On NPR yesterday morning, there was a story about Air Force personnel being trained in ground combat.

Since 2003, more than 30,000 airmen and sailors have been retrained to do things they normally wouldn’t be called on to do, like run vehicle convoys, take part in street patrols, and get used to the sound of an AK-47 — the weapon of choice for insurgents in Iraq.

So much for air superiority. Everybody sing along now:
Down on the ground, Junior Birdmen
Down on the ground, ne’er to fly
Down on the ground, Junior Birdmen
Keep your eyes upon the sky….
When you hear the AK’s chat’ring,
When you see the Humvees merge,
You’ll know the Junior Birdmen
Were suckered for the “surge”

Posted by: catlady | May 23 2007 23:53 utc | 3

How long without a draft? How does a $40K signing bonus sound to a kid whose best job prospect just got off-shored to Malaysia? goarmy.com–play some video games and sign up.

Posted by: catlady | May 24 2007 0:55 utc | 5

(May 23, 2007)mullah cimoc say now time for him aemriki making the full investigation for discover:
1. Who starting this war?
2. Who faking the WMD intel?
3. What am him neocon? Am he the dual national israel citizen, or maybe him wife,
she a israeli citizen? Why so much israel connection. What him third party
country providing the fake wmd intel?
4. Why the nobody at us military academy at west point teach ameriki soldier read three volume treatise by chairman mao tse tung on guerilla warfare? So obvious for anyone study this subject: foreign occupier never succeed against determined guerilla resistance unless garrison entire country, this meaning every city, the town, the village. This taking the 1,000,000 ameriki soldier.
So much the suffering and destroy too many people even the aemriki people. USA woman take the LBT (low back tattoo) and the son he becoming the gay man with the beautifyl finger tip. Why this happen?
Am usa media so control for him google: mighty wurlitzer +cia and learning
him usa press not the free now.
so many aemriki boys, them die for who? Who the making this war.

Posted by: mullah cimoc | May 24 2007 2:50 utc | 7

Uh, this thing about food logistics problems is a serious — no, ominous sign. It’s not just the outlying posts, it’s even hurting the Green Zone!
Could some of this problem be a consequence of the recent spate of blowing up bridges?
Also, will the withdrawal of Brits (and Danes) in the south somehow improve overland logistics from Kuwait?

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | May 24 2007 6:55 utc | 9

To the detail of food, always very telling – The US imports everything and regulates all it can, like a hyper obsessive Victorian nanny living amongst savages.
Ex. Feeding Iraqi prisoners, 17 000 of them and set to rise steeply..: from the Wa Po: “According to the food contract, local Iraqis and Iraqi companies are prohibited from preparing and serving food for the detainees. …Instead, the contractor is to use “expatriates and third-country nationals.” (they) must live in trailers or tents provided by the contractor on a U.S. military base near the food facility. (…) However, the guards receive some benefits: Their meals on the base include a wider selection of food and “shall consist of 25% larger portions” than detainees’ meals, according to the contract. (..) All food consumed at the Camp Cropper prison must be purchased outside Iraq and convoyed into the country by either U.S. or Iraqi military forces, according to the contract.link
Managing the country that is ‘the US in Iraq’ – sort of pasted on the original place – is of course incredibly costly, mostly in terms of energy (oil – very little will be end-used for military operations).
The US soldier in Iraq is amongst the all time gas guzzlers ever, and the logistics (or even supply?) problems can only get worse – surge, of course, but also all the energy required to maintain and *expand* that way of life, that territory, with the simultaneous destruction of the Iraqi way of life. Seeing the US as building a strange ersatz country, rather than fighting a war with soldiers to attain military objectives, helps, I think, to understand the confusion and contradictory ‘strategies’ – no one knows really how to do it, or how to go on pursuing this kind of take-over.
Local agriculture in Iraq is probably invisible by now. The Iraqis increasingly live, if it can be called that, off food aid (Australian wheat, etc.)
Children make bombs so as to be able to feed themselves and their parents, joining the war economy, and no doubt doing without fresh cucumbers, just like the US soldiers (I mean getting less fresh food):
UN agency

Posted by: Noirette | May 24 2007 12:26 utc | 11

Noirette @ 11, good post in my humble opinion.
Highlighting just one of your sentences:
“Local agriculture in Iraq is probably invisible by now. The Iraqis increasingly live, if it can be called that, off food aid (Australian wheat, etc.).”
Your comment illustrates well what I have said in other MOA threads… If this isn’t genocide, whether by design or willful neglect, then I don’t know what is.
Actually though, most of the wheat going to Iraq comes from the U.S.
This (pdf file) from the latest Iraq Reconstruction Report (April, 2007):
Iraq 101 — Knowledge Brief
Exports – Commodities: crude oil 84%, crude materials
excluding fuels 8%, food and live animals 5%
Exports – Partners: US 49.7%, Italy 10.4%, Spain 6.3%, Canada
5.6% (2005)
Imports – Commodities: food, medicine, manufactures
Imports – Partners: Turkey 23.4%, Syria 23.1%, US 11.7%,
Jordan 6.3% (2005)
Hey – look at this on Page 5 of the report: “Mushroom growing” will save the Iraq economy! Such arrogance by the U.S. government shown below is almost beyond belief.

Dept. of Agricultural Cites Three Projects with High Potential
Information Provided by U.S. Dept. of Agriculture
Mushroom Commercial Growing Farms:
Mushroom commercial growing farm’s have the potential of being a profitable business at several levels of the Iraqi economy. Mushrooms are easy to grow, using simple adopted technologies and do not require large pieces of land. The development of mushrooms is in line with the government’s policy of diversification of the country’s production base. According to the USDA, the purpose of this project is to create new jobs and potentially new income sources for lower income Iraqis. The project will increase local economic activity and decrease the amount of imported mushrooms.
Olive Production:
Olives are a potentially important cash crop for Iraqi farmers. Olives are grown throughout the region, and they have demonstrated production capacity in all Iraq provinces. Construction is underway to establish the orchards in eight provinces: Salah ad Din, Diyala, Wassit, Babylon, Qadissiya, Muthanna, Thi-Qar and Basrah. The orchards will be planted with both high oil and table fruit olive varieties, according to the region of the country and the variety. The central area of Iraq is more favorable to table olive varieties, while orchards in the southern region will be planted with both table and high oil producing varieties of olives. USDA officials state that each orchard will be planted with 600 seedlings, for a total of 9,000 olive oil trees.
Soil Salinity:
It is estimated that 28 million acres in Iraq are cultivable. However, salinity has always been a major issue. In fact, according to USDA, it was recorded as a cause of crop yield reductions some 3800 years ago. To reduce the region’s inadequate drainage problems of and high soil salinity and to improve agricultural production, the USDA through a contractor, is assisting the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture with the creation of four pilot drainage and salinity catchment areas in Baghdad, Muthanna, and Wassit provinces. Each pilot area is between 250-1200 acres and is used to test drainage systems. An area of 24-74 acres is used as a test plot to carry out research activities.

Also interesting in the report is the mention of “aid” for reconstruction by Japan. This is bull. Japan imports most all of its oil and this is just a vertical market “investment” for Japan.

Posted by: Rick | May 24 2007 15:56 utc | 13

The key to the 200k projected troop numbers is that arriving and departing units overlap for a period of a few weeks – the number is not likely to be sustained for more than a 2-4 week period, and a good portion of the departing troops in this figure will likely be in transit to Kuwait and beyond – ie “demobilising”.
Whilst it’s tempting to project nefarious intent, the reality is that the US is stuck in the entropy trap – contested occupations require an ever larger input of resources and manpower by the occupier over time simply to stand still; eventually the occupation collapses as the resource base stretches beyond the limits of sustainability.
It’s also worth noting that the bulk of the departing troops will in all likelihood have already served extended 15-18 month tours, and it will be politically difficult to extend their deployments even further.

Posted by: dan | May 24 2007 17:39 utc | 15

It’s not the politics at home. But when the Army starts to break down, Bush will begin to lose control of his very pointy stick.

Posted by: citizen | May 24 2007 18:56 utc | 17

I would think that Iraqis are mainly living from their own resources, much more so than in the time of Saddam.
you would think wrong. from wikipedia.

Saddam focused on fostering loyalty to the Ba’athist government in the rural areas. After nationalizing foreign oil interests, Saddam supervised the modernization of the countryside, mechanizing agriculture on a large scale, and distributing land to peasant farmers.[11] The Ba’athists established farm cooperatives, in which profits were distributed according to the labors of the individual and the unskilled were trained. The government’s commitment to agrarian reform was demonstrated by the doubling of expenditures for agricultural development in 1974-1975. Moreover, agrarian reform in Iraq improved the living standard of the peasantry and increased production.
Saddam became personally associated with Ba’athist welfare and economic development programs in the eyes of many Iraqis, widening his appeal both within his traditional base and among new sectors of the population. These programs were part of a combination of “carrot and stick” tactics to enhance support in the working class, the peasantry, and within the party and the government bureaucracy.
Saddam’s organizational prowess was credited with Iraq’s rapid pace of development in the 1970s; development went forward at such a fevered pitch that two million persons from other Arab countries and Yugoslavia worked in Iraq to meet the growing demand for labor.

Posted by: annie | May 25 2007 0:57 utc | 19

@Alex – Google sat pictures are NOT current. On Iraq most of them are from 2004 or so.
—
Michael Gordon, co-writer of Judith Miller is still a propaganda outlet. Here he explains based on “intelligence” that al-Sadr is back in Iraq after four month in Iran: Iraqi Shiite Cleric Reportedly Ends a Sojourn in Iran
Nowhere does he say that Sadr ha denied being to Iran at all. There never was any public proof that he was in Iran – only U.S. military spokesman said so. al-Sadr people each time denied this.
Then Gordon has this: “Some Americans also suggest that he may be trying to take advantage of the absence of one of his main Shiite rivals, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who has come to the United States for medical treatment.”
Yes true, Hakim was in the U.S. and then he did fly to Iran for treatment. Not that Gordon would not know this, he just doesn’t tell you.
His tell is al-Sadr bad, Hakim good. Sadr being in Iraq all the time and Hakim being in Iran doesn’t fit his tale.

Posted by: b | May 25 2007 7:29 utc | 21

What I saw on the ground.
I would think that Iraqis are mainly living from their own resources, much more so than in the time of Saddam.
You can see it on Google Earth, or the maps section of Google.
i’m not sure what you are saying. are you saying you think the agriculture is more sustainable now than pre invasion because you saw it then and now? do google maps show the past?
do you mean iraq is more able to sustain itself now as a result of US invasion/occupation than during the US imposed sanctions?
are you suggesting american ingenuity has brought advancement to agriculture in iraq..finally? or are you speaking solely of samarra? what do you think of mansano?

Posted by: annie | May 25 2007 10:12 utc | 23

“Mushroom growing” will save the Iraq economy! wrote Rick.
Mushrooms are indeed very useful, as you can grow them in cellars.
But not for the Iraqis. Iraq used to be a big food exporter. I don’t know how the dates are doing right now, but many date plantations were destroyed and others left untended. All this is so typical it is scary – there is a kind of evil lurking under the surface, masking itself as lack of common sense or benevolent meddling. Creepy. Of course the Iraqis are turning to the poppy – no one is going to stop them doing that. (b linked above.)
Yes, most of wheat is US. There was a wheat war between the US and Aus (which led amongst others, to the only foreignor in the CPA getting the boot, he was an Australian, though I don’t remember the story precisely now) and Howard, just like Tony the Phony got nothing in return for his pains and had to capitulate.
Alex, I was a bit hasty for sure. I have also read about new plots, fruit mostly. As soon as I have time I will look it up thoroughly. One of the main difficulties I read (about 2 years ago) is that Iraqis are no longer allowed to keep their seeds for re-planting, they have to buy from Monsanto, to qualify for Gvmt. help or bank loans, etc. So, the destruction of traditional agriculture.
Another big difficulty is, naturally, water. Lack of clean water is usually seen in terms of child death – the UN published a report recently and it is as bad as one could expect. But broken infrastructure (pipes ditches etc) plus disruption of tradition – cooperation, informal water sharing, etc – as well as the previous structure, which ppl have adapted to over the years – can put paid to many a farm. Or most of them.
Then there is energy. This oil rich country has outta sight prices, a black market, endless car queues, as everyone knows. Ppl borrow or trade small jerrycans of kerosene…and have returned to traditional ovens (wood, charcoal), oil lamps, and candles. How do you run a tractor in that situation? Or a pump? How? If your budget is tight, your work day full, your position unfavorable, the bank (what bank moreover?) will not speak to you? How do you find ppl to work when stability is gone and in any case you cannot pay them? It seems desperate to me. .. From far off.

Posted by: Noirette | May 25 2007 16:41 utc | 25

Looks like a big fight within the administration. Gates/Rice want to retreat to the big bases, Cheney and the local command want more troops.
White House Said to Debate ’08 Cut in Iraq Troops by 50%
Confusing …

Posted by: b | May 26 2007 7:29 utc | 27