“More And Better Intelligence”

July 15, 2005

U.S. and Iraqi forces have “mostly eliminated” the ability of insurgents to conduct sustained, high-intensity attacks in Baghdad, the top U.S. commander in the Iraqi capital said Friday.

Maj. Gen. William G. Webster Jr. said in a video-teleconference interview from Baghdad with reporters at the Pentagon that offensive operations by U.S. and Iraqi troops in recent weeks had sharply reduced the number of insurgent bombings.
…
There were 14 to 21 car bombings per week in Baghdad before the May 22 start of the latest U.S.-Iraqi offensive, dubbed Operation Lightning, he said. That’s dropped to about seven or eight a week now, Webster said, attributing the improvement to the disruption of insurgent cells and the availability of more and better intelligence.
U.S.: Rebels Suffered Sharp Blow In Baghdad, Jul 8, 2005

—

Ten suicide car bombers exploded in a series of apparently coordinated attacks across the Iraqi capital on Friday, killing at least 25 people and wounding more than 100, police sources said.
…
The Baghdad bombs were not the only violence in a day of attacks that raged across the country.

Police said a suicide bomber on foot injured five people at a Shi’ite mosque at Jabila, south of Baghdad. Two Iraqi policemen were killed and a third injured by gunmen just north of Baghdad.

U.S. Marines said two of their troops had died in a roadside bomb strike on Wednesday in the remote Western desert.
Ten suicide bombs in Iraqi capital, 25 dead, Jul 15, 2005

Posted by b on July 15, 2005 at 19:06 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Perhaps the stress of cancelled flights and having to reschedule and arrange transport back to the Green Zone or other international facilities made their comments harsher than would be the case under different circumstances. But nonetheless, I was dismayed with what seemed, to me at least, to be very racists and colonialist statements by almost every contractor or entrepreneur I talked with.
Having grown up the Southern U.S. and having a very racist father, it was a very bizarre experience hearing almost the same comments being made against Iraqis that I heard as a child being made against blacks. The same venom, for lack of a better word, was coming out of their mouths as they denigrated the people, culture and societal norms of Iraq.

Sanded In Baghdad

Posted by: b | Jul 15 2005 19:15 utc | 1

“Maj. Gen. William G. Webster Jr. said in a video-teleconference interview from Baghdad with reporters at the Pentagon that offensive operations by U.S. and Iraqi troops in recent weeks had sharply reduced the number of insurgent bombings.”
Yep. We’re over the hump and on a glide path to success at the light at the end of the tunnel. Mission accomplished.
“The same venom, for lack of a better word, was coming out of their mouths as they denigrated the people, culture and societal norms of Iraq.”
Yeah, I’m sure it was the cancelled flights. Definitely.

Posted by: Billmon | Jul 15 2005 20:23 utc | 2

Our Afghanistan adventure would not be like the Soviets in Afghanistan, which we derided as the the Soviets ‘Vietnam’, and of course Vietnam is nothing like Iraq … isn’t that how it goes ?
Is Iraq the US equivalent of Soviet Afghanistan?

“We should separate the duties of the soldiers of any army of the world who swear allegiance to their countries and people who issue controversial orders to those soldiers.”
— Vladimir Grigoriev, Soviet-Afghan War 1979-1989
“Urban combat is difficult for the urban guerrilla and the regular force. Throughout the war, the Soviets and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA) forces were never able to completely control Kandarhar and Herat. Finally, the Soviets dealt with the Herat guerrillas by bombing 75% of the city into rubble. That still failed to stop the urban guerrilla. The DRA had more success in controlling the capital city of Kabul – but still were unable to stop the rocket attacks and guerrilla actions. On the other hand, surviving urban guerrillas are harder to find to interview. The urban guerrilla must be anonymous and ruthless to survive. The Soviets and DRA devoted a great deal of effort to finding and eliminating the urban guerrilla.”
— Ali Ahmad Jalali and Lester Grau – The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War

When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan few realised how long the fighting would go on (1979-1989) and that it would end with the Soviets being forced into a humiliating retreat. 620,000 Soviets served in Afghanistan during this period, of which 525,000 were in the Soviet Armed forces, 90,000 were KGB and 5,000 MVD. The Soviets lost nearly 14,000 killed, 469,685 wounded and sick, of those over 10,500 became permanent invalids. In addition to the human loss vast amounts of equipment was destroyed including 118 airplanes, 333 helicopters, 147 tanks, 1.314 other armored fighting vehicles, 433 artillery pieces, 1.138 radios and command vehicles, 510 engineer armored vehicles and 11.369 trucks. The Afghan losses were staggering from a population of 16.5 million over 1.3 million were killed, and a further 5.5 million – one third of the population – found refuge outside the country. The war showed once again how dificult it is to win in guerilla war.

Posted by: Outraged | Jul 15 2005 20:31 utc | 3

London bombs home-made from pharmacy ingredients
“So, you loyal citizens can just forget all about that stuff we said about military explosives being used and all, right? Only those crazy treasonous kooks on the Internet would have the nerve to point out how the official story has changed yet again! And you can;t listen to THOSE people, I mean, criminy, they refused to believe Saddam had nookular weapons, for crying out loud. How can you trust people like that?”

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 15 2005 20:32 utc | 4

Ohhhhh….ShitCity…..Heaven Help Us, Uncle $cam…….Vitamin C bombs raining down upon us all….

Posted by: jj | Jul 15 2005 20:37 utc | 5

grrr sorry:
London bombs home-made from pharmacy ingredients

Posted by: Uncle | Jul 15 2005 20:38 utc | 6

Uncle,
Incredible. You know why, don’t you?
Sarkozy’s revelation of prior contact with the security services.
It’s turning into a re-run of Madrid. So they had to sever the explosives supply line.
Sarkozy was in Madrid today. Not with Alonso (his opposite number at Interior) but with Zapatero.

Posted by: John | Jul 15 2005 22:18 utc | 7

I’m sure that many readers remember the apocryphal story from Vietnam about the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) and intelligence.
Apparently the ARVN forces were making contact with the enemy with about 25% of the frequency US forces were. It was determined to give ARVN access to intelligence so that their ‘contact’ rates would increase. ARVN were duly kept up to date on enemy movements and contacts fell to about 10% of the US rate.
Patrick Cockburn has a great story in the Independent about the ghost forces and corruption in the new Iraq army.

The Iraqi armed forces are full of “ghost battalions” in which officers pocket the pay of soldiers who never existed or have gone home. “I know of at least one unit which was meant to be 2,200 but the real figure was only 300 men,” said a veteran Iraqi politician and member of parliament, Mahmoud Othman. “The US talks about 150,000 Iraqis in the security forces but I doubt if there are more than 40,000.”

That’s just a taste of his revelations

The corruption started under the US-run Coalition Provisional Authority in 2003 when Iraqis, often with little experience, were appointed to senior positions in ministries. The Iraqis did not act alone. “The Americans were the partners of the Iraqis in all this corruption,” says Dr Othman. The results of the failure to buy effective arms are visible at every Iraqi police or army checkpoint. The weapons on display are often ageing Kalashnikovs. The supposedly elite police commandos drive about in elderly pick-ups with no armour. The ministry of the interior was recently unable to provide a presidential guard with 50 pistols.

or even

Iraqi soldiers have often turned out to be pathetically vulnerable to guerrilla attacks. “During the past two years, people could make money in Iraq on a scale that would astonish a Colombian drug lord,” said an Iraqi politician who, like many, wanted to remain anonymous. “To protect the amounts of money they made, these people will kill very easily.”

The chances of the coalition of the incapable of getting out of this mess anytime soon are negligible.
Around the time of the London murders a story was starting to circulate in Australia that Australian troops were going to be used to replace the Brits in Basra so the Brits could either move further north and relieve US forces or switch to Afghanistan and relieve there. The motivation seems to be that the US has the next election (mid terms) so they can reduce their forces marginally and give that as proof of a de-escalation, then the favour will be returned for whichever country has to go to the polls next.
Has anyone heard any more on this? More important Will the sheeple buy something this lame and are they so distracted by the thought of the mess junior got them in that they’ll clutch at any straw no matter how flimsy.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Jul 16 2005 5:27 utc | 8

Three UK soldiers killed by roadside bomb in Al Amarah

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jul 16 2005 7:28 utc | 9

@ Cloned
Yes, and another Italian soldier died this week too
(although not due to hostile action).

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Jul 16 2005 8:54 utc | 10

HKOL, nice to seeya.
I don’t know how long the siege of Stalingrad actually lasted, but the siege of Iraq………… The US Army is being ripped apart, as Debs above shows, the greedy are milking it on both sides….I’m sure the insurgent leaders must be high-fiving every day………. get a young jihadi suicider…….. beats sending battalions to their death which is what Stalin did.
Where’s the attrition……… it’s the Coalition of the Attrition of money, weapons, credibility and the US Army.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jul 16 2005 9:59 utc | 11

Every time I ponder the quagmire that has overtaken the ability of the US armed forces to recruit, I am reminded of the sneering VP candidate Dick Cheney re-assuring the troops [who were upset that they were led by a former potsmoking, Vietnem war-protesting, wifecheating Democrat CIC] that “Help is on the way.”
Do you suppose they’ve learned yet to beware of republican chickenhawks promising to “help”?

Posted by: gylangirl | Jul 16 2005 19:20 utc | 12

Supporting the troops – Italy gang sent steroids to U.S. soldiers in Iraq

Posted by: Nugget | Jul 17 2005 4:25 utc | 13

Another kind of ‘fix’ – Report: Secret aid planned for Iraq vote
WASHINGTON, July 16 – In the months before the Iraqi elections in January, President Bush approved a plan to provide covert support to certain Iraqi candidates and political parties, but rescinded the proposal because of Congressional opposition, current and former government officials said Saturday.
In a statement issued in response to questions about a report in the next issue of The New Yorker, Frederick Jones, the spokesman for the National Security Council, said that “in the final analysis, the president determined and the United States government adopted a policy that we would not try – and did not try – to influence the outcome of the Iraqi election by covertly helping individual candidates for office.”
The statement appeared to leave open the question of whether any covert help was provided to parties favored by Washington.
The article, by Seymour M. Hersh, reports that the administration proceeded with the covert plan over the Congressional objections….
…Any clandestine American effort to influence the Iraqi elections, or to provide particular support to candidates or parties seen as amenable to working with the United States, would have run counter to the Bush administration’s assertions that the vote would be free and unfettered….
…The article cites unidentified former military and intelligence officials who said the administration went ahead with covert election activities in Iraq that “were conducted by retired C.I.A. officers and other non-government personnel, and used funds that were not necessarily appropriated by Congress….”

Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 17 2005 4:28 utc | 14

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