ocho

11/20/2008 9:36:23 PM

BEU,

great news and good posts.

11/20/2008 9:59:03 PM

Hey, I am in Iraq now and I operate a blog at http://wingsoveriraq.blogspot.com . Please come over and check it out.

11/22/2008 9:58:21 AM

Iraqis see democracy at work in security pact debate

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5230383.ece

Quote :

"“Before the invasion we were not able to see any fights in Parliament because there was only one opinion that mattered,” he said, referring to Saddam. "

I guess this vote will be tomorrow.

I wonder if it will make the news.

11/25/2008 8:52:50 PM

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=ad8JHnJwlcUE&

Quote :

"Spare tires come in handy in Sadr City when lakes of sewage overflow trenches or bubble up from broken underground pipes. Pedestrians pull them from at-ready stacks to create a foot bridge across the excrement."

When we'll we be able to visit? Sounds like a tourists dream!

11/25/2008 10:16:52 PM

Yea, thats what happend when militias control cities....

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/down-with-barriers-up-with-iraq.htm

Quote :

" Down with Barriers, Up with Iraq E-mail Print Next > 25 November 2008 On November 13th I covered a mission in south Baghdad with soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division. General Petraeus once told me during the height of the fighting, back when violence was the lingua franca and victory was very much in question, that this area was the canary in the mineshaft. In his exact words regarding what Lieutenant Colonel Pat Frank had to deal with in one of the toughest places in Iraq, “SW Baghdad...has every challenge imaginable -- AQI, JAM, micro-fault-lines, good/bad ISF partners, good/bad neighborhood leaders, and Route Irish! It will be the canary in the mineshaft; if they can pull it off, this will be doable....” It is critical to point out that General Petraeus told me this in 2007 – just at the crest of “the Surge” during some of the fiercest fighting in the war. Many people at home were saying the new strategy was a complete failure, but the Coalition and Iraqi soldiers were not tapping out, not taking a break, giving no quarter to the enemy, and expecting none in return. General Petraeus went on about what he was seeing, “Just back from a patrol base in Arab Jabour, SE of Baghdad, another incredible place. Was an AQI sanctuary three weeks ago. Now the head sheik has given four of his best men to the newly arrived Bn Cdr to help him find/kill/capture AQI in the AO. Very impressive/heartening.” I’ll finish this story where General Petraeus could not, because this was still at the height of combat, the war truly had just peaked and nobody knew this yet. A year later, in June 2008, I e-mailed to Gary Sinise: “I bet you 5 bucks it will end this year. Probably a few casualties for us still, but that by early 2009, a reasonable person will say it's over.” Gary e-mailed back, asking if that was what I really thought, and my responding e-mail response was candid and informal: “Just a gut instinct, Gary. I've spent so much time all over that war that I've developed an instinct for it that's becoming more and more accurate. I predicted the civil war back in Feb 2005, more than a year ahead of anyone else. During 2005, I was saying and writing that AQI was intentionally trying to start it. Identified General Petraeus in 2005-2006 as a man that I thought could lead us out of this mess...maybe! In about January or February 2007, I wrote that General Petraeus was the man we needed but it might be too late. In about early July 2007, I came on Huge Hewitt radio show and said the surge was working. I thought I was the first to say that, but I believe that Hugh said that John Burns had just noticed same thing. In 2006, I wrote from Afghanistan that we were losing the war there and that 2007 would be a lot worse (got huge flak for that, but was sadly correct). 2007 got a lot worse in Afghanistan, and this year looks to be worst so far. Now to Iraq: every indicator to me is that we are winning the Iraq war at an ever increasing rate. In about January, I predicted in writing a couple months of higher casualties before it would begin to settle down. That is what has been happening. May 2008 was the best month in the war. We lost 19. 19 too many, but much less than has been the norm. AQI is being defeated ([Redacted] is at this moment in the middle of it.) This is shaping up into a strategic defeat for al Qaeda, not just AQI. I first started writing this in about July 2007; people thought I was nuts. Now it's being widely recognized that al Qaeda global is being devastated. (Though they will continue to kill us, and especially be a problem in places like Afghanistan.) The loss in Afghanistan and also their crimes against humanity are sending shockwaves through the Arab and Islamic world. If anyone hates al Qaeda more than Americans, it's Iraqis and some others who have suffered under them. Now to Iraq again: I believe that by the end of this year, there is a very high chance that a reasonable observer will be able to say, "The Iraq war has ended." This does not mean that we will not take a small number of casualties each month, but that the war will end and we can switch to helping Iraq stand, and truly start to bring more of our folks home. Touch wood. Our biggest wild card are Shia militias, but we see that the government is standing up to them. Also, support for the militias has diminished as AQI was crushed down and Sunni militias mostly ended their attacks. (We just need to make sure no knuckleheads use the Koran for target practice, or commit any crimes against Iraqis.) The Iraqi Army gets stronger by the month, and are increasingly reliable. The defections in Basra did not surprise me. Those are the worst soldiers I've seen in Iraq, and also the newest. That would not have happened in Mosul or Diyala or Baghdad, for instance. I expected poor performance in Basra, but amazingly, they completed their mission anyway. That they were able to penetrate Sadr City is excellent. Expect more fighting there, but make no mistake, many Shia are as sick of JAM (Shia militias) as they are of AQI. Support for Shia militias has diminished greatly because they mistreated their own people and behaved criminally even toward other Shia. I am increasingly confident about Iraq. Was telling [redacted] the other day that our next challenge is with certain journalists. I am in daily contact with journalists in Iraq and some of them do not want to let the war go. The war has lofted them into positions that they did not previously have (like me, for instance), and some of them do not want to let it go. I can see it. On the one hand, it's clear they want it to end, but on the other, it's the highlight of their careers. I have not discussed this with the journalists, but I have noticed the pattern in their communications. They seem almost worried that it's ending. Remember the book, "My War Gone By, I Miss it So"? Anthony Loyd was a journalist who clearly missed his war. I am detecting this with a number of the key voices in Iraq. This could affect coverage and needs to be addressed. Otherwise, I am increasingly confident. I think we are going to make it. Petraeus worked like magic. Now we need him to concentrate on our growing troubles in Afghanistan. Knock on wood! It’s difficult to convey the level of violence that happened in South Baghdad during the period in 2007 when General Petraeus e-mailed to me those prophetic words. The “Dragon Brigade” in South Baghdad lost 100 soldiers who were killed in action (KIA) and more than 800 were wounded during their 14 months of fighting. And that was the least of it. Iraqi forces were taking heavier casualties, and bodies of civilians littered the roads just about every day. Each day brought its car bombs, rockets, snipers, EFPs (very deadly bombs apparently from Iran), giant Humvee-shattering bombs, bodies found with hands bound behind their backs with bullet holes in their heads, or throats slit, headless bodies and bodiless heads. It was not uncommon to see dogs cleaning flesh off of freshly killed skulls. Mosques and churches were flattened. Market places were leveled. Neighborhoods were abandoned. One morning our soldiers were greeted by a human head, carefully placed in the middle of the road. Yet the Iraqis never quit, and neither did our people. Last week, in this November of 2008, I was in a Humvee with a fine group of men, including: SGT Jason McInerney from Connecticut, who was on his second Iraq tour; Specialist Jason Cooper, a medic on his second Iraq tour hailing from “Central Texas:” and Specialist Mack Pinson from Lincoln Park, Michigan. Mack is on his first tour. Sometimes folks get upset when these pages don’t mention the exact unit, but there is a reason for the shorthand: many readers are international, or have little knowledge of the military, and many do not know the difference between the Army and the Marines, much less the various Special Operations Forces. Since readers from dozens of countries visit this site each day – and I thank you for that! – I try to keep it straightforward. But out of respect for the soldiers, here goes with the unit name: this mission was with Troop C, 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division Baghdad. As we rolled out from dusty Forward Operating Base (FOB) Falcon, I asked how many casualties the unit had taken since they had arrived, from Fort Hood (Texas), in March, 2008. The soldiers told me that one Humvee had taken an EFP strike, but that a Private Rafael Martinez had received only a ruptured eardrum. It represents vast progress to observe that the current rotation in 2008 has lost only two soldiers to an EFP strike. As sad as those loses are, the extreme distinction over the 100 lost in the Dragon Brigade from the previous year is immense and exultant. The area has fallen nearly completely silent. The war has ended. The canary in the mineshaft survived. It is starting to chirp and it is just a matter of time before it begins to sing. "

11/26/2008 2:33:11 PM

Quote :

"One battalion in the Dragon Brigade was the 2-12 Infantry, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Michael. His right hand man, Command Sergeant Major Charles Sasser, was open to and confident with the press, and provided more than just combat expertise. I went on missions with his men, who spent important time educating me about their area when they could have been sleeping. LTC Michael is a native of Guyana in South America. The Guyanese are famously soft-spoken. In fact, Major Kirk Luedeke said of LTC Michael, “Soft spoken guy, but an extremely bright and tenacious fighter.” It was true. The commander seemed gentle and grandfatherly, but he commanded his units with great expertise in what must have been one of the most complicated areas in Iraq. LTC Michael’s battalion took 18 KIAs and more than 150 wounded, mostly during the “surge.” (2-12 was one of the battalions in the Dragon Brigade.) The 2-12’s old area has fallen quiet now. The soldiers accomplished their mission, though I doubt anyone will ever know how hard worked. For the record, out of respect it’s important to mention the battalions who fought the last tour and tamed South Baghdad. I asked Major Kirk Luedeke who was there, working as the Public Affairs Officer in this troubled area. Major Luedeke wrote: “Our organic maneuver units were: 1-28 IN (LTC Pat Frank, 1-4 CAV (LTC Jim Crider). Our 2-16th IN and 2-32 FA were in East Baghdad and Mansour with other BCTs. Attached to us were: 1-18 IN (LTC George Glaze), 2-12 IN (LTC Stephen Michael), 4-64 AR (LTC Johnnie Johnson- they replaced 1-18 IN in Nov) and 2-4 IN (LTC Tim Watson who replaced 2-12 IN on Christmas eve) and a Stryker Cav Squadron 2-2 SCR (LTC Myron Reineke). We also had the following Stryker battalions attached to us during clearing ops in W. Rashid and Dora: 1-23 IN, 2-3 IN (from the 3/2 SBCT), and 2-23 IN (from 4/2 SBCT). Later in the day, I rode around south Baghdad and saw Martinez, the soldier whose eardrum was ruptured in a bomb strike. Martinez was smiling. I asked if he could hear me, as I chuckled, and Martinez just laughed and started cracking jokes. The other soldiers joked with him about the EFP strike. In short, morale remains high in this rotation, despite the fact that there is no fighting going on. (Realize that a workhorse is mostly happy when it’s allowed to do its job, and the same goes for a soldier.) They talked about another casualty in which a power cable snapped off from a large power structure and crashed down, whacking a soldier on the head. Luckily he was wearing a helmet. The soldiers said that it knocked him for a loop, but he returned to duty. Chalk one up for Murphy’s Law. Murphy's Law is about the only constant in Iraq and Afghanistan – but even that seems to be operating at slighter levels now. Today's mission – observing the progress of the peace – makes for boring journalism, but it made me very happy. I was smiling all day. This victory, like all real triumphs, is monumental and historic – though our military will not be allowed to express their feelings of pride and sense of well-earned glory. When the war was on full-steam there was so much to report that it was impossible to keep track. And now that peace is breaking out, it’s equally impossible to keep track of all the progress. There’s still focus on the attacks, most of which are directed against Iraqis, not us. And so this “mission” was more like an armed errand to remove some concrete barriers between neighborhoods. When it comes to creating the conditions for peace in Iraq, details matter. Of course the surge and change of tactics were central to change that flipped the situation; and the Anbar Awakening was critical. But it is important to understand the role of smaller, tactical improvements. Though they were heavily criticized at the time by observers, the installation of thousands of barriers around Baghdad are one of the most unrecognized tools of success in the restoration of peace in Iraq. In 2006, bombs were killing thousands of people. Al Qaeda, in particular, was trying to foment civil war and they were succeeding. When they murdered large numbers of Shia, for instance, other Shia would pour out of their neighborhood and murder large numbers of Sunnis in a flash of revenge. The barriers thwarted these flows of vengeance and baffled the violence. Installing the miles of ugly concrete barriers was like patching up the internal bleeding of Baghdad – the heart of Iraq. The barriers did not “solve” the problem any more than a bandage cures a bullet wound, yet bandages saved lives. Removing these concrete barriers will be like removing the bandages to allow real healing to take place. We are only starting now, and it may take years before they are all gone. There are many untold details contributing to the growing success on the ground – including the United States’ decision to put the “Sons of Iraq” (SOI) on our payroll until they could be handled by the Iraqi government – which just this month began to pay the SOIs. This program, criticized for creating "militias," gave former enemies a sense of purpose and allowed them to assist in the progress. Where are those who screamed about “America’s Militias” now that Iraq has hired those same people and is absorbing many into the police and army? Chalk another one up for the military leaders for standing their ground. When the barriers went up, it was a sign that we were trying to get a grip on the civil war, and it was “exciting news” to some in the “further evidence of failure.” But when I stood and watched some of the barriers being taken down, the only camera there was mine. Along the way on the morning of this 13 November mission, an eagle-eyed soldier in a different Humvee spotted a suspected IED; a cinder block placed atop a T-barrier. The EOD bomb experts were dispatched. Traditionally it would take hours for the bomb squad to show up, but they don’t have as much to do these days, and so the 752nd EOD company from Fort Hood arrived in about 45 minutes. While we waited for EOD, the two veterans in the Humvee were candid the way veterans tend to be. Both of them admitted to not caring about Iraqis on their first combat tour, because all they saw were attacks. But now they don’t have to fight with Iraqis and have gotten to know many by name. The soldiers realize that the Iraqis are a lot like we are, and they wish the Iraqis the best. After EOD arrived, I talked with one of the MP escorts, SGT Jeremiah Norton, who today is serving a second Iraq tour. SGT Norton said that as late as March 2008, they were getting 10 to 15 EOD calls per day in the area, and many or most were real bombs. But now, EOD personnel sometimes don’t get a single call all day, and most calls end up having no bombs at all. Every sign I see, every little spot report like this, indicate the same thing: The war is over. The words from General Petraeus about Southwest Baghdad will always stick with me: “It will be the canary in the mineshaft; if they can pull it off, this will be doable...” The General was right…and the canary lives to sing for another day."

11/26/2008 2:33:32 PM

Christ. No cliff notes, bolded sections, or quoted sections?

11/26/2008 3:44:56 PM

like the article says

too much progress to get it all in one story

11/26/2008 4:21:58 PM

Just had a cup of coffee with some local Kurds and discussed a little politics:

http://wingsoveriraq.blogspot.com

Quote :

"One of my favorite books is From Russia, With Love by Ian Fleming. In that particular adventure of ultra-suave British secret agent James Bond, we find 007 traveling to Istanbul to steal a Russian decoding machine. He teams up with a Turkish agent in the employ of the British named Darko Kerim Bey. In his first meeting with Darko Kerim, Ian Fleming painstakingly describes the cup of Turkish coffee that Kerim Bey and 007 and Bond share. Being a coffee lover, I’d always kind of wondered if Turkish coffee was as rich, sweet and strong as Fleming described, with his usual flair for relating the food and drink of James Bond’s exotic locales. Ten years after reading From Russia, With Love, I wasn’t disappointed. One of my many additional duties, in addition to flying and blogging is to initiate various construction projects throughout our area. Lately, the United States has been depending on local Iraqi contractors and businesses, in an effort to attract Iraqi expatriates to settle back in Iraq and resume their businesses. The influx of businesses should revitalize the dilapidated economic infrastructure of the country, and improve at least the economic security situation of the country. Insurgencies prey on those with no other economic options, especially the ones in Iraq, which are fond of offering $20 USD, a considerable sum for Iraqis, to plant roadside bombs. Those with prospective economic security, however, suddenly have something to lose if they join the insurgencies. In a very real sense, the prospect of a real job attracted people towards legitimate business and away from the business of planting bombs. With that said, we’re currently in the market to build a Crossfit Gym. Eager to build one, I traveled over to the Forward Operating Base’s construction yard owned by a local construction company. I had previously made contact with the team chief, and received his business card. I noted that his name wasn’t Arabic, but rather, Turkish. I remembered to study up on Turkish greetings before I went into the yard, lest I commit a social faux pas by greeting him in the Arab way. Walking in to the building, I noted that a number of icons were actually dedicated to Paul of Tarsus, the original apostle who hailed from a region in Turkey, and that the local newspapers were printed with Latin characters instead of Arabic, further confirming my belief that the men were, in fact, Turks. I entered the team chief’s office and greeted him with the Turkish title effendi, roughly meaning sir, and we sat down for business. After exchanging pleasantries, I explained to him my situation and gave him specifications for the gym we wanted to build. Roughly eighty feet wide by fifty feet high. Of course, we would want power and air conditioning to compete with the 130F Iraqi summers. My commander had wanted a fifteen foot rope inside the building for climbing, but the chief and I dismissed this idea, settling for a rope hung from a beam outside. With the crux of the matter done, he explained that it would take a day to do some calculations and then come up with an estimate. At that point, we were joined by two of his collegues, who asked if I would like to join them for Turkish coffee. Remembering the description of the Turkish coffee in Ian Fleming’s masterful novel, and being the coffee glutton I am, I eagerly agreed, noting that I had heard about the merits of Turkish coffee in From Russia With Love, explaining that it took place in Istanbul. “Have you been to Istanbul” asked one of the men, a burly fellow with blue-grey eyes who did not look in the least bit Arabic, but rather Kurdish perhaps? “No, but I have seen pictures…the Saint Sophia Mosque is very beautiful, one of the wonders of the world”, I replied. “A very beautiful city,” said the man, “in some places Istanbul has remained the same for six hundred years” “Well, except for the name, my friend” I quipped, eliciting some laughter from the men. “What is your name?” “I am Suleiman”, said the man. “As in the Magnificent”, I asked, referring to the great Ottoman Emperor, Suleiman the Magnificent. “You know your history well”, he replied. He explained that he was from Irbil in Iraq, which is part of Kurdistan. Another gentleman, an Iraqi expatriate to Sweden, was originally from Suleimaniya, also in Kurdistan, near the Iranian border. While the men might have lived in Turkey, it was now apparent they were Iraqi and Turkish Kurds—the third man was born in Turkey and later moved to Irbil in Kurdistan. They explained that they were part of a construction company hired by the Americans after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Their claim to fame was that they had developed the T-barrier, a concrete structure ubiquitous to Iraq. Baghdad and most major cities are ringed with thousands of these barriers. During General David Petraeus’ first day as the commander of American forces in Iraq, he walked the streets of Baghdad and ordered that hundreds of the T-barriers be emplaced around the buildings to provide protection for the local Iraqis. By all accounts, this, along with many other efforts at securing the population, was highly successful. One of the workers shows me a sales brochure for various cement construction projects they have been working on. The brochure notes various projects that “are built in our country, Kurdistan”. The brochure also features language such as “Kurdistan and Iraq”. With Kurdistan having its own flag, governing body, and having operated autonomously for almost thirty years, it is easy to see how might actually consider themselves to be their own independent nation. By this time, one of the workers had brought out cups of Turkish coffee for all of us. While drinking coffee is popular the world over, in the Middle East, it is almost a ritual. T.E. Lawrence, the famous “Lawrence of Arabia”, noted in his famous account of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Turks during World War One, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, that the local Bedouin were “gluttons for coffee”. He writes of the Bedouin tribesmen stopping during the middle of the day to drink coffee even while crossing the scorching Nefudh Desert, a desert thought to be impassible even by Bedouin standards. Turkish coffee is served in a small cup scarsely larger than a thimble. Thick, rich and strong, you don’t even sip the coffee, so much as you touch the cup to your lips and lick a tiny drop at a time. The chief explained to me that he moved from Turkey to Irbil to go to a university to study civil engineering, and Suleiman adds that Iraqis are among the most well-educated of the Arabs. I asked if it was true that there was now an American University in Kurdistan (Irbil), to which they all replied yes. They then decide to drop the bomb on me, “Do you think American troops will really withdraw by the end of 2011”, one of them asks, referring to the recently-signed Status of Forces Agreement between the US and the Iraqi government. To be honest, I wasn’t certain. Although the prospect of a troop withdrawal according to the timetable seems realistic, the Iraq War has been a conflict filled with unexpected twists and turns, with the dramatic improvement in security being the most recent. However, the withdrawal of forces from Iraq and the proposed “surge” in Afghanistan, which I could not see as entailing more than three or four brigades, seemed to largely fit with what I believed President-Elect Obama’s immediate military strategy seemed to be. We discussed the complex demographics of Afghanistan. I thought it was difficult to learn a few Arabic words to prepare for duty among the three major ethnic groups in Iraq. In Afghanistan, there are some 400 ethnic groups and tribes, speaking any one of almost a dozen languages, from Uzbek, Farsi, Dari and Pashtu. Add the complex demographics to the isolated, mountainous terrain and throw in a booming opium trade to finance an insurgency, and you have a far different surge than the surge in Iraq. With the bomb dropped on me, it was time to drop the bomb on them. “What do you think will happen to Kurdistan in the next fifty years? Do you think it will be its own independent nation?” There’s a chuckle that emerges from the group. “We know it is better to be part of Iraq than separate”, says the chief. The Swedish expatriate adds, “Besides, we Kurds practically own Iraq”. A bold claim? Hardly. The men noted that Iraqi president Jalal Al-Talabani is Kurdish, as well as many well-placed advisors within the Maliki government. I had reached the end of my coffee, and noted that at the end of Turkish coffee, there is a small layer of thick sludge at the bottom of the cup. I asked if I should try to drink the sludge. The chief stops me. He demonstrates turning his cup upside down on the saucer, letting the sludge ooze out from underneath the cup onto the saucer. He explains that an old custom is to read one’s fortune in the sludge at the bottom of the cup of coffee. He jokes that hopefully the cup of coffee will tell me which way I turn to return to my portion of the FOB. I follow suit, wait a few seconds and turn my cup back over. I show him the remaining coffee grinds in my cup and ask him what it means. The chief looked at the cup carefully, as if studying it intently, for a few seconds. Finally, he smiles and slaps me on the back. “My friend, this tells me that you will be here for a year” I can only hope."

11/29/2008 11:36:00 PM

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/the-art-of-the-end-of-war.htm

Quote :

"Though I am with excellent U.S. forces in the hinterlands of Afghanistan, this dispatch describes my final “mission” with outstanding soldiers in Iraq........................... .....................We rumbled into various neighborhoods in south Baghdad. Nothing was going on. No gun battles. No mushroom clouds from car bombs or IEDs. I wore the headset and the incessant radio alerts about units fighting here or there were completely absent. In the old days, while the Iraq war was hot, there was constant chatter about fighting, car bombs, snipers, name it. Today, there were no alerts at all. There was more chatter about the Kenyan sitting in front of me who had been in the Army for a couple years. The other soldiers said he should get automatic citizenship for volunteering to fight, and we all agreed. The soldier came straight from Kenya into our Army. Did not even pass GO, and suddenly was in Iraq................ .................“Yes,” he said, with that funny Ghana accent. “They Salute American soldiers in Ghana! They love America and many Americans retire there.” Sounded like Kurdish Iraq, where the kids ask soldiers for autographs, and even ask interpreters for autographs if they work for American soldiers. "

[Edited on December 2, 2008 at 4:19 PM. Reason : lulz]

12/2/2008 4:17:32 PM

Quote :

"A civil society is one that admires artists, and has time to admire and critique and argue about their creations. An advanced society is one that can generate and support an Army that promotes the art of a former enemy, to find peace. The Iraqi artists have the opportunity and social obligation to promote healing. Yes, the war is over. And it will be a great day when the last American division leaves Iraq, and Americans and Iraqis never fire another shot at each other, and we can honestly call each other “friends.” "

12/2/2008 4:23:30 PM

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/01/iraqi_security_force_24.php

Quote :

"Not surprisingly, funding is an issue in the development of the Iraqi Army. Over 95 percent of the Iraqi budget is derived from oil exports. The price of oil has dropped to a third of what it was in the summer of 2008. These factors, combined with training policies, have reduced the number of personnel added to the Iraqi Army in 2008."

1/17/2009 2:37:45 PM