Lind also says he’s not been able to confirm that report. But if it’s true — or if other Marines even think its true — the implications for Iraqification are stark. How do you "stand up" an Army when you can’t risk turning your back on the troops once they stand up?
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September 19, 2005
WB: Back to Iraq
Comments
Some media are Back to Iraq too. Not much cheerleading in today’s WaPo: U.S. Claims Success in Iraq Despite Onslaught
After generally rejecting body counts as standards of success in the Iraq war, the U.S. military last week embraced them — just as it did during the Vietnam War. As the carnage grew in Baghdad, U.S. officials produced charts showing the number of suspects killed or detained in offensives in the west.
Lynch, the military spokesman, cited killings and detentions of 1,534 insurgents in the region. The fact that the number of insurgents killed or captured in the northern city of Tall Afar was roughly equal to advance estimates of their strength, he said, was proof that insurgents weren’t simply escaping to fight another day — and that U.S. forces were doing more than razing infrastructure. “Zarqawi is on the ropes,” Lynch told reporters.
It was not clear, however, how many of those detained or killed in the offensives were insurgents. Since 2003, U.S. forces have detained 40,000 people, twice U.S. generals’ highest public estimate of the number of fighters in the insurgency. On Saturday, the Iraqi government said it had released for lack of evidence more than 500 of the 757 suspects detained in ongoing operations in the northern city of Mosul.
Many of the men detained in Tall Afar last week were rounded up on the advice of local teenagers who had stepped forward as informants, at times for what American soldiers said they suspected amounted to no more than settling local scores.
Some people tell me that I’m out of it, and I’m having that feeling now. I remember that the Pentagon’s estimate of the number of hard core insurgents is or was 20,000. So we should have all of them plus some locked up in the Iraq gulag. Plus with our latest final offensive in Tellme Howfar and 1,500 insurgents dead, is there anyone still standing that wants to raise a rifle against us? Just like in the Vietnam war there is a gap between the Panglossalot’s numbers and what I’ve read in the past. It should be safe enough now for W to make another Mission Accomplished or Delivering the Plastic Turkey trip to Baghdad.
Juan Cole reports on his web site that Sunni fighters have closed off several Baghdad neighborhoods.
Posted by: christofay | Sep 19 2005 8:09 utc | 2
Perhaps, donkey-cart Dempsey fancies himself to be of the same school as Karnak the Magnificent, though if he was really mystic he could tell us:
What has happened to Iraq’s missing $1bn?
“The money missing from all ministries under the interim Iraqi government appointed by the US in June 2004 may turn out to be close[r] to $2bn… Many Iraqi soldiers and police have died because they were not properly equipped. In Baghdad they often ride in civilian pick-up trucks vulnerable to gunfire, rocket- propelled grenades or roadside bombs. For months even men defusing bombs had no protection against blasts because they worked without bullet-proof vests. These were often promised but never turned up.
”
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Sep 19 2005 8:33 utc | 3
The amount of money (our U.S. tax dollars) gone missing will end eclipsing whatever was lost to Saddam during the Oil for Food program.
Posted by: christofay | Sep 19 2005 9:15 utc | 4
I don’t know why this (the failing Iraqi army) should suprise anyone, after all, are they suppose to be gung- ho in support of occupation? Complicit in selling their country to foreign interests, never to see a penny? Ready to die for a puppet government that can’t walk the streets for fear of death? And as far as William Linds antidotes and little dreams of 4th generation warfare being adopted by the pentagon, well he just has’nt been paying attention to the way things work now. The new” crony capitalist shinning path” is’nt about to deal out power based on anything but loyality, and loyality has’nt squat to do with anything other than creating ever more concentric circles of consolidation. Not to mention the fact that a genuine understanding of the cultural/linguistic/historical knowledge that fuels insurgency in resistance to imperialistic oppression — would likely develop into sympathy for that resistance. Sorry, but you can’t have it both ways. Naw, wolf in sheeps clothing is all they got.
Posted by: anna missed | Sep 19 2005 9:31 utc | 5
To index the point, Juan Cole points out the former minister of defense Hazem Shaalan has now landed with golden parachute intact in Jordan — having successfully “embezzled(?)” 2 billion — for services rendered, I suppose.
Posted by: anna missed | Sep 19 2005 9:49 utc | 6
The media is spiraling around New Orleans erasing news of competing Middle Eastern disasters. The one thing to come out of the destruction of the Gulf Coast is that there will be no draft and invasion of Iran even with another terrorist attack. The Bush Mal-Administration can’t talk Americans into another Crusade now or afford it.
Posted by: Jim S | Sep 19 2005 15:12 utc | 7
This graphic is a nice documentation of the stupit talk of the Cheney administration.
@anna_missed – a billion here, a billion there …
Now you want to make sure that your money is well spend? Why not give it to Iraq Parnership?
They are really in need of money for urgent Iraq projects. The can not tell you which ones or where – security you see – but they assure you that you can trust them.
Link.
“Now you want to make sure that your money is well spend? Why not give it to Iraq Parnership?
They are really in need of money for urgent Iraq projects. The can not tell you which ones or where – security you see – but they assure you that you can trust them.”
Wouldn’t that be aiding the “Terrists”?
Posted by: pb | Sep 19 2005 16:33 utc | 10
@pb – Wouldn’t that be aiding the “Terrists”?
In my view it would be so, but it may depend on your viewpoint on what constitutes terrorist in Iraq.
Check who is behind Iraq Partnership – click the Link above.
I remember being startled by the deaths of the sniper team. These guys are highly trained and capable. I thought they had gotten caught without quick air support and things went south quickly. But it does make more sense that they were stabbed in the back by our allies.
Time is not on our side. And the rotten bastards who sent these brave marines to die in vain should be in jail.
Posted by: Troy McClure | Sep 19 2005 17:56 utc | 12
b.,”Check who is behind Iraq Partnership – click the Link above.”
I did. Wouldn’t identifying yourself to a ‘charity’ like this get you a ‘not so free’ vacation in Guantanamo Bay?
Posted by: pb | Sep 19 2005 18:39 utc | 13
How do you “stand up” an Army … ?
If they are poorly trained and possess automatic weapons–VERY CAREFULLY.
Would probably be advisable also to point them away from yourself while performing this maneuver.
Posted by: Groucho | Sep 19 2005 19:07 utc | 14
Unless you mean the rotten bastards should rot in AbuG, I think they should be hung from the Washington Monument as the puppets they are.
Posted by: jj | Sep 19 2005 19:13 utc | 15
The civil war post invasion, and the strike for Kurdish independence was predictable and predicted ;
http://canadianspectator.ca/articles/beekeepers.html
Bush and his Gang of Mad beekeepers / March 2003 / Canadian Spectator
“Kurdish nationalists have long experience with betrayals and alliances of convenience, and have first hand experience of American perfidy. After an invasion, they will defend themselves from Turkish incursions. They will not lose the autonomy they have gained over the last eleven years in Northern Iraq. This not only puts them at odds with US ally Turkey, it may also put them at odds with the US itself, even with US wishes that they participate in indigenous actions against Iraqi forces. A complication of post-invasion Iraq will likely be the demand that US commanders disarm the Kurds.
Northern Iraq could easily become contested, terrain involving partisan warfare between Turks, Kurds of three factions, the Iranians, and the US, with Syrians based groups also throwing in their three pennorth. This would amount to the devolution of Northern Iraq, a key strategic region, into another Afghanistan or Somalia.
“Think of the grief of millions after this slaughter, the conversion of that grief into rage, combine that with the internecine struggles based on historical ethnic fault lines (that the Ba’ath Party has repressed), and we begin to appreciate the explosive complexity of post-invasion Iraq.”
“This invasion will also ignite the well financed fires of Arab and Muslim (of all shades, hues and fealties) humiliation and anger. Either in the sands of the desert or on city streets, far from this war, the body bags will build up. ”
Interestingly, Israel has just contracted to supply US$150 Mn worth of Unmanned Aerial vehicles with Turkey. Stirring the pot as usual.
Posted by: Edward Teague | Sep 19 2005 19:44 utc | 16