Troops on Ground tune out "Happy Talk" from Bush
Tina Susman of the LAT finds that the privates and specialists among US troops in Iraq are dismissive of the 'happy talk' they hear from Bush and some of their commanders about the way the war is going. They see the realities on the ground, they lose friends to roadside bombings, they see evidence that the Iraqi Army is not trustworthy. So 'happy talk' doesn't impress them.
Meanwhile, among the high generals, there is a dispute about how fast to draw down troops from Iraq. Gen Peter Pace seems to be denying it now but it was rumored that he might suggest going down to less than 100,000 in 2008.
Big database, small arrest yield. Raises fears for civil rights and privacy considerations.
Reuters rounds up civil war violence on Iraq for Friday. Among the incidents:
BAGHDAD - At least 13 people were killed in clashes between U.S. forces and gunmen in the Shula district of northwestern Baghdad overnight, a police source at a hospital said. U.S. force said they killed eight militants in the clash.
Was looking for follow up to Thursday's big attack in Diyala, but no word.
At the group blog, Barnett Rubin posts the first of three installments on the drug problem and Afghanistan.
Speaking of which, remember how some Pentagon spokespeople keep saying that explosively formed projectiles must come from Iran even when used by Sunni Arab Iraqis? Well, what about this report that EFPs with a distinct signature are being used in Afghanistan? There is no evidence for an Iranian provenance over there. And Afghanistan is a fourth world country compared to Iraq.
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 8/25/2007 12:52:00 AM
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The Useful Madness of Max Boot
According to Max Boot, by 1972, the Vietnam war was almost won, “small troops presence” could help the US to actually win it. The problem is, Nixon and Kissinger decided to abandon S.Vietnam and withdraw. He also blames LBJ for “allowing” the Vietcong to use bases in Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam. His conclusion is clear and simple – just don’t repeat mistakes made 30 years ago in Vietnam – and everything will be fine.
There is little doubt that, as a military historian, Max Boot is completely cynical. Sure, he understands very clearly that he talks complete garbage, still he does exactly this simply because this is what he is expected to do. Now the analogy between Iraq and Vietnam is official, so his goal is to represent it in the best possible way.
Of course, Boot knows that by 1973, the number of US forces in Vitetnam was not small, it was around 200K. Well, it was certainly less than 550K+ in 1969, so he is just playing a cheap numbers game. As for “allowing” foreign bases, the only way to shut them off completely was to occupy the whole region which was clearly impossible even with 550K troops.
The only reasonable explanation for this insane gap between rhetorics and actual facts is purely instrumental nature of the former combined with the ugliness of the latter. Whatever Boot says is skillfully designed as a thin wrapper for the military-political decisions which are already made and beyond discussion.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - “U.S. forces have rebranded one of the main insurgent groups in Iraq, the 1920 Revolution Brigade and now use the term ‘concerned local nationals’ to refer to a group that once claimed responsibility for killing scores of Americans.”
if words and phrases were shards and fragments then surely historians will unearth such colourful artifacts as these and piece by piece together the mosaic of an American officer corps more hell-bent on self-delusional wordplay than The Art of War making.
i shudder to think of the few, the proud, the true academics and intellectuals who occupy not IRAQ but our War Colleges, and know : what this means...
...after all, it is not a difficult code to break; It would be comic, were it not so tragic, for their young brothers and sisters -in- arms who must daily attempt to carry water in these broken vessels, entirely lacking that essential glue, truth ~ an honest verb that would bind together the simple syntax of Subject and Object: We occupy Them.
Call it what you will, call them what you want ~ it does not change who WE are, and what we are doing, Over There, to them.
"The US Big database, small arrest yield. Raises fears for civil rights and privacy considerations."
Simple solution: arrest more people!
Last night I was surprised to hear Bill Maher on Real Time keep insisting that Iraqis want the US military to remain in their country. This seems to becoming a more and more widespread GOP talking point. But weren't there polls taken YEARS ago that showed the vast majority of Iraqis as well as the Parliament want US forces OUT of the country?
".....Well, what about this report that EFPs with a distinct signature are being used in Afghanistan? ......."
In Western Societies, were ladies will trade of her body for trivial entertainment, it is not hard to find Western men who will sell EFP's to Iraqi's, Afghanis or others. In fact Western men in leadership positions doing it right now, killing Americans and Moslem for profit and not for American Empire building but in fact for a Dubai based Economic Empire owned by a dozen Western Political – Economic leaders or so. They even adding Solidaire SAL to that empire, just as they added Emmar, Inc., Dubai Ports, Inc, Barney’s among other monopolies, the list is too big, and it must be, how else will they be able to lauder all those mint condition bricks and palettes of Billion Dollars printed on the expense of drastically devaluating the J.S. Dollar.
Or it could be simply any one person a group, a business competitive on this planet who for money or plain disdain to American crimes in Iraq is providing either he technology or the ready made stuff for revenge or cash, There are millions of wealthy individuals who could be motivated for doing it. To single Iran as the source, is rather idiotic and simpleton.
I am not going to enumerate here the available cheap technologies that can be improvised to drive those scam artists who murdered millions of Moslems under the fake Democracy slogans, lets this comment be removed or someone actually use the technologies.
Happy Forth of Jewly. LOL,
Concerning the LA Times article on the attack on the two villages in Diyala province, the only reliable report is from the US military. They said Al Qaeda attacked in trucks and took all their casualties with them so the number of dead is unknown. Many villagers commented that this attack would only stiffen their resolve against Al Qaeda. In total 10 villagers were killed, 11 wounded and 14 women and children taken hostage.
Concerning Juan's comment on "Iranian provenance" the biggest question related to Iran is why the White House is so intent on muzzling General Petraeus when he testifies before Congress in September? Perhaps they don't want another General Shinseki explaining the consequences of their proposed plan of action?
Bush is not going to withdraw a significant number of troops from Iraq, if any. Should God Almighty come down in a burning bush and set George on fire, he still would not withdraw the troops. He is pathologically obstinate. His use of denial is deranged. He cannot admit failure, thus he will not change course. That would be admitting that his past actions have failed.I have seen egocentric managers do this. They promote someone. That person turns out to be a dud. However, the top manager does not want to admit error, so he/she leaves the dud in place, or promotes them. The division managed by the dud may go under or be rife with problems. Doesn't matter. The top manager cannot and will not admit that the choice was wrong. Ego outweighs reason and logic in these cases. Problem-solving is not done, because the problem cannot be correctly and logically identified. We are stuck with Bush because Republicans and Democrat centrists will not impeach Bush and Cheney. Bush and Cheney know this full well, and will continue the war until they leave town. Barring some major catastrophe like a Great Depression, the Iraq War Travesty will continue unabated until January 2008. And, the end then is not a sure thing. The White House spinmeisters are gearing up for the Petraeus report in a big way. Bush will find all kinds of BS to justify continuing his horrendous and immoral destruction of a country.
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