| July 16, 2007 Edition |
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Dissonance at the TimesTom Donnelly Weekly Standard IT IS AN ESPECIALLY cruel but increasingly common irony of the war in Iraq that Washington and Baghdad are in separate universes: what happens over there is not much connected to what's happening back here. But Sunday's New York Times "Week in Review" section sets a new standard for cognitive dissonance. Spread across the top two-thirds of the front page is John Burns' latest dispatch from Iraq. The subject is the U.S. campaign to win back the city of Ramadi and al Anbar province from al Qeada and other Sunni extremists. A year after a Marine intelligence report described the region as "lost," Burns explains "an astonishing success" in what was "Iraq's most dangerous city." Now, cooperation between local tribal leaders and the U.S. military "has all but ended the fighting in Ramadi and recast the city as a symbol of hope that the tide of war may yet be reversed to favor the Americans and their Iraqi allies." Victory, in Burns' assessment, is a long way off, but is possible. Ten pages later, taking up an equal amount of space on the main editorial page, is the Times' clarion call to "leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit." The only discussions that interest the editors is "how to accomplish a withdrawal" and mitigate the certainly bad consequences of an American defeat. The Times' takes it as a "fact" that "keeping troops in Iraq will only make things worse." That's hardly what the paper's leading Iraq correspondent writes. Burns, who is the unquestioned dean of Iraq war reporters and hardly a shill for the White House, is realistic and right to wonder if the Anbar model will translate to other parts of Iraq, particularly the sectarian cauldron of Baghdad. But he does not question the genuine success in Anbar, where insurgent attacks on American forces fell from 1,300 last October to 225 in June. Nor does Burns buy the insipid line, repeated in the editorial, that what happens on the battlefield has no effect on the political balance in Iraq. While in Anbar the measure of progress has been the defection of the traditional sheiks from al Qaeda to the side of the Iraqi government and the United States, Burns makes it clear that a vigorous American and Iraqi offensive, undertaken last November, was the key prerequisite. "Not for the first time," Burns writes, "the Americans learned a basic lesson of warfare here: that Iraqis, bludgeoned for 24 years by Saddam Hussein's terror, are wary of rising against any foe, however brutal, until it is in retreat. In Anbar, Sunni extremists were the dominant force, with near-total popular support or acquiescence, until the offensive broke their power." Full Story |
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A man is usually more careful of his money than of his principles. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. |
| PROFESSIONAL ARTICLES, EDITORIALS AND OPINIONS |
Deserting PetraeusWashington PostCharles Krauthammer Finally, after four terribly long years, we know what works. Or what can work. A year ago, a confidential Marine intelligence report declared Anbar province (which comprises about a third of Iraq's territory) lost to al-Qaeda. Now, in what the Times's John Burns calls an "astonishing success," the tribal sheiks have joined our side and committed large numbers of fighters that, in concert with American and Iraqi forces, have largely driven out al-Qaeda and turned its former stronghold of Ramadi into one of most secure cities in Iraq. It began with a U.S.-led offensive that killed or wounded more than 200 enemy fighters and captured 600. Most important was the follow-up. Not a retreat back to American bases but the setting up of small posts within the population that, together with the Iraqi national and tribal forces, have brought relative stability to Anbar. The same has started happening in many of the Sunni areas around Baghdad, including Diyala province -- just a year ago considered as lost as Anbar -- where, for example, the Sunni insurgent 1920 Revolution Brigades has turned against al-Qaeda and joined the fight on the side of U.S. and Iraqi government forces. We don't yet know if this strategy will work in mixed Sunni-Shiite neighborhoods. Nor can we be certain that this cooperation between essentially Sunni tribal forces and an essentially Shiite central government can endure. But what cannot be said -- although it is now heard daily in Washington -- is that the surge, which is shorthand for Gen. David Petraeus's new counterinsurgency strategy, has failed. The tragedy is that, just as a working strategy has been found, some Republicans in the Senate have lost heart and want to pull the plug. Full Story Measuring Progress in IraqWall Street JournalMichael O'Hanlon and Jason Campbell In conventional warfare, it is fairly obvious if a war is being won. Movement of the front lines, industrial production of war material and logistical sustainability of forces in the field provide fairly clear standards by which to assess trends. But counterinsurgency and stabilization operations like the ones in Iraq are much more complex. How do we measure progress in such a situation? The administration has just done so on an interim basis. Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will be asked to do so again in September, just before the expected showdown between Congress and President Bush over the 2008 war budget. This is a hard challenge because metrics are easily misused. In Vietnam, for example, we were convinced that there would be a "crossover point" in attrition of the Viet Cong. If we could manage to kill enough of them, say 50,000 a year, their recruiting efforts would not be able to keep pace, and the combined American and South Vietnamese forces would ultimately prevail. That led to a focus on massive firepower that killed huge numbers of innocents and failed to achieve its military objective. Our conviction that the Viet Cong needed hundreds or thousands of tons of supplies daily led to additional bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and ultimately Cambodia as well--again to no avail, as it turned out that the Viet Cong in South Vietnam needed very little outside help. Our focus on supporting a government with strong anti-communist credentials led to dependency on a corrupt regime with limited legitimacy among its own people. Our hopes of sparking GDP growth in Vietnam were dashed because the country's economic successes were enjoyed by only a small fraction of the population. Finally, our focus on enlarging and equipping South Vietnamese security forces could not compensate for their qualitative deficiencies. Full Story Doctor of DeathNewsweekEvan Thomas and Mark Hosenball What could possibly have inspired Bilal Abdullah, a medical doctor, to ride a blazing Jeep Cherokee into the busy Glasgow airport terminal? Last week Shiraz Maher, a former member of an Islamic fundamentalist group that had tried to recruit Abdullah, told the British media this story: In the ancient university town of Cambridge, Abdullah shared an apartment with a man who played the guitar, apparently not well, and sang off key. Abdullah later "boasted," Maher recalled, that he had warned his flatmate that if he kept on playing and singing, "I'm going to smash the guitar." To make his point a little more emphatically, Abdullah popped a video into the DVD player. It showed Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, the vicious chief of Al Qaeda in Iraq (killed by an American airstrike last summer), beheading a hostage. "If you think I'm messing about, this is what we do," Abdullah warned his roommate. "This is what our people do. We slaughter." (Maher says that Abdullah thought the threat was funny.) Last week every intelligence service engaged in the War on Terror wanted to know: was Abdullah inspired by the example of Al Qaeda in Iraq to try to set off a pair of car bombs in London and then immolate himself on a suicide mission in Scotland? Or was he actually carrying out a mission planned by Al Qaeda in Iraq? The answer is not known, at least publicly. Counterterrorism officials who asked for anonymity discussing sensitive matters told NEWSWEEK that there is some evidence of links between Abdullah (or alleged co-conspirators) and Al Qaeda in Iraq. But they could not be sure if the ties were coincidental and possibly irrelevant-or part of a larger plot. The ineptitude of Abdullah and another would-be suicide bomber, who tried to set himself on fire after the car failed to explode, suggests an amateurish operation. Abdullah and the other man survived, and their car bombs in London turned out to be duds. Still, intelligence officials were asking themselves if the aborted bomb plot was a fire bell in the night. Last week President George W. Bush was once again warning that if America failed to defeat terrorists in Iraq, "they will follow us home." The president's many critics learned about Abdullah's story-how he had been radicalized in Iraq after the March 2003 invasion-and saw the fulfillment of their fears, that the war in Iraq would serve only to breed terrorists, who would, in time, strike out against the West. Full Story |
| BREAKING NEWS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL |
Al Qaeda on the RunNational Review OnlineMichael Yon The last major mission I did while in Baqubah in early 2005 was into Buhriz. That mission had begun with our artillery firing some 155mm shots into a palm grove on the banks of the Diyala River. The enemy in Buhriz, consisting partly of the 1920s Revolution Brigades, was tough and proficient at killing our people. A current leader in Burhiz and member of the 1920s Revolution Brigades (1920s) goes by the name Abu Ali. This past Monday, I drove in the back of a Stryker and talked on the streets of Buhriz with Abu Ali. Just months ago our forces would have shot Abu Ali on sight, and he surely would have done the same to us. Today we are allies, for now. Full Story The Cold War is backThe new arms race is deadly because Russia is so fragileThe SpectatorFraser Nelson A little over a week ago, Vladimir Putin tested a weapon deadlier than anything developed by the Soviet Union. A missile launched from a submarine in the White Sea entered the stratosphere and returned precisely on target 3,800 miles away in the Russian Far East - the other side of the world. Such tests are meant to send messages. The target could just have easily been Tehran, Los Angeles or London. It signalled that Russia means business. After a hiatus of two decades, the arms race is back. While Britain has been fixated with the Middle East and Iraq, it has paid insufficient attention to the increasingly aggressive noises emanating from the Kremlin. Mr Putin was never very enthusiastic about Russia becoming a part of the West - but now, flush with gas and oil revenues, he has left its orbit altogether. The Russian military is once again treating Nato as the glavny protivnik, the primary enemy, and drawing up plans for a nuclear war. And Putin's explicit aim is to challenge, and then counter, America's world dominance. As recently as six years ago, such an ambition would have been laughable. Then, Russia was an economic basket-case which had been admitted into the G7 group of industrialised nations only as an act of charity. Full Story The Forgotten FrontNew York PostPeter Brookes WHEN the U.S. counterter rorism operations against the Abu Sayyaf Group, the Philippines-based al Qaeda affiliate, kicked off in late 2001, the Bush administration dubbed it the "Second Front" in the War on Terror. Today, it's more like the "Forgotten Front." But the lack of notoriety isn't necessarily a bad thing. The joint U.S.-Philippine counterterror campaign in the southern Philippines is going pretty darn well after 5½ years. Indeed, some experts tout the "Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines" campaign as the most successful counterterrorism/insurgency effort of the post-9/11 period. Abu Sayyaf (ASG) is hardly a household name. But the Muslim terrorist group has plenty of terrorist street cred: Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law founded it, along with other jihadists who had fought the Soviets in Afghanistan. The ASG also had ties to al Qaeda bigs Ramzi Yousef and his uncle Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who both spent time in the Philippines and were involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Operation "Bojinka" (an unsuccessful 1995 bombing of 11 airliners out of Manila) and 9/11. Full Story Poll: 'Surge' Is Considered a FailureNewsweekBrian Braiker President Bush may be trying to rally support for his strategy in Iraq, but his efforts are not faring well with the American public, according to the latest NEWSWEEK Poll. Nearly two thirds of Americans believe that the president's troop "surge" has been a failure, poll respondents said. The survey also found broad public support for cutting the number of troops deployed on the battlefield. But in a bright spot for the president, less than 20 percent favored immediate withdrawal. Nearly seven in 10 (68 percent) Americans disapprove of the way the president is handling the war in Iraq. Public approval of the president's handling of Iraq has remained below the 30 percent mark since January, when he announced his plans to increase the number of troops deployed there. (The public's approval of Bush's overall handling of the war has been below the 50 percent mark since February of 2004). Sixty-four percent of Americans feel the surge in troops has been a failure, while less than a quarter (22 percent) deem it a success. Nearly a third of Republicans surveyed (31 percent) declare the surge a failure, which may help to explain why several high-profile senior Republicans have defected from the White House on support for the war. While Bush's overall approval rating remains low-just 29 percent-it is up 3 points from another NEWSWEEK sounding earlier this month. Full Story Muqtada al Sadr back in IranThe Fourth RailBill Roggio Muqtada al Sadr, the leader of the Shia Mahdi Army and the Sadrist bloc in parliament, has left Iraq and is in Iran, military sources told Reuters. An anonymous U.S. military intelligence official and a military officer stationed in Iraq told The Fourth Rail the Reuter's report is accurate, but would not say when they believe Sadr left Iraq. Sadr's flight from Iraq and return to Iran comes as Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki issued an unusually strong statement calling for Sadr's Mahdi Army to disarm, and Iraqi security forces continue to battle his Mahdi Army in southern Iraq. "We have heard statements from officials in the Sadr movement that they are against using arms and that they condemn those who hold weapons," a statement issued from the prime minister said, AFP reported. "This puts us in front of a fact we must face courageously: If those are Sadrists, then Sadrist leaders disavow clearly those who carry guns ... Therefore, these gunmen are infiltrated Saddamist and Baathist gangs and robbers using this movement as a front," Maliki said. Sadr's aides have warned Prime Minister Maliki to back off from calling the Mahdi Army to disarm. Full Story |
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U.S. colonel reaches out to Iraqi sheiksLos Angeles TimesGarrett Therolf The U.S. commander meets with the former general in Saddam Hussein's army over lunch, promises weapons, wishes him a return to high office. For both men, the conversation comes at great risk, and neither knows whether the other is an ally or an enemy. For Army Lt. Col. Morris Goins, his "spider sense" tells him to keep talking, even after the general, a Sunni tribal leader, tells him, "If you see me shooting at you, you should shoot back." Goins is unfazed. It is a potentially deadly complication he will endure to press the tribes to quell the violence here in Diyala province, the nation's deadliest for U.S. troops on a per-capita basis. Some tribal leaders have sworn allegiances against the United States, but they are believed to hold the most powerful sway over Diyala's vast terrain. Months before the sheiks drew U.S. attention as potential allies against Al Qaeda in Iraq, Goins began to spend most of his time on the strategy. "It's a way to not just fight the war, but shape it," he said. Full Story Technology and leadershipArmed Forces JournalBarry Rosenberg The ubiquitous nature of data and technology, which transforms every soldier and pilot into a node in a network-centric environment, is irreparably changing existing leadership models for the military. Until recently, collection assets would feed information up the line to divisional commanders and they would pass it up or parcel it down on a need-to-know basis. However, today, many war fighters have access to the same data as their commanders and are being given the opportunity to not only critique that information but also to act upon it independently of commanders' orders. As a result of everyone having access to the Global Information Grid (GIG), leaders are faced with the challenges of commanding young men and women who have been plugged in to communications and entertainment devices since they were kids, while at the same time respecting the traditional pyramid model of command. In many instances, the growing pains are obvious. Full Story Why Bush Will Be A WinnerWashington PostWilliam Kristol I suppose I'll merely expose myself to harmless ridicule if I make the following assertion: George W. Bush's presidency will probably be a successful one. Let's step back from the unnecessary mistakes and the self-inflicted wounds that have characterized the Bush administration. Let's look at the broad forest rather than the often unlovely trees. What do we see? First, no second terrorist attack on U.S. soil -- not something we could have taken for granted. Second, a strong economy -- also something that wasn't inevitable. And third, and most important, a war in Iraq that has been very difficult, but where -- despite some confusion engendered by an almost meaningless "benchmark" report last week -- we now seem to be on course to a successful outcome. The economy first: After the bursting of the dot-com bubble, followed by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we've had more than five years of steady growth, low unemployment and a stock market recovery. Did this just happen? No. Bush pushed through the tax cuts of 2001 and especially 2003 by arguing that they would produce growth. His opponents predicted dire consequences. But the president was overwhelmingly right. Even the budget deficit, the most universally criticized consequence of the tax cuts, is coming down and is lower than it was when the 2003 supply-side tax cuts were passed. Full Story Musharraf Gets Tough...But don't get your hopes up for a second act.Weekly StandardDaveed Gartenstein-Ross In a country that for the past year has consistently ceded ground to terrorists, the storming of the Lal Masjid mosque in Islamabad was a rare bit of good news. As Pakistani forces wrapped up their raid on July 11, their examination of 73 bodies recovered from the so-called red mosque suggested that most of the dead were militants--and that they included mosque leader Abdur Rashid Ghazi. Yet while Western observers would surely like to view the raid as evidence that Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf has regained his determination to fight terrorism, the facts counsel against undue optimism. Pakistan's move to clear the mosque following an extended standoff was indeed a major accomplishment. Lal Masjid leaders had recruited fighters and suicide bombers to fight coalition forces in Afghanistan. Abdur Rashid Ghazi and his brother Mohammed Abdul Aziz were known for issuing fatwas in favor of what one U.S. intelligence source described as "every jihad imaginable." Both brothers met fitting ends: Abdur Rashid died, and Abdul Aziz was captured trying to flee while disguised as a woman in a burka. Full Story Al Qaeda in Iraq - Heroes, Boogeymen or Puppets?Small Wars JournalFour years on in Iraq, the White House still portrays the war as a life and death struggle between the forces of good, the US led Multi-national forces, and the forces of evil, Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). With the advent of the new "surge" strategy, the media ledes have been triumphing the numerous coalition "anti-Al Qaeda" operations in Anbar province including the areas of Karmah, Baqubah and the Sunni neighborhoods of Baghdad. These operations have the intent to secure Baghdad and other major urban areas from insurgent terrorism. The strategy writ simple is to deny the insurgents an urban sanctuary and killing ground as well as to secure the Iraqi population from their sectarian attacks through a series of wide-area operations. But are we fighting the right enemy? A better question is whom are we fighting? The response heard most often is that we are fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq. In May 2007 the President declared "Al Qaeda is public enemy number one in Iraq." Full Story |
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| FRANKS REVIEW |
Tactical Equipment EvaluationBeretta 96F .40 caliber pistolSince 1985 when the Army selected the Beretta M9 - otherwise known as the Beretta 92F - pistol as the new duty sidearm, police agencies nationwide have looked at the pistol as a possibility for duty use. Since, at that time, I lived and worked in Prince George's County, Maryland - where Accokeek and Beretta's U.S. factory are located - I watched agencies all around me switch over to the 92F in 9mm. Some years later when the .40S&W became popular, and thanks to the Clinton Gun Ban that restricted "high capacity" magazines manufactured after a specific date, Beretta offered many agencies the option to trade a used 92F for a new 96F. Many agencies took the offer and are still carrying those guns today. One of the agencies I am responsible for training carries this weapon and I've had more than my fair share of experience with it on the range and in my duty holster.Full Story Can Be Viewed At: http://www.borelliconsulting.com/evals/guns/beretta96.htm
Recreational Equipment ReviewMagna Excitor Series 21-Speed Mountain BikeMagna is a well known name in the bicycle industry and delivers a wide variety of products to suit most recreational bicycling needs. Not that long ago my wife and I decided we needed some new wheels and since a new Corvette is out of the question, I had to settle for a bicycle. My 19-year-old boy has been riding a 24-speed Magna for quite some time, and my 9-year-old boy has recently learned how to ride a bike, so the wife and I definitely needed to get something moving. Together we did a little shopping around and we found the Magna 21-speed "Excitor Series" bikes to be both cost effective and suitable to our needs. More than a month ago we purchased them and they've seen quite a few miles since. Let's take a look at how they've done so far.Full Story Can Be Viewed At: http://www.borelliconsulting.com/recevals/bike/magnaexcitor.htm |
| CHAPLAINS CORNER |
ADVENTURE-noun an exciting or very unusual experience. participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises: the spirit of adventure. a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome. -verb (used with object) to risk or hazard. to take the chance of; dare. to venture to say or utter: to adventure an opinion. -verb (used without object) to take the risk involved. to venture; hazard. Being a Peace Keeper is the most adventurous life available in this world today. No two days are ever alike. No two events are ever alike. No two people ever respond to you the exact same way. Nothing is ever routine and we must never fall into the trap of considering anything routine. As I sit here thinking about you and how valuable you are to our way of life I am reminded of a public relations announcer that was covering the event that I worked this morning as a member of the Recruiting Team. He told the crowd to come by and thank me as I was there to offer information and the possibilities of a career in law enforcement if any one were interested... but he said, "Whether you are interested or not... just go by and say thank you to him for all of the effort that he and our police officers have spent providing peace and safety for the rest of us and making our city a safe place to live and play." In my unique situation of life and work I am blessed to have jobs that I love... One, of being a Chaplain to Peace Keepers that I do for the love that my Commander-In-Chief and I have for the Peace Keepers that I serve... Two, for the job I love to do as a Community Services Officer for the peace, safety and welfare of the people in my city, citizens and visitors... and Three, being a member of the Police Recruiting Team appearing in places and events where we try and attract the attention of potential law enforcement personnel for our department. People are the material with which we must work... Peace and safety are the services that must be promoted in each of our jobs. Some few cases are time consuming... Most cases are interesting and most cases present some kind of challenge to come up with solutions and services that will meet the need and promote peace and safety. http://www.blackwaterusa.com/btw2007/article/071607chaplain.htm |
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