Strategic Armchair Command: TASK FORCE IRAQ

POLL: MANY TROOPS IN IRAQ DISSATISFIED

Thu, 16 Oct 2003 21:27:22 GMT

A broad survey of U.S. troops in Iraq by a Pentagon-funded newspaper found that half of those questioned described their unit’s morale as low and their training as insufficient, and said they do not plan to reenlist.

The sURVEY, conducted by the Stars and Stripes newspaper, also recorded about a third of the respondents complaining that their mission lacks clear definition and characterizing the war in Iraq as of little or no value. Fully 40 percent said the jobs they were doing had little or nothing to do with their training.

Washinton Post

WHY THE WAR WAS RIGHT

Thu, 16 Oct 2003 21:24:52 GMT

"We had to move. Either we could welcome Saddam back into the community of nations, or we could rid Iraq of an evil dictatorship.

So, what do you think about it now?” It’s a question I’ve been asked repeatedly over the past few weeks. The “it,” of course, refers to the Iraq war. The war against Saddam may be over (mostly) on the banks of the Euphrates, but it’s being refought on the banks of the Potomac and the Thames, indeed across much of the world. Well, here’s my answer on whether I was wrong to have supported the use of military action against Saddam Hussein’s regime..."

Newsweek

OCCUPIER'S, VILLAGERS, AND AN AMBUSH'S RUBBLE

Wed, 01 Oct 2003 21:33:25 GMT

In the aftermath of a six-hour firefight Monday, a visit Tuesday to this palm-studded village 80 kilometers, or 50 miles, West of Baghdad is an encounter with two different worlds: one inhabited by an occupying army at war with unseen guerrilla fighters who lay bombs on the roadside and shoot at foreign soldiers from the cover of citrus groves and stands of maize, and the other by Iraqi tribal families who were picking up the pieces of their shattered homes.

IHT

REVENGE OF THE EX-GENERALS

Fri, 26 Sep 2003 22:50:53 GMT

"Pummeled By Administration Counter-Fire, War Time Analysts Turned Out To Be Right On Target

“Windbags of war,” quipped a television critic back in April as cable news airwaves normally filled with slick broadcasters were invaded by graying former generals. With American troops thrusting into Iraq, television networks put these retired officers on retainer to ride shotgun with their anchors. When several of them dared warn that the American war plan spread U.S. forces dangerously thin, the Pentagon quickly launched a broadside that all but accused them of undermining the war effort. Five months later, however, American troops are dying in a guerrilla war, more National Guard and reservists are being mobilized and the Bush team has few allies abroad willing to send their own sons into harm’s way. The “winds of war” appear to have shifted."

MSNBC

IS THE ARMY STRETCHED TOO THIN?

Wed, 27 Aug 2003 05:55:03 GMT

"Deep inside the Pentagon, where young colonels arrive before dawn to revise once more the short list of available combat units ready to deploy overseas, a nightmare scenario hangs in the air, unmentioned but unmistakable. With 140,000 U.S. troops tied down stabilizing Iraq, 34,000 in Kuwait, 10,000 in Afghanistan and 5,000 in the Balkans, what good options would George W. Bush have if, say sometime next spring, North Korea's Kim Jong Il decided to test the resilience of the relatively small "trip-wire" force of 37,000 American troops in South Korea? Where would the Pentagon turn if it had to rush additional combat troops to the 38th parallel? Might a lack of ready reinforcements force Washington to consider using nuclear weapons to save South Korea from defeat?..."

Time

BREMER: IRAQ HAS BECOME BATTLEFIELD IN WAR ON TERROR

Sat, 23 Aug 2003 23:01:38 GMT

"The American civil administrator in Iraq says Iraq has become one of the battlefields in the war on terrorism, following Tuesday's bomb attack on the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad that killed 23 people. The remarks by Paul Bremer came as three British soldiers were killed in an attack in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

The head of the Coalition Provisional Authority said the attack on the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad was the work of terrorists and added that preventing such attacks poses the greatest difficult challenge to the intelligence community.

"Iraq has become a new field of battle in this worldwide terrorist fight," said Paul Bremer. "And therefore we will continue to refine our intelligence. But there is no such thing as 100 percent security against terrorism. And what we have to do is raise the threshold as high as we possibly can for terrorism, make it as difficult as possible for them."

Voice Of America

TROUBLE BREWING IN IRAQ

Wed, 20 Aug 2003 22:44:20 GMT

The War on Iraq is metastasizing into the new front in the global war on terror in a way the Bush administration may not have expected. Al Qaeda and its minions now appear to view Iraq as the 'hot' theatre in their global jihad. While this has the effect of minimizing their concentration on the US homeland and other Western countries -- it appears that although the Iraqi summer is almost over, the area is about to get a lot hotter.

US Now Sees Al Qaeda As Leader Of War Effort In Iraq -- World Tribune.com
Analysts: Iraq A Magnet For Al Qaeda -- CNN.com
Purported Al Qaeda Tape About The War In Iraq -- Al Jazeerah.info
Al Qaeda Tape Sets Sights On Iraq -- Riyadh Daily
Saudi Militants Entering Iraq In Droves For Holy War -- The Straits Times, Singapore

US TRIES TO LAY DOWN LAW ON IRAQ

Mon, 18 Aug 2003 00:54:35 GMT

"Marine Capt. Sean Dunn spent almost a month cajoling courthouse officials in Al Kut for a detailed inventory of what they needed. He expected a laundry list, squabbles over financing and groans from his superior officers when he presented what he was sure would be a tome.

"So after weeks of this," Dunn said, "I get one piece of paper from Chief Judge Jahwher Mahood saying, 'I need a Thuraya phone, a car, a refrigerator and a TV.' And I said, 'I see, so these are the needs of a court system for 1 million people and some 200 employees?' "

The preposterous, personal nature of the request underlines some of the problems coalition forces face, and not just in Wassit province, southeast of Baghdad, where the New Orleans-headquartered 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines are in charge. Throughout Iraq, as the nation cracks through the totalitarian shell Saddam Hussein spent decades building, a reliable, trustworthy system of law and order is essentially being built from scratch..."

New Orleans Times-Picayune

IRAQ DEMOCRACY A DREAM, BUSH TOLD

Fri, 15 Aug 2003 01:44:25 GMT

"US intelligence officials warned the National Security Council before the Iraq war that the American plan to build democracy on the ashes of Saddam Hussein's regime - as a model for the region - was so audacious that, as a CIA report put it in March, it could ultimately prove "impossible".

That assessment ran counter to what the Bush Administration was saying at the time as it sought to build support for the war.

President George Bush said then that a democratic Iraq would lead to more liberalised, representative governments, where terrorists would find less popular support and the Islamic world would be friendlier to the United States..."

The Age

IRAQIS SAVOR NEW TASTE OF FREEDOM

Tue, 12 Aug 2003 06:08:15 GMT

"Lost in the obsessive hunt for Saddam Hussein and the daily count of American soldiers killed and wounded is a complex picture of a country and culture reemerging with U.S. help from the rubble of war, dictatorship, sanctions and the burst of postwar chaos. "The new Iraq means having satellite channels, saying anything you want to say," said Akila Hashimi, a former Iraqi diplomat now seated on the 25 member Iraqi Governing Council. "You feel like you're in a free country. People are expressing their happiness, expressing their anger. They're saying anything they want to say..."

Washington Times

ISLAMISTS CALL FOR GUERILLA WAR

Sun, 10 Aug 2003 08:30:25 GMT

"A hitherto unknown group of Iraqi Islamists called for guerrilla attacks against occupying forces in Iraq, saying in a videotape broadcast on Saturday it was the only way to free the country. The five masked men shown on the tape, which was broadcast by Dubai-based Al Arabiya television, said they belonged to the White Flags, Muslim Youth and Army of Mohammad organizations.

"We want to tell other organizations that guerrilla warfare is the only way to free the country and we want to say that foreign troops who were sent here must be attacked to prove to the world that we are against occupation," said one of the men. "We warn countries of the world, and for the last time, not to send troops into Iraq," the speaker said in the video tape which was dated Aug 9. The five men, seated in a row on the floor against a wall, were holding black grenade launchers and their faces were wrapped in traditional checked Arab head-dresses."

Arab Times

ANGRY RESIDENTS RIOT IN BASRA

Sun, 10 Aug 2003 07:48:53 GMT

"Riots broke out yesterday in the southern port of Basra as tensions exploded over the British control of Iraq's second largest city, leaving seven soldiers and four Iraqi civilians injured.

Residents hurled rocks and burned tires in all the city's main streets as Iraqis raged in the blistering summer heat over the tortoise-like pace of the coalition force's reconstruction efforts..."

Gulf News

BUSH CALLS IRAQ LONG-TERM UNDERTAKING IN MIDEAST

Sun, 10 Aug 2003 06:38:48 GMT

"President Bush on Saturday vowed a "long-term undertaking" to bring democracy and economic prosperity to Iraq and across the Middle East.

In his weekly radio address, broadcast amid renewed violence in Iraq and marking 100 days since he announced major combat operations over, Bush offered an upbeat assessment.

Despite almost daily attacks on U.S. troops in which 55 have been killed, Bush said Iraq was more secure with 6,000 Iraqi police patrolling Baghdad and about 20,000 more on duty in other towns.

The U.S. military and its allies had made "steady progress," he asserted. "We're keeping our word to the Iraqi people by helping them to make their country an example of democracy and prosperity throughout the region..."

Reuters

US BLAMES ANSAR AL-ISLAM IN ATTACK

Fri, 08 Aug 2003 07:22:56 GMT

"U.S. defense officials say an al-Qaida-linked terrorist group may have been involved in Thursday's deadly car bomb attack on the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad.

Lieutenant General Norton Schwartz says investigators are focusing on Ansar al-Islam, which U.S. officials believe is operating in Iraq.

The blast killed at least 11 people, including five Iraqi police who were guarding the embassy. Dozens of other people were wounded, incluidng five Jordanian embassy employees."

VOA News

POSITIVE REPORT FROM IRAQ

Fri, 08 Aug 2003 07:17:07 GMT

"Over the course of the next few days, we conducted daily patrols around the city, locating schools and inspecting them. Despite the fact that looting and destruction had even taken place at the primary schools, it looked good. Teachers were going through neighborhoods on foot making calls to get students to come in and help repair the damage that had been done to their schools. Some were holding impromptu classes already, though not 'officially'. Every teacher we met was very happy to see us. They expressed hope that we would help stabilize the city, and they were noticing it getting better as the days progressed. They were also surprised to see U.S. forces specifically concerned with education. The third day we were on patrol, we got lucky. A teacher we encountered told us that even though the administrative staff of the education department had been burned out of their offices, they were meeting that day at a nearby kindergarten to discuss the prospect of restarting classes and giving exams. We asked the teacher to lead us to the meeting place..."

Instapundit