Golden Mosque Perps Reported in Custody
Iraq the Model reports that the bombers of the Golden Mosque have been arrested. Well at least one of them. The others have been gathered to their fathers.
In a news conference currently being broadcast on TV, Iraq's national security advisor Muwaffak al-Rubaie says Iraqi security forces arrested Abu Qudama al-Tunisi in a raid in the suburb of al-Dhuloiya north of Baghdad. 15 other foreign terrorists were killed in the raid according to al-Rubaie. ... Muwaffak al-Rubaie said the security forces are still searching for Haitham al-Badri who is believed to be the field commander under whom Abu Qudama was operating.
Al-Rubaie described Al-Badri is a terrorist with connections to elements in the past regime who later became one of the leaders of Ansar al-Sunna and later al-Qaeda organization in Iraq. ... 4 Saudis, two Iraqis and one Tunisian entered the mosque at night, handcuffed and locked up the guards in a room and spent the night planting the bombs all around the mosque. Next day they kidnapped and murdered Atwat Bahjat while she was trying to cover the news of the bombing.
That would make the perps fundamentally Sunni in character, for those who want to keep score that way. The Wikipedia entry on Ansar al-Sunna says it:
is an Islamist militant group in Iraq that fought the US-led occupation and US-backed interim government of Iyad Allawi, and continues to fight the new ruling government of Ibrahim al-Jaafari. The group is based in northern and central Iraq, and includes both Iraqi Kurdish and Sunni Arab religious radicals and possibly some foreign fighters. The group maintains close ties with the remnants of Ansar al-Islam, a Kurdish Islamist organization formerly based in the mountains near Halabja in northeastern Iraq before the U.S-led invasion. U.S. officials believe that the group was founded in September of 2003 as an umbrella organization for Islamist guerrillas, with former members of Ansar al-Islam at its core. This date coincides with the first released message from the group stating their existence, on September 20. They claim to seek to expel U.S.-led occupation forces from Iraq and to subsequently establish an Islamic state. The group's leader has been identified Abu Abdullah al-Hassan bin Mahmoud, who is believed to be the brother of a major Ansar al-Islam fighter, although his background is unclear.
Ansar al-Sunna is thought to have links with other Islamist organizations operating in Iraq, including the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi backed Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (al-Qaeda in Iraq). In October 2004 Ansar al-Sunna released a video beheading of a Turkish truck driver on its website. The kidnappers on the video identified themselves as members of al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (Source: MERIA). The United States and Iraqi Interim governments have reportedly linked Ansar al-Sunna to al-Qaeda.
Following the twin Sunni and Shiite uprisings of the spring and summer of 2004, and the subsequent decrease in U.S patrols and the creation of "no-go" areas in the Sunni Triangle, Ansar al-Sunna was believed to be part of a loose coalition of insurgent groups (also including guerrillas from Mohammad's Army and al-Tawhid wal-Jihad) controlling the Sunni cities of Fallujah, Ramadi, Samarra, and Baquba (U.S. offensives later largely wrested control from Baquba, Fallujah, and Samarra, although underground guerrilla forces still have a strong presence in those cities).
Commentary
If Rubaie has got the right perps then this is a tremendous intelligence victory for the Coalition. Whatever cell was in charge of investigating the Golden Mosque incident never let this trail go until it finally led to this Baghdadi safehouse. Again it shows that the primary weapon of the Coalition isn't what is visible to the eye but rather that which goes unremarked. Intelligence operations followed by targeted raids. For that reason the war against intel unremittingly waged by institutions like the New York Times has its price. It has a cost. While it's true that there are always going to be valid concerns about the intrusive impact of intel operations, there is no way that crimes like the Golden Mosque attack can be solved without them. The question is always going to be how much we are willing to hamper the capability to catch heartless murderers in order to preserve the normalcy of our lives. Once the tradeoff is understood then the choices can be intelligently made.
posted by wretchardthecat at 6/28/2006 03:48:00 AM
47 Comments:
This also emphasizes that "nothing suceeds like success" - intelligence operations become easier after victories such as the reduction of Fallujah and the Zarqawie Kerpowie. People are more willing to talk when they see which way the wind is blowing, and the fence sitters can't prevaricate very well after you blow up the fence.
Perhaps the Coalition is not mentioned because of the minor role they played, or maybe it's just briefing spin. Matters little.
This one incident took out another 1% of the Radicals manpower.
When 15 operatives are that large a portion of the force, there is not much of a Military Force.
In fact it is more criminal in nature, like MS-13. Which is, proportionately, as large in the US as aQI is in Iraq. Fancy that.
Proportionately we'd need a million and half trrops chasing after MS-13 in the streets, on patrol from LA and Baltimore, to see the same effect.
The massed troops would be mostly ineffective here in the US, as they are there, in Iraq.
When chasing criminal gangs.
"Gathered to their fathers."
I LOVE that line. I'l be using that one for a while.
Tony Blankley writes of Generals and Armies and Presidents.
He echos my feelings and I'm sure those of many readers, here.
"... Abraham Lincoln had to fire several generals before he found his fighting victory generals Grant and Sherman. (And FDR and General Marshall had to advance Colonel Eisenhower quickly to four stars to find their victory general in Europe.)
There is always an awful lot of politics in the upper levels of the military, and every general with three or four stars on the shoulder is not necessarily Grant, Sherman, Eisenhower or Patton. It is precisely the president's job to find and put in place the generals with the unquenchable will and capacity to win the war. (And with the courage to ask for more troops.)
President Bush should read and re-read MacArthur's first two sentences: "apply every available means to bring [war] to a swift end. War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision."
If President Bush should read those first two sentences, his Democratic Party war critics should read the third sentence: "There is no substitute for victory."
Anyway, it'll be interesting to see if Newt's old Press Sec., Mr Blankley, will migrate to the camp that would put ole' Newt in the White House in '08.
Anyone find any confirmation on this?
FOX HAS IT
FOXNEWS.COM HOME > WORLD
Samarra Golden Dome Bombing Suspect Captured
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqi forces captured a key Al Qaeda suspect wanted in the bombing of a Shiite shrine, but the mastermind of the attack that brought the country to the brink of civil war was still at large, a top security official said Wednesday.
Yousri Fakher Mohammed Ali, a Tunisian also known as Abu Qudama, was captured after being seriously wounded in a clash with security forces north of Baghdad a few days ago in which 15 other foreign fighters were killed, National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie said.
Also, on a related note,
"... The next day, still with remarkably little public attention, Philip Zelikow, the counselor of the State Department, and Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt met with Annan and his deputy, Mark Malloch Brown, at the secretary general's Sutton Place residence. There was no one else present.
The two presidential envoys asked Annan to use his unique "convening powers" to help organize international meetings that would lead (by this fall, the Americans hope) to the unveiling of a new "Iraq Compact" -- an agreement between the Iraqi government and major international donors that would commit Baghdad to a series of political and economic reforms in return for substantially more international aid. (Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called Annan the same day to make an identical request.) ..."
When taken along with the initial reporting that the "Maliki Plan" would include a UN decree concerning a timeline for the Coalition's withdraw, this is the "real" news.
Unreported in the MSM, below the fold everywhere.
The US is handing off, to Iraqis and Kofi's replacement.
That is the Course we've set.
Out of Iraq in '08, before the Election
Takes the legs out from under the Dems.
The UN, back in the saddle, again.
Richard Holbrooke, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, writes a monthly column for The WaPo.
The link supplies the rest of it, if interested.
Only Arab Intelligence sources will break AQ and this surely is encouraging to those interested in intelligence gathering and winning. I am breathlessly searching for the NYT banner celebrating the good news. I'll be back...
It darn sure will help the situation too when saddam steps into eternity from the gallows
Somewhat related to this, Maliki is taking an interesting and hard line on amnesty. He said that multinational troops came into Iraq by international agreements, so there will be no amnesty for insurgents who have killed them.
I wondered this myself, if the UN resolution about the multi-national forces changed the legal status.
This leaves a few unanswered questions and problems though.
First is that there was no UN resolution when the US & UK invaded initially, and some Iraqi troops were fighting in uniform as part of an organized army under command of their government. Under those circumstances was it a crime for an Iraqi soldier in a tank to fire at multi-national forces during the initial invasion, and if so will that soldier be tried and executed? If so, this would be the first time I've ever heard of where soldiers of the losing army were tried in a court room as criminals for fighting back.
Second, one core principle of law is self-defense. Will an Iraqi be allowed to argue that he shot someone in self defense, or does the Maliki plan waive the right to self defense? I'm thinking more of the tit for tat ethnic cleansing killings between Sunnis and Shiites.
Third, I wonder about the practicality of it all. Will they really refight the entire war in the courtroom, three years of battle expanding into a multi-week trial for each case, with months of discovery, detectives digging up evidence, testimony, motions,...
Finally, by having in effect no amnesty, there is no incentive for anyone to quit fighting, and no way to divide and conquer the enemy.
For an example an Iraqi soldier might have followed his chain of command, fighting and killing multi national forces in the early days of the war, but then became non-violent within a few months after the Iraqi government collapsed. If there is no amnesty, the soldier will know that as long as the Maliki government and amnesty plan stands, he has the chance that someone might recognize him as a soldier, and so he might end up in jail or executed. He might decide that he is already a marked man and so might as well fight, or he might just passively not support the Maliki government and allow the resistance to continue.
This is creating a situation where an Iraqi who follows the laws of war and only attacks military targets is punished as severely as a monster from Al Qaeda who slaughters civilians and tries to bring the government down.
At least 8 Sunni resistance groups expressed interest in the Maliki plan, but if there truly is no amnesty for those who attacked only military targets, it is tough to see where the amnesty applies to them or any other major resistance group.
Iraqi PM sets conditions for amnesty
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer
...Al-Maliki also made clear his call for an amnesty for militants would not include those who killed U.S. forces or Iraqis.
"Any amnesty for insurgents will exclude fighters who killed Iraqis or soldiers of the multinational forces because these troops came to Iraq according to international agreements and they are contributing in making the political process successful," he said.
jp,
There was never anyone coming to relieve US in Iraq, but Iraqis.
The exile Army that was authorized by Congress, pre-War, was never mobilized.
The initial planning for the ISF was terribly flawed.
The training of the "new" ISF was given low priority. We were on the wrong course for over a year.
It was discussed here at the Club, long before we migrated to this fallback site.
The lack of an adequate early response to the Insurgency only made matters worse.
If the War Gamers could not find a better tactical method than what has been employed, in Iraq, the parameters of the game are to restricted.
Like the decisions made recently, re: Camp Taji and the transfer of the US Col. working hand in glove with the Iraqi forces.
That story is at Westhawk.
Hard to war game Alexander's victory at the Battle of Gaugamela, an echeloned formation never having been seen before.
Victory in Iraq, and in all the Mohammedan Wars, may require actions out side the current parameters.
Jp,
One question. Rather than disband the Iraqi army, could they not have been deployed to Okinowa?
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But the Military refuses to transform itself to fight the "new" battle.
The answer is not in more SWAT teams, but in more trainers and more US troops embedded with Iraqi and other foreign forces.
That should be the path to promotion, if these brush fire wars across the Mohammedan Crescent are to be successful concluded.
But then the US has not achieved a stategic military Victory since General MacArthur's retirement.
Iraq PM says contacted by armed groups on peace
By Hiba Moussa and Mussab Al-Khairalla
...U.S. politicians have called angrily for there to be no amnesty for the killers of American soldiers. But Some Sunni leaders call attacks against U.S. troops "legitimate resistance" against foreign occupiers.
Since few of those fighting the U.S.-led occupying forces and the U.S.-backed government have been convicted, or seem likely to be, the amnesty appears largely a gesture toward the Sunni community, where the rebellion has been concentrated.
"Those involved in killing Iraqis, crimes, military attacks and bombings will not be released, even those who targeted foreigners, whether multinational forces or journalists," said Maliki. "They caused horror and are not included in the amnesty."
This sounds like the amnesty might even exclude non-lethal crimes. Whether the crime was directed at an Iraqi or non-Iraqi, it is outside the amnesty deal. Given that everyone is either Iraqi or non-Iraqi, it's hard to see what is left. I guess crimes against property, but Maliki seems to be excluding some of those too. Maybe vandalism will be pardoned.
"Those involved in killing Iraqis, crimes, military attacks and bombings will not be released, even those who targeted foreigners, whether multinational forces or journalists," said Maliki. "They caused horror and are not included in the amnesty."
Now, w.w., is that rhetoric directed at US or at his people or all of us together?
Is he doing an Arafat, different messages for different audiences?
And then, how much stock can be put into hs words, anyway?
In '02 Mr Bush promised to secure the US borders, they have not been secured, yet.
Is Mr Maliki going to be more or less effective in fulfilling his statements than Mr Bush?
What Standard should they be held to?
jp,
exactly.
Was Mr Maliki translated or speaking in english?
Since english would be his second or third language, he may not be familar with the subtle differences in the definitions of the words. He may not even have the different words in his english lexicon.
That is why watching the actions on the ground is more telling than the words of the speaches.
> Is he doing an Arafat, different messages for different audiences?
Yes, like most politicians he is very likely talking out of both sides of his mouth, telling the US no amnesty and telling the Sunni insurgents "except secretly for you".
The question is whether the insurgents will live with an unwritten promise. The reality is that if peace broke out, the Iraqi government would never follow up with investigations of everyone who died during the war. The only people amnesty might effect are those who are already captured.
It is dangerous though because those Sunnis are the best potential source of actionable intelligence, the thing that can win the war.
Wretchard:
For that reason the war against intel unremittingly waged by institutions like the New York Times has its price. It has a cost.
I doubt the New York Times will pay it, though. When there is no cost paid by the New York Times, there is no incentive for that newspaper to stop its sabotage.
DR,
"But the Military refuses to transform itself to fight the "new" battle."
I don't see how you can say that. Clearly there have been dramatic changes in tactics and strategy and equipment over the past five years. The authorized size of the special forces has been increased, special forces officers are holding increasingly higher positions of authority. Rumsfeld's plans for making the army leaner and more mobile. The Navy completely shifting it's deployments from a very set schedule to a much more flexible one. The vastly improved close air support coordination between ground forces and air elements. Just to name some a few of the items.
There has been a very radical change since 2001 in the military.
The change, ex helo, were those planned prior to 9-11-01 or the Iraq invasion.
Mr Rumsfeld's "transformation".
That is the driver of change we are seeing, not the Iraq conflict.
Mr Rumsfeld has said as much, in the past. While there are MiTT programs in place, they are small, undermanned and under supported, IMO.
The foreign troop training aspects of the Special Forces have been devalued, in the last "4 year plan" and more SWAT capacity added.
This is not what the Iraqi experience shows is needed, but what Mr Rumsfeld had in mind when taking office in 2000.
The Iraq Invasion was the "test bed" of the "Transformed" force & strategy.
The Invasion went down without a hitch, in record time.
The follow on to that early success, consolidation and security functions was not as successful.
The lessons learned in Tal Afar not even emulated tacticly within Iraq, let alone the lessons learned in Tal Afar transplanted to strategic thinking of the the Joint Chiefs.
May all the bloodthirsty cretins be awarded their raisins soon. When Saddam released the 200,000 criminals, he did not know that he was demonstrating the equivalence between criminality and islamism. Saddam the scholar.
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Israelis bomb camp, cut power and water By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer
31 minutes ago
RAFAH, Gaza Strip -
Israel turned up the pressure on Palestinian militants to release a captive soldier Wednesday, sending its warplanes to bomb a Hamas training camp after knocking out electricity and water supplies for most of the 1.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip.
This reminds me of questions I had during the NATO bombing in Yugoslavia. Is destruction of civilian electical, water, sewer facilities a lawful tactic in war? Is there any limit to how long it can go on?
I don't know the answers to the questions, am just asking.
Mr Rumsfeld's transformed force is for the post Cold War conventional battle. Not the "new" asymetric Mohammedan Wars and Campaigns.
Somalia is the new byword.
Darfur the old.
Conventional US force not likely to be employeed in either.
Trainers and advsors, not direct action door kickers, will be needed across the board, as force multipliers.
All the more so if it is going to be an asymetric, low intensity "Long War", that we intend to win.
Associated Press
Sri Lankan Navy Repulses Rebel Attack
By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI, 06.28.2006, 06:37 AM
Using helicopter gunships and fast attack boats, the Sri Lankan navy on Wednesday repulsed a planned Tamil rebel attack on a naval base along its west coast, officials said.
The sea battle came amid violence that many fear is edging the nation closer to full-scale civil war. ..."
Around 20 Sea Tiger boats had come to attack our camp in Kalpitiya. We retaliated and got help from our air force,"
tip of the brim to steve @ threatswatch.org
jp,
I recall the incident you describe.
The Army was going to "secure" the area, one that was already full of "security".
It became an early "hand over" of responsibility, so to speak.
So too, the truces negotiated with Mr al-Sadr, ending his localized Insurrections and battles with the Marines.
As you say, the Military became aware of the short comings of their post invasion plan for the ISF. They also moved slowly to rectify the problems, but effective training of the Iraqis came even more slowly. It should have had the highest priority, from before the Invasion.
The law had been passed and the funds appropriated to train an Indigenous Force, to accomany US.
They never were mobilized, reportedly stymied by the State Dept.
Embedding and crosstraining are the best ways to create and train a new force quickly. One US troop for every 8 to 10 Iraqi, in the Iraqi units. Across the board. The ISF built initially around US and returned exiles.
After a five year progeam, we've already been there for three, we'd have stood up a real force that had been directly exposed to US standards & practices for years. The long term impact on the ISF and Iraqi society immeasurable.
A clone of the Katusa program in Korea. It has had a great impact on Korean society, that program.
Bet that strategy for post Invasion Iraq was not war gamed.
Some insurgents have offered a total end of hostilities, under certain conditions! Peace in our time?
AP: Iraq insurgents offer to stop attacks By STEVEN R. HURST and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writers
9 minutes ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Eleven Sunni insurgent groups have offered to halt attacks on the U.S.-led military if the Iraqi government and
President Bush set a two-year timetable for withdrawing all foreign troops from the country, insurgent and government officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The demand is part of a broad offer from the groups, who operate north of Baghdad in the heavily Sunni Arab provinces of Salahuddin and Diyala. Although much of the fighting has been to the west, those provinces have become increasingly violent and the attacks there have regularly crippled oil and commerce routes.
The groups do not include the powerful Islamic Army in
Iraq, Muhammad Army and the Mujahedeen Shura Council, the umbrella label for eight militant groups including al-Qaida in Iraq. But the new offer comes at a time when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government is reaching out to militant Sunnis, including a new amnesty plan for insurgent fighters.
Link
jp
Few officers go through the training course at Leavenworth, and they are Majors.
More telling is the description of the training for the soon to depart.
Riot training and crowd control.
We train in Panama for that, alot, both from the US side and as rioters. Every six months or so.
Read the Camp Taji tale.
The segregation of the troops.
Seperate is not equal, and that sends a real message to the Iraqis in the ISF. It is a ratification by extension, at a personal level of US intentions and a lack of respect for the Iraqi.
It's a respect driven Society, and we dis 'em as Policy and think they'll be fine with it?
Actually the above may only be an end to hostilities with the US, the article isn't clear.
Here’s a story about animation, that has some bearing on some of the assinine criticism of the “mistakes” and alleged “poor planning” in our efforts in Iraq.
In thirty years of producing and designing animation, I’ve used a method developed and perfected over 75 years ago. Even with computer graphics, the process is like designing a building, in applying a disciplined, stepwise series of approximations, guidelines and specifications, and repeated testing in increasing detail and refinement. It “rationalizes” an otherwise untidy and intuitive process.
When I was a kid learning how to draw, my friends called it “CHEATING” to do a light sketch, then clean it up with heavier strokes. God forbid that you should use INK, then erase the pencil lines. Boy, that was the mark of Satan.
Of course, that’s a far more efficient method: a series of progressively refined approximations, gauging the details of each NEW stage by evaluating and improving on the earlier work.
So for fifteen years I’d been drawing like an idiot— once I put the first pencil mark on a piece of paper I was committed to that piece of paper! I would erase all the way through the paper before I would give up and transfer my attention to another. When I first started learning professional methods, working with an Oscar-winning animator, it was astounding to find I could get to a finished drawing in a quarter of the time by just scribbling on one sheet, lay a second down trace & clean up, repeat on a third sheet, and maybe a fourth or a fifth to get a final clean drawing that looked like what I wanted. The paper waste was a penny a sheet.
Script... models... storyboards... rough animation... clean ups... tracing & painting... checking and refining at each stage to catch the inevitable errors...
Now here’s the punchline: I’ve had clients actually ask me, after I explain the process, “Couldn’t you save an awful lot of time by skipping the rough drawings and just starting off with the finished art?”
Even disregarding the actual America-haters and Leftists who earnestly desire Bush’s defeat, there are platoons and regiments of well-intentioned morons who simply don’t have the wit to reason their way out of an open toilet stall, but fancy they have the experience and insight to second-guess ANYONE.
Most of these people end up as journalists.
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Or Government employees.
Here you go with a Government operating in violation of Federal Law.
Public Law 95-514, the Public Rangelands Improvement Act of 1978
We just went through a similar case here in AZ. A federal Judge stopped the Forest Service from violating the law and removing the horses from the range for slaughter.
The Federals said they and the horses were excempt from the Law.
Judge disagreed.
It is rather expensive, though, making the Government obey the law.
Senator McCain's office just parrotted the Forest Service line.
Then they were going to "hunt" the buffalo on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We were able to get them transported to a buffalo ranch somewhere on the Plains, forget where, instead.
Here is the story
Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge on the Nevada - Oregon border
"Sheldon Fish and Wildlife Service Runs Foals to Exhaustion and Leaves them to Die in the Desert."
Sorry.
The huge, vast, enormous, unforgiveable mistake people in the West keep making is to think the Muslim world is just like them only they use a different language.
Fourteen centuries of Jihad.
Some folks insistently dismiss that as significant, saying the fanatics only account for a tiny fraction of the whole.
But it’s enough.
Is the practice of “honor killing” limited to fanatics? Are the fathers and brothers who murder their daughters, wives, and sisters after they’ve been RAPED, to restore the family honor... are THEY the the same folks as the Jihadis? Or are Honor Killings simply the cultural norm? Reports out of India have shown a significant increase in Hindu murders of young brides for their dowries. But, those are criminal aberrations from the way most Hindus live, and they are prosecuted as murder by the civil authorities. Many of these things have an impact far out of proportion to the actual incidence.
Almost every religion, culture or nation produces some form of cultural fanatic. But I’m not aware of any other culture that has consistently and spontaneously spawned fanatical zealots ready to murder their own neighbors as well as outsiders to their communities. FOR FOURTEEN CONSECUTIVE CENTURIES!!!! Jihad is NOT self-defense; it is NOT the response to invasion, and competition for space; it is NOT the quest for vengeance for the Crusades, or for Bush’s annoying foreign policy. It is the obligation laid out by the Prophet Muhammed in the Qur’an for the faithful to bring Islam to all regions where it does not reign.
Certainly there are many Muslims who have come to be modern and moderate, as most Christians do not take it as a Christian duty to impose their faith by war upon their neighbors. It’s been my privilege to know and respect a number of Muslims from various countries over the years. In some ways it seems absurd to expect an urban sophisticated intellectual from Indonesia or Iran to be able to exert any leverage from thousands of miles away to civilize or modernize the fanatics in the Middle East. Just like I can’t think of any way to prevent some nutjob fundamentalist Christian from WANTING to shout homophobic slogans at a military funeral.
But there is a huge swath of the Islamic world that has not advanced beyond the seventh century in its outlook. And that simplistic creed has the power to transform people in all parts of the world to Jihadi fanatics.
It does seem like we’re trundling toward some immense crisis, that will dwarf the upheaval of the 20th century European Civil War.
It' not that it is limited to Majors, it's that it is, as you say
"is for only a few".
That's the pioint of what I've been saying.
Low numbers of trained officers in a System like the Army, where so many are deployeed, means a correspondingly low impact on how the Program is implemented.
Or so my experiences in life lead me to believe. Perhaps human nature has changed.
As Majors they cannot "order" the Lessons implemented, and their limited numbers must effect the impact of their training in theater.
A System that, as in the Haditha incident, the Troops are led by E-6's. As they should be.
But any Major's influence is pretty thin when he's at Bn HQ and the troopers are 35K away.
http://markeichenlaub.blogspot.com/2006/06/haitham-al-badri.html
These post-Zarqawi raids are revealing how close the former Saddamists have been working with al Qaeda in Iraq. I have a list of those known thus far (all that I could find) to cross over from Baathist to al Qaeda.
Nice post and find on this guy being caught!
trish,
"... Maj. Gen. Thomas Turner added a similar caveat when praising the progress in training Iraq units in the north. “The major inhibitor to independent operations is a lack of equipment, manpower, their inability to sustain themselves [with food, fuel, ammunition, etc.] and a lack of systems or policies in place to manage the organization.” ..."
Reality is to much to serious, ya couldn't make a statement like that up, not if it wasn't so...
funny and sad
DR,
The transformation is much more than the Stryker brigades, which was the core of Rumsfelds changes for the Army. I enumerated a number of other items, which are just a fraction of the changed. ANd the changes Rumafeld planned also play into the current requirements. Yet, you blow those off as if they have no impact. You acknowledged yourself the changes that the army has gone through in the training that they receive prior to deploying, and then you say that they are not changing. Finally, it is highly unlikely that a situation like Iraq will present itself again. The forces need to be able to respond to a very wide range of threats, which they are being designed to do.
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helo
As I said in the comment that started this exchange, yhe Military "refuses to transform itself to fight the "new" battle."
The operative word is "new".
The Strykers and other "transformations" are not for the "new" threat, but rather the "old".
The conventional fight which the Army and Marines are so good at. They are in transformation, but not to engage in the Mohammedan struggle. They are transforming to better fight a conventional foe.
The President does not even admit there is a Mohammedan struggle, so why would the military be transforming to meet it?
When the CiC says it does not exist.
We have not engaged the Mohammedans in Sudan, Somalia or Warizistan, to name the most obvious. And we will not any time soon, with Stryker Brigades, or SWAT teams.
Those are already "old school" and obsolete in the new struggles.
The threats are morphing faster than the US can transform it's miltary.
As always we are prepping to fight the "last" war, not the next.
As you convinced me a year ago, it is only through having the Muslims take on the Mohammedans that we will win, without genocide.
To do that we have to work, hand in glove with the Muslims, that, as evidenced in the Camp Taji story is not happening, even in Iraq.
The Military is culturally challenged, in working with foreigners. Hell, the Marines are culturally challenged when working with the Army.
The training and coordination of foreigners will be paramount if we are going to win a "Long War" of intelligence and hearts and minds.
That aspect of the "transformation" was left at the station.
Who will be in Iraq in four or ten years, the US commander at Camp Taji or the Iraqi Officer he tried to relieve?
How does attempting to relieve an Iraqi officer and causing a "strike" amongst the subordinate Iraqi officers at Camp Taji move the ball forward to Victory in the "new" conflict?
Whose country and, really, whose war is it?
jp,
As to the COIN training and it's implementation.
While it is important to offer the carrot, to offer an open hand.
It is just as important to be willing to wield the stick, to swing the mailed fist.
The two must go hand in hand, at least they used to.
Sweetness, alone, is not going to win the hearts and minds.
Never has, never will.
From Ramadi to Taji and on to Haditha, "don't shoot back" is what is being reported as Op Orders for patrols.
Perhaps the quotes and reports are all false, but I doubt it.
If the ladies on FOX News are right, the SOCTUS has decided that the Gitmo guys and, by extension all detainees in the GWoT are POW's, to be afforded Geneva Convention "rights".
The "left" was right, after all?
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