrangling," he said to me in a telephone interview this week. "Provincial powers, for example. That's akin to our own debate during the creation of the U.S. about states' rights. And it took us more than a few years to resolve that." Nevertheless, as leaders gather to discuss parliamentary boycotts and other crises, Petraeus and his civilian counterpart, Ambassador Ryan Crocker, would like to see Iraqis "develop a process that can give hope they can come to grips with these tough pieces of legislation." Iraqis share Americans' impatience with the war and are aware of the urgency for political progress. "None of them are happy with the situation either," Petraeus says. Despite problems at the national level, he says local leaders who have rejected the "Taliban ideology" of al-Qaeda in Iraq are "stepping up to the plate" throughout the country, and so is the Iraqi military. Of the latter, Petraeus says, "Some need work; some still to a degree are influenced by sectarian agendas, but others are truly high-end, superb units, and a number of them are fighting with our forces and taking some very tough losses." Typically, three times U.S. casualty rates, he adds. Those efforts and more will be needed before Iraq can achieve the objectives that define winning for Petraeus: a country that can secure itself, that is not a haven for terrorists, that has achieved adequate reconciliation among ethno-sectarian groups, that is no longer in humanitarian crisis, that can enforce the basic rule of law, and that participates in the region and the international community in the manner of other independent states at peace with each other. Standing in the way of those goals is al-Qaeda in Iraq. "They're trying to reignite sectarian violence," Petraeus says, "indiscriminately blowing people up, destroying infrastructure, trying to find another event like the destruction of the Golden Dome in Samara that sparked sectarian killings in 2006." Another problem he points to are "militia extremists trained, equipped, funded and directed by the Quds Force in Iran," which, if left unchecked, could pose the same problem in Iraq that Iran-backed Hezbollah presents in Lebanon. The surge has made a difference against both al-Qaeda and some militias, though Petraeus is very careful with the picture of Iraq he presents. For example, he will cite the "enormous progress" in Anbar province, the one-time al-Qaeda and Sunni insurgent stronghold, but he quickly follows up with a caveat on the overall picture: "I don't want to overstate. This is by far the most complex and challenging endeavor I've seen in 33 years of military service." Petraeus reports that a seven-week offensive made possible by the surge has "achieved a good deal of tactical momentum." His forces have taken al-Qaeda sanctuaries in Baquba, north of Fallujah, and several in and around Baghdad. They've done "serious damage" to the terrorists' leadership, killing or capturing emirs and heads of car-bomb networks. More weapons caches have been seized this year than in all of 2006.Terrorist cells can still lash out with spectacular bombings, Petraeus says, but "we feel a degree of momentum. We've got the enemy moving and we're going after them. They can't get set, can't dig in with deep-buried IEDs or other preparations they otherwise might use."At the same time, other areas get by with few or no coalition units. Special forces and air support are called in as needed. Otherwise, locals take charge. In Anbar, force levels are being reduced. Even in Mosul, once an al-Qaeda center, the Iraqi army and police often operate without the assistance of the coalition battalion stationed there. Overall, in terms of the objectives the general spelled out, the picture is mixed, but the country is on the right track. As Petraeus looks over the puzzle that is Iraq, he sees more and more areas where the right pieces are in place, some sections still lacking crucial pieces, as well as areas with considerable blank spots. Ultimately, success will depend on the Iraqis filling in some of those blanks, starting with the national government.

Ranking Senate Democrat concedes surge is working

Looks like Dick Durbin just ruined his Christmas present from the Daily Kossack crowd :) http://www.nysun.com/article/60135 BY ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun August 9, 2007 WASHINGTON — The no. 2 Democrat in the Senate — the assistant majority leader, Richard Durbin of Illinois — is conceding that the surge of American troops has led to military progress in Iraq. His comments make him the second Democratic leader in 10 days to make comments that could open the door for the majority party in Congress to pivot away from its insistence on a deadline for an American retreat. Speaking to CNN yesterday while visiting Baghdad, Mr. Durbin said, "We found that today as we went to a forward base in an area that, in the fifth year of the war, it's the first time we're putting troops on the ground to intercept Al Qaeda."Those words are a long way from a statement Mr. Durbin made on the floor of the Senate on May 16. Then, just before voting for an amendment to set a hard deadline for the withdrawal of troops, he said there was no hope for Iraq: "This morning, the White House announced that the president has finally found a general who will accept the responsibility for the execution of this war. Why did four generals before him refuse this assignment? Because those four generals know, the American people know, and this Senate knows that the administration's policy in Iraq has failed."While Mr. Durbin and Senator Casey, a Democrat of Pennsylvania, have acknowledged recent military progress, they were more pessimistic about political progress. They told CNN that they saw little evidence that the Iraqi parliament would soon reach a political compact between Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis.Their political pessimism was underscored yesterday when Prime Minister Maliki arrived in Tehran for meetings with President Ahmadinejad of Iran, and American jets began bombing Sadr City, a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad named after the grandfather of a populist Iraqi cleric, Moqtada al Sadr. The campaign in Sadr City is part of a larger offensive planned for in the coming weeks that seeks to take the offensive to strongholds of Mr. Sadr's militia, the Mahdi Army, and to continue the fight against Iranian intelligence networks. American generals have accused those networks of providing terrorists with lethal roadside bombs capable of puncturing the bottom of most American Humvees. In light of the lack of progress on the political front, General David Petraeus is expected to make the case next month before Congress that the success of the military campaign against Al Qaeda and against Mr. Sadr's and Iran's networks will pay dividends politically down the road, but not in the near future. General Petraeus has consulted with a number of more moderate Democrats in and out of Congress, including Messrs. Durbin and Casey. Last week, Rep. James Clyburn, a Democrat of South Carolina who serves as House majority whip, said the "Blue Dog" caucus of more conservative Democrats in the House will reserve judgment on withdrawal legislation until hearing from General Petraeus. Also last week, the White House touted an opinion piece in the New York Times by two scholars at the Brookings Institution who are known for advising Democrats, Kenneth Pollack and Michael O'Hanlon.That op-ed argued that continuing the surge into next year could leave Iraq in far better shape than if the surge was ended prematurely because of votes in Congress. Despite the recognition from some Democrats that the military strategy is working, it may still not be enough to get them to vote against a hard deadline for withdrawal.Mr. Casey yesterday said that he supported the amendment last month from the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, to end the surge by April."I think they're the right votes and continue to be the right votes. We have to make sure that the diplomacy and the political work is done in Washington, as well as in Baghdad. What we're seeing now is the Iraqi government officials have left, we're seeing Sunni representatives have walked out and are boycotting. So the political work in Baghdad and Washington has yet to match the courage and the dedication of our troops. We haven't seen that yet," Mr. Casey said.Last month, a Sunni Islamist front known as Tawafuq withdrew its members from parliament in protest.Negotiations have started again to bring these Sunnis back into the Maliki government.

Even ABC News reporting progress in Iraq..

Analysis: Military Makes Gains in Iraq ABC News: U.S. Making New Military Gains in Iraq but Final Outcome Hinges on Iraqi Involvement http://abcnews.go.com/International/WireStory?id=3452706&page=1 By ROBERT BURNS AP Military Writer BAGHDAD Aug 6, 2007 (AP) The new U.S. military strategy in Iraq, unveiled six months ago to little acclaim, is working. In two weeks of observing the U.S. military on the ground and interviewing commanders, strategists and intelligence officers, it's apparent that the war has entered a new phase in its fifth year. It is a phase with fresh promise yet the same old worry: Iraq may be too fractured to make whole.No matter how well or how long the U.S. military carries out its counterinsurgency mission, it cannot guarantee victory.Only the Iraqis can. And to do so they probably need many more months of heavy U.S. military involvement. Even then, it is far from certain that they are capable of putting this shattered country together again.It's been an uphill struggle from the start to build Iraqi security forces that are able to fight and more importantly at this juncture able to divorce themselves from deep-rooted sectarian loyalties. It is the latter requirement evenhandedness and reliability that is furthest from being fulfilled.There is no magic formula for success.And magic is what it may take to turn military gains into the strategy's ultimate goal: a political process that moves Iraq's rival Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds from the brink of civil war to the threshold of peace and to get there on a timetable that takes account of growing war fatigue in the United States.Efforts at Iraqi reconciliation saw another blow Monday: Five Cabinet ministers loyal to Iraq's first post-Saddam Hussein leader decided to boycott government meetings, further deepening a crisis that threatens Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The boycott would leave the Shiite-led government with no Sunni participants, at least temporarily.Despite political setbacks, American commanders are clinging to a hope that stability might be built from the bottom up with local groups joining or aiding U.S. efforts to root out extremists rather than from the top down, where national leaders have failed to act.

Ramadi: Open for Business

by Andrew Lubin 08-06-2007, 02:58 PM • by ON Point “This place is dynamic ! The people are working ‘round the clock, and it’s all positive,” said Kristen Hagerstrom, leader of the ePRT ( embedded Provincial Reconstruction Team ) based in Ramadi. Mrs. Hagerstom spent an hour talking with OnPoint Sunday about the economic and administrative successes in the city. When 1st Battalion, 6th Marines left Ramadi in June, they’d successfully cleared the city of Al-Quada, and formed a successful partnership with Sheik Sattar al-rishi and his newly-formed “Sons of Anbar.” Long before terms like “The Surge” and “Clear-Hold-Build” entered the Pentagon and American public’s vocabulary; 1/ 6 Marines had fought and cleared Ramadi and established outposts at 17th Street, the Government Center, Khatanna, and others, and then turned them over to their enthusiastic Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police replacements. “…and we arrived in April at a perfect time,” Mrs. Hagerstrom continued. “the city just had experienced thirteen days without a shot being fired, Mayor Latif was coming into his own as a mayor, and the Sunni’s were volunteering to join the police in record numbers.” Her ePRT Team arrived soon after 1st BCT, 3rd ID ( under Col John Charleton ) formally took over Ramadi. 1st BCT’s 6,000 Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force have aggressively and successfully continued to expand these newly positive dynamics. The Provisional Reconstruction Teams are part of Gen. David Petraeus’s counter-insurgency strategy; keep the people employed, get them a salary, and they’ll be too busy working being heads of households again to be insurgents. Sent by the State Department, the PRT’s and ePRT’s bring specialized skills in order to help the Iraqi towns and municipalities regain their administrative skills, help establish jobs and businesses, along with the necessary ancillary services like fuel distribution and electricity. Kristen Hagerstrom has 17 years experience in the Foreign Service; David Smale, also Foreign Service, is their USAID representative. Bill Marks and Denis Sheally are DoD civilians; both ex- Air Force; Marks is working on getting the local ceramics factory up and working, and Sheally is advising the Ramadi government on how to deliver services such as water, sewage, and trash removal to the people. In the Middle East, personal relations are of utmost importance, and relations with Ramadi’s Mayor, Latif Obaid are excellent. Mayor Latif took office in January, with no budget, no staff, and a city council that was fearful of meeting. Today he has his own office, staff, a budget, and an active and aggressive city council, and city managers. Recently he was spotted at midnight, in a hardhat helping laborers complete a water system into a part of Ramadi that hadn’t had running water in 2 years. “When he called us at midnight to brag about the water being back on,” said Mrs. Hegarstrom, “we could hear the townspeople cheering in the background. This mayor is getting things accomplished!” Ramadi is the home to many of the educated and retired Sunni diplomats, soldiers, and professionals from Saddam’s regime; the talent for reconstruction has been available, if not co-operative. But with Sheik Sattar’s Sons of Anbar joining with Coalition forces and regaining control of the province from Al-Quada, the managerial talent has suddenly re-appeared. Latif’s Deputy mayor had been a diplomat based in Havana, but as Bill Marks said “He gets it now; he knows we’re just here to help, and not take over, and he and his circle are getting more and more involved in managing and governing.” With reconstruction work booming for any teen and early 20’s male who will wield a shovel; salaries have increased in the last three months to almost $ 10 / day. Hegarstrom again “There is work for everyone, which has three main benefits. 1 – it cleans up the city, 2 now they’ve got money, they’re empowered, and so they keep out of trouble, and 3 since they have money, shops are opening, and now we have the basics of an economy. Marks is responsible for re-opening the big state-owned glass plant. Producing both glass products and ceramics, under Saddam it had 1,800 employees. Marks will be re-opening the ceramics side first; he’s located the necessary work force, and expects to open this October – November. “They’ll be making floor tiles, wall tiles, and sanitary items ( sinks & toilets ), all of which will be used locally. We’ll have approx 250 people in each section, so within a few months we’ll have 750 people back to work.” Most of the raw materials are available locally, and all the production will be sold into the local building boom, which will also serve to boost the economy in Ramadi and Anbar. With Hegarstom’s ePRT about 1/3rd the size of a normal State Department PRT, they were fortunate to have some military talent join them. LtCol Christine Rem, an Army nurse, is the Civil Affairs liaison who also deals with health, education, and women's issues. There are approximately 80,000 children ( K-12) attending dozens of schools. With the children having missed some three years of formal schooling during the past insurgency, reopening and staffing the school has been one of Mayor Latif’s priorities. An unexpected benefit is that with the Iraqi education system founded by the British, the children normally wear uniforms to school the re-opening of the schools has given rise to dozens of new tailor shops, creating yet more employment. Lt Col Morris Gray Army works budgets and small business. Navy CMDR Kevin Anderson handles agricultural issues and electricity. Through cooperation and coordination between Mayor Latif, the local Army Corps of Engineers unit, and Cmdr Anderson, electricity availability in Ramadi is now 80 %. With the electricity coming in from the huge hydroelectric plant in Haditha, security is provided by the local Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police units, with overwatch provided by the Marines from 2MEF. CMDR Emory Haskel is Reservist lawyer who works on rule of law issues, and they are days away from having criminal courts reopen. MSgt Jay Thornton handles issues of food distribution and neighborhood councils. A very successful program is the program for shopkeepers. These Grants have an value average $2500. No money handed over rather the recipient finds a suitable storefront, and the grant pays for a complete shop. The ePRT’s are fielding requests from some 50 different types of shops, from butcher to bakers to fabric shops and small corner groceries. At this moment dozens have been completed, meaning the store has been delivered on-site and opened. The expectation is for hundred to be opened in the next few months. Each store is averaging three employees, which also serves to channel their wages back into the economy But what is happening these days is possible because of the relations between the Sunnis in Ramadi and Anbar, as led by Sheik Sattar. As he said this winter when being visited by Deputy Under Secretary of State John Negroponte : I would like to convey greetings from the Sons of Anbar to the American people. I want to give my condolences for the American blood shed in the Anbar Province to the American people, and I ask the Army and Marines to stay because we would be an easy target for terrorists. Stay until we gain our strength, and then staying is up to you. The policy started by 1st Battalion, 6th Marines has not changed; it’s still “clear-hold-build…but all done at the same time,” that lets the ice cream shops and school-children co-exist peacefully and profitably next to the police stations staffed by their motivated Sunni neighbors. While all is far from perfect, as opposed to the Administration’s plans to “write off” Ramadi, Mayor Latif Obaid can proudly and accurately announce “Ramadi is open for business".

CBS News: There is progress in Baghdad

Haifa Street: A Sign Of Progress In Iraq BAGHDAD, Iraq http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/05/eveningnews/printable3135470.shtml (CBS) With barely six weeks to go before his report on how well, or not, things are going in Iraq, General David Petraeus went out to show off a success story, reports CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey. Haifa Street is an example of how the general's counter-insurgency plan is supposed to work. Haifa Street used to be another way of saying utter chaos. In January this year, it was the scene of the bitterest and bloodiest street fighting that Baghdad has experienced. These days it's a good place not just for Iraqis but for the general to practice street politics and public relations. There have been no significant security incidents here since the end of April, and credit for the change is put down, in part, to involving local leaders rather than lavishing money around. The big money projects to rebuild Iraq have so far proved less than impressive. It's the small ones that seem to do best — street by street, block by block. It's a long slow process. But, the peaceful veneer of Haifa Street is misleading. The insurgents merely retreated across the Tigris River to infest another neighborhood that the U.S. military must clear and rebuild. The hope is that the example of Haifa Street will accelerate the process. "What's good about this area is you can see what happens once security is established," said Lt. Colonel Jeff Peterson. "Eventually we will be able to phase our way out of this, but for the time being it's pretty important that we stay here and provide this over all umbrella of security." Residents moving back to apartments abandoned during the fighting agree. "As Americans stay here, there is safety," said Bassam Hillal. That's pretty much the line the general must sell to the politicians back home, which might be why he's warming up his campaigning skills here.

Private Scott beuchamp is a bs artist..

The New Republic has been exposed once again for the partisan hack establishment it has become. Bloggers from the beginning pointed out how their Iraq Diarist could not have been telling the entire truth in his writings. Turns out Beauchamp was: married to a TNR researcher, was a leftist activist in college who supported Howard Dean; created false blog entries about how he killed Iraqis while he was still in Germany; stated in his written pieces that he wanted to become a writer and that joining the Army would help him gain credibility. And now this: TNRs latest "clarification: reveals that a third of his article is pretty much BS. Beauchamp starts his essay with, "I saw her nearly every time I went to dinner in the chow hall at my base in Iraq" — "her" being a disfigured woman that Beauchamp later admits he and his buddy cruelly mocked. Shortly after bloggers started raising questions about Beauchamp's essay, Beauchamp told TNR that the incident occurred on Foward Operating Base Falcon in Iraq, prompting a number of men serving there to e-mail The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb to tell him that they had never seen a disfigured woman in Falcon's dining facility. No one could corroborate this element of the story. Turns out that's because it wasn't true. In its latest statement, TNR reports that "the conversation occurred at Camp Buehring, in Kuwait, prior to the unit's arrival in Iraq." In that light, it's worth taking another look at this passage from Beauchamp's essay: Am I a monster? I have never thought of myself as a cruel person... Even as I was reveling in the laughter my words had provoked, I was simultaneously horrified and ashamed at what I had just said. In a strange way, though, I found the shame comforting. I was relieved to still be shocked by my own cruelty—to still be able to recognize that the things we soldiers found funny were not, in fact, funny. At TWS, Goldfarb wonders: "Relieved that he was still shocked at his own cruelty? After his tour in Germany and the long flight to Kuwait?" (An NRO reader suggests, "Maybe it's the morally deadening effects of being a contributor to The New Republic.") Take the story out of Iraq and it becomes a completely irrelevant anecdote proving nothing except that Scott Beauchamp and his friend are jerks. I guess that's why he "forgot" that it didn't actually happen there. The New Republic statement is, to put it mildly, unpersuasive. The first sentence of Private Beauchamp's now famous column reads as follows: I saw her nearly every time I went to dinner in the chow hall at my base in Iraq. The magazine now concedes that that statement was an "error". The disfigured woman that he and his pal were mocking was not at the chow hall "every time" he went to dinner at his base in Iraq, but in an entirely different country, back in Kuwait - before he got anywhere near the war. Which demolishes the entire premise of the piece: "That is how war works- It degrades every part of you, and your sense of humor is no exception." In this case, his sense of humor seems to have come pre-degraded - see also the blog entries he wrote while still in Germany. This is not just a "discrepancy" in one of the three anecdotes that make up the diary. It renders Private Beauchamp's agonizing in The New Republic over his desensitization by war transparently fake: "Am I a monster? I have never thought of myself as a cruel person... I once worked at a summer camp for developmentally disabled children, and, in college, I devoted hours every week to helping a student with cerebral palsy. Dean Barnett has more. War is hell, but, if you beat up a bloke in a pub in southern England a year before D-Day, that may not be the best anecdote to prove your point.

More syrian aggression in Lebanon

US to freeze assets of Syrians meddling in Lebanon By DPAAug 2, 2007, 17:39 GMT Washington - US assets of Syrians who undermine Lebanon's democratic government will be frozen, President George W Bush said Thursday in a new bid to curb Syria's influence in the Middle East. Bush's executive order cited a 'national emergency,' saying that alleged efforts to 'reassert Syrian control or contribute to Syrian interference in Lebanon' posed a security threat to the United States. However, he named no individuals to be targeted. The move will block the property and property interests of people the US government deems threats to Lebanon's democracy and agents of Syrian influence in the neighbouring country, the order said. Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon under intense international pressure after the February 2005 assassination of anti-Syrian former prime minister Rafiq Hariri. But the US still views Damascus as a disruptive force in the region. Bush's statement came during a Middle East tour by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, aimed at bolstering US-friendly governments and rekindling Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

Saudi Arabia improving ties with Iraq

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said Wednesday that his country would consider reopening an embassy in Baghdad, a step long sought by the Bush administration to help legitimize the Shiite-led Iraqi government. At a joint press conference, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said he told the visiting U.S. secretaries of state and defense that his country will soon send a diplomatic mission to Baghdad "and explore how we can start an embassy in Iraq." Saudi Arabia, a Sunni Muslim country, has had frosty relations with the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and has not hidden its suspicions that al-Maliki does not have the interests of Iraq's Sunni minority at heart. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice thanked her Saudi host for considering diplomatic ties, calling it "an important step." The Arab world has lagged far behind Europe in placing embassies in Baghdad. Responding to criticism from the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, al-Faisal said Saudi Arabia is already doing all it can to address concerns about the flow of terrorists over its border into Iraq. "All that we can do in order to protect the border in Iraq we have been doing," he said. The foreign minister insisted his country was supportive of the Iraqi government. "As an indication of our good intentions, we let their (soccer) team win," al-Faisal joked, referring to Iraq's soccer victory over Saudi Arabia in the final of the Asia Cup. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-08-01-saudi-iraq_N.htm?csp=34

More progress every day..

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZjU2NWEzMGE2NzRmODVlNjY3MTE3YzVhZmQxZTljMDg= White House Press Briefing by Tony Snow: “First, the number of weapons caches captured — last year, in all of 2006, the number is 2,726. Already to this point in the year it's nearly 3,700 — 3,698. As you can see, General Petraeus referred to this as staggering, the improvement in the seizures. Just a couple of examples from recent weeks. First, a coalition raid on July 23rd found 21 rifles and pistols in multiple locations, 28 grenades, 252 rockets, 391 mortar rounds, 475 gallons of nitric acid, and 5,000 pounds of fertilizer. Those who have studied Oklahoma City know how devastating the last two can be. And in an Iraqi raid in An Nasiriyah on the 24th, they found 11 heavy machine guns; 42 IEDs; 70 mortar rounds; and approximately 400 rockets of various calibers. One of the reasons that we are having more success — the coalition and U.S. forces — has to do with tips. The number of tips received by Iraqis each month has nearly quadrupled from the spring of 2006 to the spring of 2007, from 6,000 to 23,000. It gives you a sense I think of what happens when there is increased confidence not only in the commitment, but also the competence of the forces involved. So there is just a little more granularity and it's one of the reasons why there is increasing talk of success certainly on the defense front, but also there remains work on the political front.