On the day that John Yoo's remarkable torture memo is released, this foolishness is a reminder that none of these people--none of the vicious, mendacious, naive, simplistic, unapologetic, neo-colonialist ideologues who promulgated this disaster--should have even the vaguest claim on the time or tolerance of fair-minded people. Fred Kagan's certainty is an obscenity, his claim to expertise a farce.
(CBS/AP) U.S. warplanes bombed sites in the southern Iraqi city of Basra overnight, targeting Shiite militia members, a British military spokesman said Friday.
The aerial bombardment is a sign of the difficulty Iraqi forces have had clearing the crucial oil city of armed militias that, until less than a week ago, ran Basra unchecked - most notably by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.
Maj. Tom Holloway, the spokesman based at the British military installation at Basra's airport, said Friday that coalition aircraft had bombed sites twice overnight, "due to engagements on the ground."
Also, U.S. forces seemed to be taking the lead in the fight in eastern Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, reports the Washington Post. The newspaper reports that U.S. armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday and that Iraqi army and police appeared to stay mostly to the outskirts of the area.
It was the first time coalition forces became directly involved in the vicious clashes in Basra that started when thousands of Iraqi troops poured into the town on the orders of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Coalition jets have been patrolling the skies for three days over Basra, but had not fired any weapons.
The Iraqi forces' mission was to wrest control of the city - which is strategically crucial because of its location near the Iranian border and financially vital since 80 percent of Iraq's oil reserves are located in the area and processed through Basra's pipelines.
Muhannad Fala'ah / Getty Images
BAGHDAD, IRAQ - MARCH 27: Smoke rises after a mortar attack as U.S helicopters fly on March 27, 2008 at the Green Zone area in Baghdad, Iraq. The Green Zone was also attacked by insurgents on Sunday March 23 after which the most senior US general in Iraq announced he had evidence that Tehran had trained, funded and equipped the insurgents who had initiated the attack. There has so far been no response from Iran to these accusations.
Oh yeah, and another thing. Every time you think of the "adviser model" for Iraq, you should think of this operation in Basra. Because this is the end result of the U.S. advisory effort to date -- which has focused on creating well-trained and equipped units at the tactical level, but has basically failed at the national, strategic level. The leaders of the Iraqi security forces at the ministry level are as bad as they ever were. And the national government is about as bad. Training and advising Iraqi units at the brigade level and below is well and good. But if you fail to properly shape the national command structure, you're handing those units over to leaders who will misuse them.
When Joe Lieberman corrected McCain's "senior moment" in Jordan, he had McCain say that the Iranians were training "extremists," not "alkaydah" (sic). The two of them and Graham had just come from Iraq, so I guess Joe had gotten the word there that the baddies (Jeish al-mahdi) were going to be referred to as "extremists." McCain just couldn't keep it straight. Hmmm. The enemy is who? Say it again...
It is clear that US policy is to back Maliki/Dawa/ISCI/Badr Corps (Iraqi Forces) against Moqtada al-Sadr and his "army" of "shirtless ones." Fine. Why not? I guess the US has no choice but to back someone.
I suppose that the powers that be will shift the Main Supply Route (MSR) to the west (Nasiriyah) if the Basra area becomes too obstructed.
My problem with the present course of events is the ruthlessness of the propaganda campaign being successfully waged by the Bush Administration. The president has succeeded in "framing" the discussion in such a way that Maliki and his assembly of Badr Corps militias are represented as being the equivalent of George Washington suppressing the Whiskey Rebellion. The noble Maliki is portrayed as motivated by a selfless desire for "national" unity. The MSM has re-transmitted that idea without serious question.
In fact he is merely acting on behalf of an emerging alignment of pro-Iranian forces in Iraq that have successfully pulled the wool over American eyes.
You may have noticed that no Kurdish units of the "Iraqi Forces" have been brought down from the north for this "fandango." You may also have noticed that our Concerned Local Citizens/Sons of Iraq (read Sunni tribal Arab auxiliaries) are not involved. Show me some engaged units in this that are not Shia.
They don't seem to fight so well, these "Iraqi Forces " at Basra. We have spent a lot of time and money on these people. They are not making much progress at Basra. I used to know Montagnard Special Commando Unit troops who fought better than this, but, then, they were well led by some wonderful Special Forces sergeants and junior officers.
JIM LEHRER: So, Mr. Kagan, what Mr. Rosen is saying, essentially that both sides are laying low, the Sunnis for their reasons, the Shias for their reasons, that this is not a permanent thing.
FREDERICK KAGAN: Well, there's a magnificent myth out there that Mr. Rosen just reiterated for us that there are no mixed areas in Iraq anymore and that the cleansing is completed.
And it's astonishing to me that someone who's been in Baghdad for as long and as much as Mr. Rosen has been could say something like that. There are still Shia areas in western Baghdad, not only in Kadamiyah, around the Kadamiyah shrine, in which there will always be Shia, but also in west Rashid.
JIM LEHRER: What does that mean?
FREDERICK KAGAN: It means that you still have -- in neighborhoods that are predominantly Sunni, on the west side of the river, which is historically the Sunni side of the river, you still have Shia enclaves that are within those neighborhoods.
Now, they're more consolidated than they had been before, certainly. At a low level, you certainly have seen that kind of consolidation, but there is no natural dividing line between Sunni and Shia in Baghdad, let alone around Baghdad, let alone in Diyala.
“We have been going into neighborhoods and sealing off certain exit and entrance points during initial sweeps,” Caldwell said. “Those were temporary measures.”
Caldwell, however, said that U.S. and Iraqi forces would continue to erect permanent barriers around city marketplaces. So far, he said, coalition forces had erected more than 3,000 individual sections of concrete blast walls throughout the city since the plan went into effect two months ago. These barriers included both Jersey barriers — short concrete dividers commonly seen on roadways in the United States — and larger 20-foot blast walls that commonly surround bases and living areas.
According to Wednesday’s news release from Multi-National Corps-Iraq, “the wall [in Adhamiyah] is one of the centerpieces of a new strategy by coalition and Iraqi forces to break the cycle of sectarian violence. Planners hope the creation of the wall will help restore law and order by providing a way to screen people entering and exiting the neighborhood — allowing residents and people with legitimate business in, while keeping death squads and militia groups out.”
A similar effort by U.S. troops in south Baghdad was reported earlier this month by the Wall Street Journal.
“That community [in Adhamiyah] will be completely gated and protected,” Lt. Col. Thomas Rogers, 407th Brigade Support Battalion, was quoted as saying in the release. “It’s really for the security of all the people of Adhamiyah, not just one side or the other.”
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Faced with the reality of the impossibility of enacting Keane & Kagan’s Cock-Up, General David Petraeus has announced his “new way forward” –
The New York Times calls it a “radical new strategy” in the Saturday edition.
It’s basically just a retread of the “Strategic Hamlets” approach that was a horrifying failure in
It has also been a part of the planning from the outset of this current apostasy of ramped-up death and violence. In January, they were pimping it as The Tal Afar Model(!) - before that all fell apart a few weeks ago.
The Sunni’s feel like they are being sequestered; boxed off in ethnic enclaves. ASunni physician was understandably angry “It’s unbelievable that they treat us in such an inhumane manner. They’re trying to isolate us from other parts of
I am going to stand up for Dave Petraeus. Not that he needs my help, but damnit, it pisses me off to listen to the all the pissing and moaning that Petraeus is new to the job, give him a chance to make his plan work – especially the pundit class of the right wing media.
They all know damn good and well that this is not Petraeus’ plan. This was laid out in that POS white paper, Choosing Victory, from Kagan and Keane at the AEI last December 14. All of this is in that paper. The record is there.
Hang it around the necks of Kagan and Keane, not Petraeus. He is doing the best he can with a bad situation. He has enough problems trying to apply the lipstick to this pig without getting credit for this cock-up that is wholly the notion of others. Place the blame appropriately.
