Feb 05 2007
Iraq On The Precipice
As the Senate fumbles around trying to snatch defeat in Iraq from where ever they can find it, the US and Iraqis are about to embark on the much anticipated Baghdad surge:
Briefing a small group of foreign reporters, three American colonels who are senior advisers to the Iraqi army and police in Baghdad said a command center overseeing the crackdown in the capital would be activated today.
“The expectation is the plan will be implemented very soon thereafter,” a senior adviser to the 9th Iraqi army division said at a U.S. military base in Baghdad.
“It’s going to be an operation unlike anything this city has seen,” Col. Doug Heckman added. “It’s a multiple-order magnitude of difference, not just a 30 percent, I mean a couple hundred percent” larger than previous offensives.
The job of stabilizing Baghdad had become increasingly urgent after a wave of violence that, an Interior Ministry official said, claimed nearly 1,000 lives in the past week alone — about135 of them in a single truck bombing on Saturday. At least 103 persons were killed or found dead yesterday, most of them in Baghdad, police reported.
The officers said the new security operation will be headed by Lt. Gen. Abboud Gambar, a Shi’ite in his early 60s who was named to the post under pressure from the U.S. military. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki initially had selected Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Freiji for the job.
We shall finally stop having to listen to politico’s pretend they can see the future and we will be testing the mettle of the Islamo Fascists – which has been proven to be quite weak when confronted head on. While the left wishes to run away and hope al Qaeda takes their surrender flags to be a sign of peace, the military is about to see what we are up against. The sad fact is we cannot leave Iraq with the job undone. We have to stop al Qaeda and Iran from taking over Iraq, its oil revenues and exploiting its incredibly literate and capable population. We shall see what happens, but if history is any indication the Islamo Fascists run from a fight and prefer to attack defenseless woman and children so they can proclaim their warrior might.
God bless all those who participate in this battle. And thank you Mr. President for at least trying. I pray that it works.
AJ,
Good posts.
These are the days of reckoning for sure.
May The Almighty protect our Commander in Chief who is standing alone against these fanatical jihadists from without and their cowardly enablers from within.
And may our fine military tune out the noise pollution and not mistake it for “thinking” America.
I hope this works. Unlike the people who want to see the US fail for their own political purposes, it is in the best interests of both the American people and the Iraqi people to bring security to that city. If that means martial law, then they should do it.
AJ
Any word on where the AWOL Iraq Army is to start showing up? Recent reports are that they are showing up at about 60 percent strength. In my view, if the Iraqi Army is not willing to fight for their own freedom and country, then that country is not worth another American life.
As the sweeps take place in Baghdad and the bad guys are routed, what happens when we turn the job of holding territory to the Iraqis?
Steve;
That Iraqi Army is out there every day fighting, in fact if you care to stop running your mouth about things you know nothing about Jules Crittenden has a post up right now from someone who is actually in Iraq.
Iraqis are risking their lives on a daily basis for their country and all you can do is cheer when they are killed and find fault with them. Left to you the old Iraqi Army would be shooting at our planes and terrorizing the population for the sake of a dictator, so why do you even pretend to care?
This is the new tact of the left.
Having pretty much worn out the trashing of our own military with the overblown Abu Ghraib hysteria and the hyping of every bad apple they could lay their grubby paws on, they have now moved onto the Iraqis suck bandwagon where they trash the soldiers, the government, the people, the culture anything Iraqi…this is in anticipation of the happy day when they win and we abandon Iraq and God knows how many people die over there. That way they can justify the carnage by saying they were just little brown Iraqis who would not fight for their own country…they don’t count.
Ahh yes, how they long for Saddam and his plans to exterminate the Kurds and destroy the Marsh Arabs and slaughter Shia in the hundreds of thousands. How happy things would be if only the Butcher of Baghdad were in charge. Sniffle.
Terrye.
So the flavor aid of the week is that the Iraqis are doing their job and are wonderful troops? Go read blogs like “The fourth rail”, and a few others. Things are not terrible in the Iraqi army, but neither is it wonderful. We got in the mess we are in over in Iraq is because we sat back and let the President tell the American people everything was wonderful and going great, it wasn’t by his own words. You want to continue to blindly believe everything coming out of the White House, that’s your choice, not mine.
If the Iraqis don’t step up, then what, another 20K troops, then another then another. At what point do you cut them loose? I’m not saying cut them loose tomorrow, but there is a day of reckoning coming, and that day is probably around Labor Day.
I’m now treating what comes out of the White House on Iraq with the same caution Reagan treated the Russians, “Trust but verify”.
God Bless those preparing to do battle for us. Good Hunting!
I wonder how we will get around the human shields that the Islamofasicsts will use.
But I’m glad to see this event happening. May God bless our troops over there.
I am so glad that the Senate blocked today’s resolutions. Am really ashamed of the democrats’ behavior and comments. Boy, they claim this is not over! GRRR!!
Time to tell NRSC not to finance Coleman and Collins.
So sTeve, it’s 1945. It’s Germany. The germans are not stepping up and fixing their ravaged country. The are about to split Berlin…Guess we can go home now…oops, we’re STILL THERE….sixty two years later…I wonder why? Could it be in our interest to be there??
It is in our best interest to keep Iraq on the straight and narrow FOR HOWEVER LONG IT TAKES. Decades, if necessary. What is so hard to understand about that?
Look at a map of the area…
Steve-LA,
“I’m now treating what comes out of the White House on Iraq with the same caution Reagan treated the Russians, “Trust but verifyâ€.” –
That’s rhetorical “friendly fire.”
The “mess” in Iraq is due to jihadists of various stripes and foreign intervention, not your listening to Bush. You have a tin ear for listening to the President.
Steve_La
We are trying to create a national army out of what was always under Saddam a large group of cannon fodder that could not threaten him.
How long do you think that would take to create a professional level force?
It doesn’t happen in a microwave minute.
MerlinOS2
I agree with you that getting the Iraqi Army on it’s feet will not happen in a “microwave minute” as you put it, but at the same time, we the American people need to see real progress in that happening, and rather sooner than later.
By the end of summer, real progress had better be apparent or I’m all in favor of US forces withdrawing to a few fortified positions in the country which are defensible and let the Iraqis figure out what they are doing with their country. No more “Pacification” patrols, no more civil works, no more backing the government. Stand or fall, it’s in the Iraqis hands not ours.
Merlin and others
I’ll admit that MSMBC is a whole lot biased, but go read what troops on the ground are saying with their commanders are out of ear shot.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16979342/
It’s not pretty in Iraq now and even the grunts know the truth. The only thing keeping them going is the respect and comradeship with their fellow soldiers. They know the war is not winnable, and truthfully they know the President is playing games with their lives fighting “his” war.
It’s only a matter of time now before it’s over.
It’s only a matter of time now before it’s over.
That is what MSNBC wants you to think. Why do you think they put stuff like this on the air? It fits their agenda along with the rest of MSN. If this is all you listen to no wonder you are discouraged. Even the soldiers in the field have said the MSN is not reporting the news like they should. One even said if MSN was the only thing they read they would be discouraged too. The soldiers in the field know the media do not report the news accurately.
It is disengenious of you to make these comments when if you keep up with blogs in any way at all you know the media falsifies the news. Look at the green helmet guy, the children from the morgue and the bombed ambulance in Lebanon. AP taking the word of a false police captain for 63 news stories of atrocities in Iraq. There was no such person and AP will not admit their errors. There no incidents reported backing up these allegations. They simply never happened. These stringers the reporters in the green zone used made up stories because atrocity stories paid more and fitted the media agenda.
The media have much to answer for. They are destroying the will of the American people from within. And I will agree with them that Iraq is like Viet Nam in as much as the media and the left are trying the same tactics of making the US lose by giving false news and pure lies. I quit watching MSNBC and CNBC years ago when I realized how these networks distorted the news. Someone would give a speech and the “analyists” would break the speech into pieces with the end result their analysis was nothing like what I heard. This was pure manipulation and they are still doing it.
`”Even the soldiers in the field have said the MSN is not reporting the news like they should. One even said if MSN was the only thing they read they would be discouraged too. The soldiers in the field know the media do not report the news accurately.”
The story, Barbara, QUOTED soldiers. Did MSNBC invent the
quotes or the soldiers? You’re in denial. The latest Military Times Poll of US soldiers in Iraq says about 50% share the sentiments
of those quoted. If you have a problem, it is with half the troops,not the media.`
Anyone who says “we have to stop al Qaeda and Iran from taking over Iraq” is the contemporary equivalent to one who said
in 1970 “we have to stop the Soviet Union and China from taking over Vietnam.” One, the two were rivals just as Iran and al Qaeda,
but in this case al Qaeda would wilt before a two sided attack
from Iraqi Shias and native Iraqi Sunnis,both of whom would chase it out of Iraq after we left. Two, Iraq is lost to Iran-satellite
status. Strata’s dreams of a “democratic ally” are the vagaries
of a Bushie -in-denial.