I think so. We've already started dropping hints that we are dropping him like a rock. But he already did his damage with bad WMD intel. http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/international.cfm?id=696152003 . . . Washington argues it has had little choice but to impose US rule across Iraq. Mr Bremer has dropped thinly veiled hints that the Iraqi National Congress and its leader, Ahmed Chalabi - once Washington’s favoured Iraqi ally - is not "balanced enough" to take a larger role. . . .
When Time jumps on the bandwagon, it's a trend. http://www.time.com/time/columnist/karon/article/0,9565,460834,00.html?CNN=yes Iraq is Not Vietnam, But... Tony Karon's Weblog: Mounting guerrilla campaign against U.S. forces has hacks and grunts reaching for Apocalypse Now Tuesday, Jun. 24, 2003 It's hard for Americans to shake the collective memory of Vietnam when they're sending young men and women to kill and die in distant lands. And it's not only the quagmire-phobic antiwar types that can't avoid the Vietnam references: To raise their morale before entering Iraq in March, U.S. Marines in Kuwait were visited by R. Lee Ermey, the Vietnam vet who has become a USMC legend for his portrayal of a hard-as-nails gunnery sergeant in Stanley Kubrick's 'Nam flick "Full Metal Jacket." Ermey obliged by reciting some of his more memorable motivational lines from the movie, which as at least one embedded British reporter discovered, remains a key reference for today's Marines in the field. But there are others. Just last weekend, U.S. troops psyched themselves up for a sweep in search of Saddam loyalists by blasting Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries through loudspeakers in a bizarre homage to Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now." But the main reason for the sudden surge in Vietnam analogies may be that U.S. troops, having deposed Saddam, find themselves facing a growing guerrilla insurgency. Soldiers are dying every other day in sniper shootings, grenade attacks and ambushes in Baghdad and cities to the north and west. And despite some initial reluctance to acknowledge the scale, U.S. officials are now admitting they're facing an organized campaign. The forces attacking U.S. troops appear to be well trained and equipped, and they're able to find cover in a civilian population in Baghdad and to the north of the city that harbors considerable resentment toward the occupying forces. They're also hoping to take advantage of the fact that most of the U.S. troops in Iraq are trained to kill the enemy and win battles rather than for the delicate balance of combat, policing and civic affairs work involved in an occupation mission — witness last week's photographs of U.S. troops trying to control an angry crowd at bayonet-point. (After two Iraqis were killed in that confrontation, U.S. troops began training with non-lethal antiriot gear. Unfortunately, however, the U.S. is facing an uphill battle for Iraqi public opinion, particularly in light of the propensity of much of the local population to believe the worst rumors about the American forces. They may be untrue, but tales of rape and pillage are doing the rounds and helping alienate Iraqis from the U.S. authorities. The insurgents also appear to be constantly evolving their tactics to respond to new U.S. moves against them. On the one hand, they're more inclined to avoid concentrating their forces and making them an easier target, but on the other hand they're expanding the range of their own attacks. Sabotage attacks on oil pipelines reveal an acute awareness of Iraq's points of vulnerability, while Wednesday's firefights that killed six and wounded eight British troops mark an even more worrisome development. While attacks on U.S. forces had been mostly confined to the Sunni Baathist heartland, the Britons were attacked in the overwhelmingly Shiite region around Basra. It could be that such attacks were mounted by the same largely Sunni groups that are harassing U.S. forces in Baghdad and to the north — after all, Saddam's (mostly Sunni) Fedayeen were active as far south as Basra in the early days of the war. But if they were carried out by Shiite militants, that could signal the beginning of a second front and a substantial escalation in the guerrilla campaign — until now, Shiite groups opposed to the U.S. presence had nonetheless condemned armed actions against the occupation as "premature." British casualties are likely to turn up the heat on Prime Minister Tony Blair, facing accusations in his own parliament that he misled the nation into war by deliberately exaggerating the WMD threat posed by Iraq. They may also reinforce the resistance of British military chiefs to sending more troops, as requested by Washington, into what British officers believe may be a quagmire. By attacking non-U.S. coalition forces, the insurgents may also be trying to discourage others from entering Iraq. India, for example, has been sharply divided on whether to send troops: While some in the government are keen to ingratiate New Delhi with the U.S. by going in, others warn that it's a no-win commitment that will imperil India's standing in the Arab world. While Iraq is a very different situation from the one that confronted the U.S. military in Vietnam — the enemy has no regional or international backers to support and sustain its insurgency; the terrain and technological capability of the U.S. precludes any concentration of forces; as long as the rebellion remains confined to Sunnis its maximum political support base is no bigger than 15 percent of the population — it's the idea of U.S. troops confronting an enemy indistinguishable from an often hostile civilian population that gets alarm bells ringing. A report in London's Evening Standard last week contained disturbing accounts, from interviews with U.S. troops, of incidents in which civilians have been killed. The hostility of the civilian population in towns such as Fallujah is plainly sapping the morale of U.S. troops who had expected to be home in time for July 4 cookouts. Some are speaking out more and more bluntly to reporters in anger at the changing nature of their mission: Rifleman Matthew O'Dell told the New York Times, "You call Donald Rumsfeld and tell him . . . (we) are ready to go home. Tell him to come spend a night in our building." The idea of in-country R&R facilities certainly has an echo of Vietnam; so does the recent USO show in Baghdad featuring Kid Rock and a Playboy bunny (the rapper extolled the virtues of presidential mar1juana). But the most worrisome comparison for the Bush administration may be in the duration. Vietnam, after all, saw U.S. troops tied down on a distant battlefield for ten years. Although he did his best before the war to downplay suggestions by uniformed officers that an Iraq occupation mission would be long and costly, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz now appears ready to acknowledge that U.S. troops could be there for the next ten years, and will probably require the construction of permanent bases — and also that together with the Afghanistan mission, the Iraq security mission will likely cost around $54 billion a year. Early indications are that much of that burden will be born by the U.S. taxpayer. For example, although a dozen countries are expected to contribute small numbers of troops to a 20,000-strong peacekeeping force led by Poland, most are expecting the U.S. to pay their way. Occupation is certainly a costly business: Just this week, a further $300 million was added to the annual budget with the announcement that U.S. authorities would resume paying salaries to Saddam's now disbanded professional army. But that may be a sound investment, since if a quarter of a million trained soldiers have no stake in the post-Saddam order, there are plenty of renegade Baathists with wads of cash to buy their services in support of an armed rebellion. The Vietnam comparisons may exist mostly in our heads — both the soldiers obsessed with imagery from "Full Metal Jacket" and "Apocalypse Now," and a media corps looking for simple analogies to describe complex problems. But what they do reveal is a growing anxiety over the long-term nature of the Iraq occupation. Nor is there much comfort in the observation by those coalition-of-the-willing Spanish, who are finally sending 1,100 troops to join the fray in Iraq, that the situation there is not at all like Vietnam. No, says the daily El-Mundo, it's more like the Palestinian intifada.
It is not going too well today. Several American soldiers killed or captured. 4 Dead, 2 Abducted in Iraq Ambushes 4 People Killed, 2 U.S. Soldiers Kidnapped in Iraq As Coalition Forces See Increase in Ambushes The Associated Press BAGHDAD, Iraq June 26 — Bomb and grenade ambushes and hostile fire Thursday killed two American soldiers and two Iraq civilians, signaling increased anti-American resistance in Iraq despite U.S. claims of mopping up opposition. Two American soldiers also were apparently abducted. In the latest reported attack, a member of a U.S. special operations force was killed and eight were injured Thursday morning by hostile fire southwest of Baghdad, the U.S. military said, giving no further details. Also Thursday, a bomb exploded on the Baghdad airport road, killing a U.S. soldier and injuring another, the U.S. military said. The road heavily used by U.S. forces has been the scene of several attacks using trip wires dangling from overpasses or grenades tossed from bridges. In another ambush, assailants threw grenades at a U.S. and Iraqi civilian convoy in west Baghdad, killing two Iraqi employees of the national electricity authority, U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police said. The convoy had U.S. Humvees at the front and the back and two Iraqi civilian vehicles in the middle. The victims were traveling in the same car. The fresh violence came a day after a U.S. Marine was killed while responding to an ambush in which three other Americans were wounded. A U.S. military spokesman, Maj. William Thurmond, played down this week's violence as a "spike" and not a trend. Thurmond said the spate of ambushes could be a response to recent U.S. raids on Baath Party strongholds. "There have been more attacks recently, but it's probably premature to say this is part of a pattern," Thurmond said. "We've kicked open the nests of some of these bad guys." The U.S. military has blamed attacks on isolated remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime and his Sunni followers, claiming there was no organized resistance. The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera, however, aired statements Thursday from two previously unknown groups urging assaults on U.S.-led forces in Iraq. One, by a group calling itself the Mujahedeen of the Victorious Sect, claimed responsibility for recent attacks and promised more. The other, by the Popular Resistance for the Liberation of Iraq, called for "revenge" against America. Al-Jazeera said it could not verify the statements, and U.S. defense officials had no immediate comment. Meanwhile, Pentagon officials in Washington said Thursday that two American soldiers apparently have been abducted. The men and their Humvee were stationed at an observation post near the town of Balad, north of Baghdad, when they were noticed missing Wednesday night, according to officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. A search by Apache attack helicopters was started as soon as they were noticed missing, one official said, declining to say how their absence was noticed. In a separate incident Thursday, a U.S. Army truck sat smoldering at the side of a highway 20 miles south of Baghdad. People at the scene said it exploded as if struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. There were no immediate reports of casualties. On Wednesday, ambushers threw grenades from a Baghdad overpass onto a passing convoy of Army Humvees, said Marine Corps Maj. Sean Gibson. There were no serious injuries. The same day, militants ambushed Marines in Hillah, 45 miles south of Baghdad, wounding three troops. Later, one Marine was killed and two were wounded when their vehicle part of a quick-reaction force sent in response to the Hillah ambush rolled over on the road's soft shoulder en route to the scene. The names of the American and Iraqi victims were not immediately released. The latest killings raised the American death toll to 196 since the start of the war on March 20. At least 20 U.S. soldiers have died as the result of hostile fire since major combat was declared over in May. On Tuesday, violence in the southern Iraqi town of Majar al-Kabir killed six British soldiers and wounded eight British paratroopers. The British military Thursday blamed the violence involving the paratroopers partly on a misunderstanding over weapons searches. Maj. Gen. Peter Wall said the violence probably was sparked when British paratroopers entered the town, 180 miles southeast of Baghdad, during a "routine joint patrol" with local militias. Townspeople mistakenly thought the patrol was going to search for weapons, he said. However, Wall offered no explanation for an attack at a town police station later Tuesday, in which six Royal Military Police were killed, some reportedly shot with their own weapons. He said he could not comment on those claims while an investigation continued. Local people told reporters that violence was triggered by anger over heavy-handed weapons searches in which soldiers used dogs and entered women's bedrooms in defiance of Muslim sensibilities. In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was asked whether it was a sensible tactic to try to disarm a nation where carrying weapons had become part of the culture. Blair acknowledged that Iraq was in a "process of transformation," but added: "It is important that it is proper law enforcement authorities that carry weapons and not all the citizens of the country." The violence in the town shattered the peace that had reigned in Shiite-dominated southern Iraq since the fall of Saddam. And the casualties marked the heaviest loss under fire for British troops in a single day since the 1991 Gulf War, raising the British death toll in the latest Iraqi conflict to 42. British forces in Iraq have been reduced to 15,500 from 45,000 during the war; two-thirds of them are ground forces. The United States has brought home some 130,000 troops from the region; 146,000 American forces remain in Iraq. cite Another soldier shot while shopping in Baghdad. cite
My brother's bestfriend has been a Marine for the past 4 years and is still in Iraq. He's been there since it started. Luckily my brother (Army) didn't get sent anywhere. Bring him home already, damnit.
This article really depressed me, page 1 in tomorrow's Wash. Post. By Anthony Shadid Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, July 1, 2003; Page A01 BAGHDAD, June 30 -- To Staff Sgt. Charles Pollard, the working-class suburb of Mashtal is a "very, very, very, very bad neighborhood." And he sees just one solution. "U.S. officials need to get our [expletive] out of here," said the 43-year-old reservist from Pittsburgh, who arrived in Iraq with the 307th Military Police Company on May 24. "I say that seriously. We have no business being here. We will not change the culture they have in Iraq, in Baghdad. Baghdad is so corrupted. All we are here is potential people to be killed and sitting ducks." To Sgt. Sami Jalil, a 14-year veteran of the local police force, the Americans are to blame. He and his colleagues have no badges, no uniforms. The soldiers don't trust them with weapons. In his eyes, his U.S. counterparts have already lost the people's trust. "We're facing the danger. We're in the front lines. We're taking all the risks, only us," said the 33-year-old officer. "They're arrogant. They treat all the people as if they're criminals." These are the dog days of summer in Mashtal, and tempers are flaring along a divide as wide as the temperatures are high. Throughout the neighborhood, as in much of Baghdad, residents are almost frantic in their complaints about basic needs that have gone unmet -- enough electricity to keep food from spoiling, enough water to drink, enough security on the streets. At Mashtal's Rashad police station, where Pollard's unit is working to protect the police and get the Baath Party-era force back on its feet, the frustrations are personal and professional. Many of the Iraqi officers despise the U.S. soldiers for what they see as unreasonable demands and a lack of respect. Many of the soldiers in Pollard's unit -- homesick, frustrated and miserable in heat that soars well into the 100s -- deem their mission to reconstitute the force impossible. The Rashad station, where a new coat of paint has done little to conceal unmet expectations, is an example of the darker side of the mundane details of the U.S. occupation. While perhaps not representative, it offers a grim, small window on the daunting task of rebuilding a capital and how the course of that reconstruction, so far, has defied the expectations of virtually everyone involved. "I pray every day on the roof. I pray that we make it safe, that we make it safe home," Pollard said. "The president needs to know it's in his hands, and we all need to recognize this isn't our home, America is, and we just pray that he does something about it." Pollard is a 22-year veteran, and he had thought about retiring before his Iraq tour. Now, he says, he doesn't know when he will return to his job at the maintenance department at a community college in Pittsburgh, and that uncertainty nags at him. Asked when he wanted to leave, he was blunt: "As soon as we can get the hell out of here." This morning, in a dusty second-floor room with sandbags piled against the windows, helmets hung on nails over flak jackets and a sprawling map of Baghdad on the wall, Pollard's unit debated that question. Gossip swirled. "There's a rumor going around that we'll be here for two years," Spec. Ron Beach said. Others rolled their eyes and shook their heads. "You can put me up in a five-star hotel, and I'm not going to be here for two years," said Sgt. Jennifer Appelbaum, 26, a legal secretary from Philadelphia. They started talking about what they lacked: hot meals, air conditioners, bathrooms a notch above plywood outhouses and something to do on their 12 hours off other than sweat. Electricity is on one hour, off five. Staff Sgt. Kenneth Kaczmarek called his flak jacket an "Iraqi weight loss system" and said he had shed at least 15 pounds. Pollard said he had lost 18. Pollard's second granddaughter was born this month, but he hasn't been able to call home to learn her name. Kaczmarek's daughter, Isabella Jolie, was born May 28 -- eight days after he arrived in Iraq as part of an advance team. "It makes life miserable," Pollard said. "The morale, it's hard to stay high with these problems." Once largely undefended, Rashad police station -- 12 tiles missing from its blue sign -- has taken on the look of a bunker. Two cream-colored, armored Humvees are parked outside; another Humvee with a .50-caliber machine gun is at the side. Pollard said he wants barbed wire strung atop the cinder-block wall behind, and an engineering team is preparing to heighten the brick-and-cement wall in front. In coming days, he said, he would put sand barricades along the street outside the entrance. Shots are fired every day at U.S. troops in Baghdad, and on Friday night, an ambush on a military convoy down the road killed one soldier and left at least one other wounded. As Pollard recalled, the blast shook the entire block. He said he suspects everyone. Two Iraqi journalists, one with a camera, visited two weeks ago, and he was convinced the men were casing the station. He once sat at a desk outside, then moved indoors. "Let the Iraqis guard the gate," he said, next to a sandbagged window. The way Pollard sees it, the Iraqi police should be taking the risks, not his 13 reservists at the station. "It's not fair to our troops to build a country that's not even ours and our lives are at risk," he said. "They've got to take control. They may have to kill some of their own people to make a statement that we're back in control. No doubt." For the most part, the Iraqi police and Pollard's soldiers say little to each other -- and even then it's done through interpreters. The Iraqis dislike Pollard, and he has little regard for them. The neighborhood is dangerous, he said, and fighting crime here might require twice the 86 police officers they still have. But of the 86, he said, at least half should be dismissed for corruption or ineptitude. "This is a crooked cop sitting here," he said, pointing to a major who didn't understand English. He walked through the station, leaning into a room with two officers busy at a desk. "Here's a room where they're acting like they're doing real important paperwork," he said. He walked outside to a balcony where three officers were sitting on newspapers and a green burlap sack, one with his shoes off. "This is a couple more lazy cops, sitting down when they should be outside," he said. They all greeted Pollard with cold stares, forgoing the traditional greetings that are almost obligatory in their culture. Near an iron gate, where residents gathered in hopes of filing a complaint, Shoja Shaltak, an Iraqi lieutenant, brought a brown folder with an order from a judge to release three men. Pollard suspected a bribe. "Tell him he can go, go, go," Pollard said to an interpreter. "I don't jump at their requests." The lieutenant protested, insisting that the order came from a judge. The interpreter, Ziad Tarek, answered on his own. "The judge has nothing to do with this anymore," Tarek told Shaltak. He pointed to Pollard, "He's the judge now." Jalil, the veteran Iraqi policeman, watched with disgust. "It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing for us and for the lieutenant," he said. "We are police and they don't respect us. How is it possible for them to respect the Iraqi people?" His complaints were aired by virtually all the station's officers: They don't receive the flak jackets the Americans wear, they have to check out rifles from the soldiers, they have no uniforms, they have no badges and they don't like Pollard. Asked if he was afraid to go on patrol, Jalil shot back angrily, "The opposite. "They're the ones who are scared," he said. "I'm ready to go out alone, but they should give me the equipment." Jalil said he was so frustrated that he planned to quit in days. He said he can't support his parents, wife and 8-month-old daughter on a salary of $60 a month. He spends half of that on daily lunches and the 30-cent fares for a shared taxi to and from work. With water in short supply or of poor quality, he buys a bottle of mineral water every two days for his daughter -- a cheap variety but still another 50 cents. Sewage floods daily into his home, where four families totaling 30 people share six rooms. And, with electricity running no more than six hours a day, Jalil worries that his daughter will become ill from the heat. "The truth has become apparent," he said. "The Americans painted a picture that they would come, provide good things to the Iraqi people, spread security, but regrettably" -- his voice trailed off. "Iraqi people hate the Americans," he said. The one thing on which everyone agrees is that Mashtal is a tough neighborhood. Gunfire crackles at night. A chop shop is down the street. Parked outside the station are six stolen cars recovered by the police. Kaczmarek called it "Chicago in the '30s" and said he saw someone the other day toting a tommy gun. Jalil called murder the easiest crime to commit. Last week in his neighborhood, an Iraqi hit his 28-year-old ex-wife with a bicycle, then, as she lay on the ground on a hot afternoon, shot her in the face with an AK-47 rifle. "People just watched," Jalil said. "If they interfered, they would be killed, too." Outside the police station's gate, Qassim Kadhim, a 30-year-old day laborer, had been waiting for hours to report a stolen motorcycle. On Thursday, three thieves broke into his house, a two-room shack where he lives with his wife and four children. He said he knew who they were, and when he went the next day to confront them, one of them beat him with a rifle butt. He still had a black eye. "There's no security, there's no stability in Iraq," he said. "I swear to God, things are going to get worse." © 2003 The Washington Post Company
This should be required reading for Bush, Cheney and the rest of the chickenhawks. Bush should go inspect this police station and Iraq neighborhood.. Going for flag waving extravaganzas at air conditioned US bases or prancing around in a flight uniform on a a carrier deck doesn't make Bush understand. It is really hard to understand how this can turn out good for the US. If Bush wins again there will be a need to pretend the occupation is a going smoothly till the 2008 election. How depressing.
i remember a while back you started a thread that said there was NO WAY that bush would win again. that he was absolutely a one-term president. still feel that way? just curious.
That Wash Post article just makes me angry. Send in the cheerleaders Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz's children and see how much they like pacification, send the reserves home.
U.S. Plans to Rid Iraqi Classrooms of Saddam Tue Jul 1,10:12 AM ET By Huda Majeed Saleh BAGHDAD (Reuters) - After removing Saddam Hussein from power, the United States is now expunging him from Iraqi school textbooks and purging Baath Party ideology from the curriculum. The overhaul is part of a U.S. effort to demilitarize an education system that has upheld martial virtues and taught children to be ready to die for Saddam. "We will keep the same textbooks for this academic year and the next after removing parts that deal with Saddam and his Baath Party," said Bassam al-Ani, head of the Education Ministry's textbooks department. "Photos of Saddam were removed from all textbooks as well as his speeches and poems in praise of him," he said. "The subject of 'nationalist education' has been suspended. Materials concerning the former regime have been removed from history and geography textbooks," Ani said. The U.S. adviser to the Education Ministry was unavailable for comment, but Geoffrey Keele, spokesman for the U.N. Children's Fund, said all Iraqi textbooks would have to be overhauled, as even science books were riddled with propaganda. He cited math books in which pupils are told the length and the width of a Saddam picture and asked to find its area. "Eventually, all the textbooks will be changed, whether it is maths or Arabic language and I imagine sciences as well," he said, adding that new books would be ready by 2005 after consultations involving many groups of Iraqis. Keele said existing books, with some revisions but keeping the "solid learning content," would be used in the meantime. BAATHIST GRIP ON YOUNG MINDS The old textbooks devote much space to Saddam and the Baath Party, including passages celebrating the achievements of the July 17 Revolution that brought the party to power in 1968. Keele said the school curriculum had not been revised for two decades and teaching methods were just as outdated. The Education Ministry, the U.S.-led administration and U.N. agencies have been working out a reform plan. "What we want to do is participatory learning, which is engaging the children in problem-solving and engaging them in the process of education so that they develop all kinds of skills, not just memorization," Keele said. Education under Saddam amounted to a systematic brainwashing from elementary school onward. Students learned to obey, not think. Even their extra-curricular activities centered on Baath party ideology and loyalty to Saddam. Schools operated on a rigid system based on rote learning. Teachers, all Baath Party members, were stern task masters. The curriculum was crafted to inculcate extreme nationalism and love for Saddam at an early age. Students were continually given pro-Saddam banners and sent onto the streets to chant slogans supporting him and his government. "Saddam was present in every textbook. He gazes on you the moment you open the book. He is there in the books of history, geography, literature and even in English language textbooks," said Ahmed Tahseen, a teacher in a Baghdad elementary school. All the textbooks start with Saddam's picture, followed by the message: "The book in your hand is the revolution's gift to you, thus preserving it is part of loyalty to the revolution." Iraqi educators believe strongly that the United States should not dictate change but support and advise them as they seek to make their own reform to befit a post-Saddam Iraq. "The Americans should not impose their own values on Iraq's education system," said Ali Khalid, a retired teacher. Keele said UNICEF endorsed the view that Iraqis should determine what their children are going to learn. "It is not something that you force on people," he added. WRECKED SYSTEM Iraq's education system once ranked among the best in the Arab world, producing a high literacy rate and a large middle class of professionals. It is now in a sorry state. Poor governance, three wars in two decades and 13 years of U.N. sanctions have left 6,000 to 7,000 schools with no glass in the windows, no electricity and no functioning toilets. "Currently the education system in Iraq is very dilapidated. It is decayed. The whole education system is suffering from a lack of investment," Keele said. Iraqi schools suffered further damage during the U.S-led invasion launched on March 20. Iraqi forces used some schools to store munitions. U.S. forces commandeered several schools as barracks. Some schools were bombed and many more were looted. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030701/lf_nm/iraq_education_dc_1 We are in this for so long...
...except that everybody warned them what was inside to begin with, but Rummy and the gang thought they knew better.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1617-2003Jul2.html?nav=hptop_tb Bush Utters Taunt About Militants: 'Bring 'Em On' By Dana Milbank and Vernon Loeb Washington Post Staff Writers Thursday, July 3, 2003; Page A01 . . . With retired generals and military analysts calling for more soldiers in Iraq and leading members of Congress saying the Pentagon must sustain forces there for as long as five years, Rumsfeld has begun wrestling with a serious shortage of troops in the $3-billion-a-month occupation of Iraq. Army Lt. Gen. John P. Abizaid, nominated to succeed Gen. Tommy R. Franks as head of the U.S. Central Command, is conducting an internal review to determine whether the military has enough force on the ground in Iraq. He is counting on the arrival of 20,000 to 30,000 international peacekeeping forces in August or September, which could enable the United States to withdraw some of the 150,000 troops in Iraq. Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, in his retirement address last month as Army chief of staff, called for "a force sized correctly to meet the strategy" and warned, in what seemed a veiled shot at Rumsfeld: "Beware the 12-division strategy for a 10-division Army." The Army now has more than half of its 10-division active duty force assigned to Iraq. There is the equivalent of another division deployed in Afghanistan, and two to three are typically kept in reserve for a potential confrontation with North Korea. And, because the Army likes to keep three or four divisions training and preparing to eventually replace each division in action, the Pentagon at the moment has no troops to replace many of those on extended deployments in Iraq. Retired Army Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey has called for activating three National Guard divisions to begin creating a rotational base to sustain the force in Iraq. Without it, he said, "this force is going over the cliff at the end of the year." Retired Army Col. Robert Killebrew said he believes the Pentagon should send two more divisions to Iraq and begin activating National Guard divisions to create the necessary replacements. "It would be embarrassing for the president, but the consequence of not doing it may be to lose the war," Killebrew said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3038732.stm Even if the ones that don't hate us resent us for not living up to our pre war hyped up rhetoric. There are some positives in this story, not all of them want to kill us all. Iraqi doubts about liberators By Peter Greste BBC correspondent in Baghdad Iraqi patience with the coalition administration is running thin President George W Bush's declaration that the United States is preparing for a "massive and long-term undertaking" in Iraq will have confirmed the fears of many in Baghdad - that the US is establishing itself as a force for occupation, not liberation. In his speech in the White House Rose Garden, President Bush spoke of "terrorists, extremists and Saddam loyalists" who have attacked US forces, intimidated Iraqis and destroyed infrastructure. He warned of foreign fighters entering Iraq, al-Qaeda-related groups waiting to strike and former Iraqi officials "who will stop at nothing" to recover power. And, he said: "These groups believe they... (will) cause us to leave Iraq before freedom is fully established." That is not quite how many Iraqis see it. Questioned intentions "The problem is that the Americans talk of leaving, perhaps in five years," one Iraqi doctor told me. "But they never explain how they're going to do it. "They never tell us how they are going to set up an independent government and give us back our political power and control over our own country." Now I'm not so sure they really care about Iraqis or our freedom Trader Abdullah Hamid In truth, few Iraqis support the armed insurgency. Most simply want to get on with their lives and put the violence of the past behind them. But as the weeks drag on into months without improvements to basic services like water, electricity supplies and telephone lines, it is becoming harder for them to believe that American intentions are good. Electrical goods trader Abdullah Hamid said he was among those who welcomed the coalition troops as liberators, "but now I'm not so sure they really care about Iraqis or our freedom." "Saddam at least allowed us to have six hours of sleep a night, by giving us electricity to run the fans and air conditioning," he said. "But with these Americans, it's becoming impossible. First it's on at midnight, then it goes off two hours later, and comes back again just as you walk out the door. It seems they care about us less than even Saddam." Unfair criticism As far as the American administrator Paul Bremer, is concerned, those criticisms are unjustified and reflect a failure to understand the massive logistical problems the new administration is faced with. "I don't care about why it's not happening," said Abdullah. "The fact is that things are either no better and in some respects worse than under the old regime. "And it seems to us that oil comes first for the Americans. Our welfare is second." President Bush says the US will remain in Iraq for the long term For many, the failure to draft a clear plan to transfer power simply reinforces that impression. For all the words about "fully establishing freedom", the belief here is that the Americans plan either to never leave, or only go when there is a suitably compliant puppet administration in place. Of course it is probably not the case, and Mr Bremer has plenty of reasons why things are moving along at the current pace. But that is missing the point. Iraqis expected change. They believed Washington's pre-war rhetoric that life would be better under the Americans, and that their liberators would go almost as quickly as they came. Most still want to believe it, though it is becoming increasingly difficult.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1911-2003Jul2.html Breaking the Army By Michael O'Hanlon Thursday, July 3, 2003; Page A23 After criticizing the Clinton administration for overdeploying and overusing the country's military in the 1990s, the Bush administration is now doing exactly the same thing -- except on a much larger scale. Hordes of active-duty troops and reservists may soon leave the service rather than subject themselves to a life continually on the road. Much more than transforming the armed forces or relocating overseas bases, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld must solve this problem before the Bush administration breaks the American military. The problem is most acute for the Army. Even as most Marines, sailors and Air Force personnel go home to a grateful nation, the Army still has more than 185,000 troops deployed in and around Iraq. Another 10,000 are in Afghanistan. More than 25,000 troops are in Korea; some 5,000 are in the Balkans; and dozens here and hundreds there are on temporary assignments around the world. Nearly all of these soldiers are away from their home bases and families. This total of nearly 250,000 deployed troops must be generated from an Army of just over 1 million. The active-duty force numbers 480,000, of which fewer than 320,000 are easily deployable at any given moment. The Army Reserve and Army National Guard together include 550,000 troops, many of whom already have been called up at least once since 9/11. Deployment demands are likely to remain great, even if Rumsfeld and Bush hope otherwise. The Pentagon is lining up 20,000 to 30,000 allied troops to help in Iraq come September, from countries such as Poland and Italy and Ukraine. Unfortunately, as recent events underscore, the overall mission will still likely require nearly 200,000 coalition forces. That means 125,000 to 150,000 U.S. troops could still be needed for a year or more -- with 50,000 to 75,000 Americans remaining in and around Iraq come 2005 and 2006 if past experience elsewhere is a guide. As a result, a typical soldier spending 2003 in Iraq may come home this winter only to be deployed again in late 2004 or 2005. The typical reservist might be deployed for another 12 months over the next few years. These burdens are roughly twice what is sustainable. The problem is so severe that we must approach it from several angles: • Temporarily add 10,000 to 20,000 more troops to the Army. However, this is such an expensive solution -- and takes so long to implement, given the challenges of recruiting and training -- that other measures need to be adopted as well. • Approach a broader range of allies, especially larger countries such as France and Germany and even Japan and South Korea, for substantial troop contributions. Each of these countries can provide roughly 5,000 troops; we should also be able to solicit more help from those South and Southeast Asian states with peacekeeping experience. • Make the Marine Corps a full partner of the Army in peacekeeping, not just warfighting. This means substantially reducing the Marine Corps presence in Okinawa; it also means asking Marines to accept a temporarily higher global deployment pace themselves -- possibly including a small mission soon in Liberia as well. (Even though they are not perfect substitutes, we could ask the Navy and Air Force to increase East Asia deployments temporarily to compensate for reduced Marine Corps presence.) The Marines should be able to sustain 15,000 to 20,000 personnel in Iraq. • Make a higher percentage of Army troops deployable. This is not easy, given the need for numerous stateside functions, but certain activities, such as mid-career education, can be suspended for a year or two. The Army is in crisis, and it needs to take radical measures as a result. • Finally, as Rumsfeld and Gen. James Jones of European Command draft their plans for relocating many American forces from Germany, they need to bear the overdeployment problem in mind. Rather than creating new facilities where troops are sent primarily on temporary assignments, they should try to establish new bases in Eastern Europe that permit troops to bring their families. It would be the supreme irony, and a national tragedy, if after winning two wars in two years, the U.S. Army were broken and defeated while trying to keep the peace. Unfortunately, the risk that this will happen is all too real. The writer is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. © 2003 The Washington Post Company
Obviously, these soldiers are unswayed by the neocons... http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0707/p01s04-woiq.html Fatigued, US troops yearn for home Another US soldier was slain in Baghdad Sunday, the latest in a pattern of attacks. By Scott Peterson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor BAGHDAD – Facing repeatedly delayed go-home dates and attacks by elements of a population they were sent to protect, American troops in Iraq are under increasing stress. The killing of a US soldier Sunday at Baghdad University epitomizes the non-combat violence that leaves US forces on tenterhooks - and waiting for a ticket home. "A lot of guys, because the dates have been tossed around, have lost hope," says Capt. John Jensen, an engineering battalion chaplain. "Nobody's been able to answer that question: when?" Soldiers who came to Iraq expecting to spend their time in combat have found themselves, after the war proper, mired in the day-to-day realities of maintaining order and rebuilding a battered nation. "The actual combat happened very fast, so the biggest stress we see now is peacekeeping," says Col. Robert Knapp, who heads the 113th Medical Company combat-stress unit on the grounds of the presidential palace in Baghdad. "Our people are not really trained for peacekeeping, and not equipped for riot control. They are trained to fight the enemy and kill them," Colonel Knapp says. The troops came to Iraq prepared to fight; but after President Bush declared the end of major combat on May 1, their workload has included containing looting, restoring social services, and training Iraqi policemen. The bloody shift from war to occupation has already taken 26 American lives since then. And with an average of 13 contacts a day with armed resistors, American troops ply the roads of Baghdad nervously and often get stuck in traffic, leading exposed soldiers to brandish assault rifles, and keep their pistols drawn. The trauma of this conflict is varied: Soldiers say they have seen remarkable scenes of killing and carnage; others speak of fears they face daily, doing urban patrols against an unseen, ghostlike enemy. Others have been away from home too long, with the absence and new dangers fraying their families' patience. One result is that the US Army is planning a screening process and two-week "decompression" session for soldiers going home, to look for danger signs, reacclimatize them to civilian life, and advise them on getting to know loved ones again. The military community was shocked by the murder last summer of four wives in six weeks at Ft. Bragg, GA, after Special Forces returned home from Afghanistan. Ready to go are units like the 3rd Infantry Division (3ID), which fought its way up from Kuwait, carried out the bold "Thunder Run" into Baghdad in the early days of April - and a quarter-year later is still kicking around in the flash point city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad. "The frustration is so great, you just wonder if it's going to cause someone to snap," says Maj. Patrick Ratigan, chaplain for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team in Fallujah. This unit was told that the way home was through Baghdad, and subsequent exit dates have come and gone, as the deployment stretches to 10 months. "They are tired, and there is a lot of tension with marriages. Wives are frazzled with kids; they are experiencing the same frustration," says Chaplain Ratigan. One soldier that came to him in recent days was meant to be married on July 5 - a date with special meaning to his fiancée, and one that looked likely when the unit shipped out last September. The war itself and its aftermath are also having an impact, the chaplains say. "Some people have seen a lot of bodies, and others had to collect them and were traumatized by that," Ratigan says. The Army's aim is to avoid a repeat of Vietnam, when "soldiers were in a firefight today, and tomorrow they come home and are unwelcome." "I don't know how anybody is going to be when we get back. I'm a changed person," says Staff Sgt. Antony Joseph, a public-affairs officer in Fallujah. "You can't see death and destruction and not be changed by it. What does it do to those who cut people down? Some have seen their friends die next to them." Such events have been felt throughout the 3ID, which was counting on victory parades, not largely ungrateful and sometimes hostile Iraqis. Unlike Gulf War I in 1991, this for many was up close and personal. "I never saw any bodies back then, but this time we would pull into somebody's backyard and start shooting," says Juan Carlos Cardona, a field artillery sergeant and platoon leader, who leads day and night patrols west of Baghdad. "Intelligence was telling us that anybody you saw could be a terrorist - that was a new experience." Though Sergeant Cardona says Iraqis have yet to unanimously praise their efforts at winning hearts and minds - by distributing fresh water in a local village and protecting propane supplies - he dreams every day of going home. After his alert level has been so high for so long, though, he says he will ease into it. "I've already told my wife that I'm not going to drive for a week or two, and I'm probably going to be afraid to drive at night," Cardona says. "That stuff messes up your mind - you're driving at night, then think you see an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] aimed at you." Soldiers say they are also concerned about their reception and worry that the negative press about the US inability to stamp out resistance, heavy-handed behavior, and mismanaging the occupation will take some of the shine off their swift assault on Baghdad. "We are not seeing people exhausted, but people with discipline problems - another sign of combat stress," says Colonel Knapp. "If they had gone home sooner, they would go home to a parade, put on their ribbons, and felt much better about themselves." The combat stress unit at the palace usually receives five or six cases a day, who are screened, and often stay for several days, for counseling and group therapy on issues like anger management. Separation is especially difficult now, since the "war mission" has changed, Knapp says. "The message they hear from home is: 'The war is over, why aren't you coming home?' The feeling from the US of being needed is not as much as it could be." Maintaining a sense of pride and self worth is the message the chaplains send repeatedly, despite what they see as disparaging reporting in the US media about the occupation. "These guys are still heroes, did a fantastic mission, and are still up to it," says Chaplain Jensen. "If you ask them to go back to the front line to combat and give them bullets, they would do it." Still, for most, the war ended three months ago, and they were expecting a civilian administration, and Iraqis themselves, to take over. Going home has become a fantasy. "I never thought I would miss so many things: washing the dishes for my wife, a shower once a day, a beer here and there, and relaxing and listening to music - all this sort of good stuff," says Cardona. "I can't wait just to curl up with my wife, and wake up and not worry if I am going to get killed." http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0707/p02s01-woiq.html Troop morale in Iraq hits 'rock bottom' Soldiers stress is a key concern as the Army ponders whether to send more forces. By Ann Scott Tyson | Special to The Christian Science Monitor WASHINGTON – US troops facing extended deployments amid the danger, heat, and uncertainty of an Iraq occupation are suffering from low morale that has in some cases hit "rock bottom." Even as President Bush speaks of a "massive and long-term" undertaking in rebuilding Iraq, that effort, as well as the high tempo of US military operations around the globe, is taking its toll on individual troops. Some frustrated troops stationed in Iraq are writing letters to representatives in Congress to request their units be repatriated. "Most soldiers would empty their bank accounts just for a plane ticket home," said one recent Congressional letter written by an Army soldier now based in Iraq. The soldier requested anonymity. In some units, there has been an increase in letters from the Red Cross stating soldiers are needed at home, as well as daily instances of female troops being sent home due to pregnancy. "Make no mistake, the level of morale for most soldiers that I've seen has hit rock bottom," said another soldier, an officer from the Army's 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq. Such open grumbling among troops comes as US commanders reevaluate the size and composition of the US-led coalition force needed to occupy Iraq. US Central Command, which is leading the occupation, is expected by mid-July to send a proposal to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on how many and what kind of troops are required, as well as on the rotation of forces there. For soldiers, a life on the road The rethink about troop levels comes as senior military leaders voice concern that multiple deployments around the world are already taxing the endurance of US forces, the Army in particular. Some 370,000 soldiers are now deployed overseas from an Army active-duty, guard, and reserve force of just over 1 million people, according to Army figures. Experts warn that long, frequent deployments could lead to a rash of departures from the military. "Hordes of active-duty troops and reservists may soon leave the service rather than subject themselves to a life continually on the road," writes Michael O'Hanlon, a military expert at the Brookings Institution here. A major Army study is now under way to examine the impact of this high pace of operations on the mental health of soldiers and families. "The cumulative effect of these work hours and deployment and training are big issues, and soldiers are concerned about it," says Col. Charles Hoge, who is leading the survey of 5,000 to 10,000 soldiers for the Walter Reed Institute of Army Research. Concern over stressed troops is not new. In the late 1990s, a shrinking of military manpower combined with a rise in overseas missions prompted Congress to call for sharp pay increases for troops deployed over a certain number of days. "But then came September 11 and the operational tempo went off the charts" and the Congressional plan was suspended, according to Ed Bruner, an expert on ground forces at the Congressional Research Service here. Adding manpower to the region Despite Pentagon statements before the war that the goal of US forces was to "liberate, not occupy" Iraq, Secretary Rumsfeld warned last week that the war against terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere "will not be over any time soon." Currently, there are some 230,000 US troops serving in and around Iraq, including nearly 150,000 US troops inside Iraq and 12,000 from Britain and other countries. According to the Pentagon, the number of foreign troops is expected to rise to 20,000 by September. Fresh foreign troops began flowing into Iraq this month, part of two multinational forces led by Poland and Britain. A third multinational force is also under consideration. A crucial factor in determining troop levels are the daily attacks that have killed more than 30 US and British servicemen in Iraq since Mr. Bush declared on May 1 that major combat operations had ended. The unexpected degree of resistance led the Pentagon to increase US ground troops in Iraq to mount a series of ongoing raids aimed at confiscating weapons and capturing opposition forces. A tour of duty with no end in sight As new US troops flowed into Iraq, others already in the region for several months, such as the 20,000-strong 3rd Infantry Division were retained in Iraq. "Faced with continued resistance, Department of Defense now plans to keep a larger force in Iraq than anticipated for a period of time," Maj. Gen. Buford Blount, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, explained in a statement to families a month ago. "I appreciate the turmoil and stress that a continued deployment has caused," he added. The open-ended deployments in Iraq are lowering morale among some ground troops, who say constantly shifting time tables are reducing confidence in their leadership. "The way we have been treated and the continuous lies told to our families back home has devastated us all," a soldier in Iraq wrote in a letter to Congress. Security threats, heat, harsh living conditions, and, for some soldiers, waiting and boredom have gradually eroded spirits. An estimated 9,000 troops from the 3rd Infantry Division - most deployed for at least six months and some for more than a year - have been waiting for several weeks, without a mission, to return to the United States, officers say. In one Army unit, an officer described the mentality of troops. "They vent to anyone who will listen. They write letters, they cry, they yell. Many of them walk around looking visibly tired and depressed.... We feel like pawns in a game that we have no voice [in]."
You didn't think this thread was going away did you? ------------------------------------------------ Families live in fear of midnight call by US patrols FROM DANIEL MCGRORY IN BAGHDAD NEVER again did families in Baghdad imagine that they need fear the midnight knock at the door. But in recent weeks there have been increasing reports of Iraqi men, women and even children being dragged from their homes at night by American patrols, or snatched off the streets and taken, hooded and manacled, to prison camps around the capital. Children as young as 11 are claimed to be among those locked up for 24 hours a day in rooms with no light, or held in overcrowded tents in temperatures approaching 50C (122F). On the edge of Baghdad International Airport, US military commanders have built a tent city that human rights groups are comparing to the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Remarkably, the Americans have also set up another detention camp in the grounds of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad. Many thousands of Iraqis were taken there during the Saddam years and never seen again. Every day, relatives scuff their way along the dirt track to reach the razor wire barricades surrounding Abu Ghraib, where they plead in vain for information about the whereabouts of the missing. The response from impassive American sentries is to point to a sign, scrawled in red felt-tip pen on a piece of cardboard hanging on the barbed wire, which says: “No visits are allowed, no information will be given and you must leave.” Some, like Ghania Hassan, sink to their knees in despair. She holds a photograph of her eldest son, Mohammed Yasim Mohammed, a 22-year-old student. She said that he was walking through al-Shaab market with friends when passing troops saw him eating biscuits from an American military ration pack and accused him of being a looter. Allegedly he was pushed face down on the street while his friends tried to explain how a soldier a couple of streets away had given them the biscuits. A month later nothing has been heard of the young man. His mother showed a fistful of letters and petitions that she has collected from US officials, local magistrates and a Muslim cleric, but she and the rest of the complainants were told at gunpoint to move away from the prison gates. Such behaviour merely fuels the growing hostility between local people and the soldiers they had welcomed barely three months ago. Families will naturally protest the innocence of their relatives, but the accounts, such as that of Aliah Khadoum, who describes how her son went out to buy cigarettes on June 1 and was arrested for breaking curfew, are rarely allowed to be tested by the local magistrates, who have begun daily court hearings in the capital. Elizabeth Hodgkin, of Amnesty International, who has a bulging case file of arrests, said: “I cannot believe the Americans are so stupid and insensitive as to behave like this after all the trouble they have had over Guantanamo Bay. They must treat their detainees humanely and let them have visits from family and lawyers.” Amnesty claims that 80 minors have been detained, accused of petty offences including writing anti-American graffiti or, in the case of two teenage boys, climbing on the back of a US troop carrier to hitch a lift through a main street in Baghdad. One of the most disturbing incidents concerns Sufiyan Abd al-Ghani, 11, who was with his uncle in a car that was stopped near his home in Hay al-Jihad at just after 10pm on May 27. The boy’s father heard a commotion and rushed outside to see him sprawled face down on the road with a rifle muzzle pressed against his neck and US officers shouting that someone in the car had shot at them. Sufiyan was made to stay on the ground for three hours, while more than 100 soldiers poured into the neighbourhood, searching houses and cars. Eventually he was taken away with his hands trussed behind his back and a hood draped over his head. No weapon had been found. The boy said that soldiers dug rifle butts into his neck and back and that the first night he was handcuffed and left alone in a tiny room open to the sky. The following day he was moved to the airport, where he said for eight days he shared a tent with 22 adults, sleeping on the dirt, with no water to wash or change his clothes. Sufiyan said that he was pulled from the tent one morning, hooded and manacled again, and driven to Sarhiyeh prison, to be kept in a room with 20 other youths aged 15 or 16 — regarded as minors by the Geneva Convention. A woman inmate took his name and details and when she was released she alerted Sufiyan’s family. On June 21, the family obtained an injunction from a judge ordering the boy’s release, but they were told at the prison that the signature of an Iraqi judge no longer had legal authority. Even when an American military lawyer demanded his freedom, US troops refused to release him until the lawyer appeared at the prison. Privately US military lawyers say that they are appalled at how some of the arrests are being carried out. At the gates of Abu Ghraib, frustration and anger force men such as Adnan Akhjan, 38, a former civil servant, to shout abuse at the US guards. Mr Akhjan, whose 58-year-old father was arrested three weeks ago for driving a truck with no doors or headlights, said: “People are so sickened by what is happening they talk of wanting Saddam to come back. How bad can the Americans be that in three months we want that monster back?” US officials say that they are struggling to cope with the continuing looting, as well as attacks on troops. They say that until the fledgeling Iraqi police force is fully operational and jails are repaired, they represent the only law and order. Each morning at the Red Cross headquarters in Baghdad there is a silent line of Iraqis queueing to find out where a relative might be. The American authorities have said that they will not inform the Red Cross about detainees until 21 days after they have been arrested. The International Committe of the Red Cross has been allowed to see some of the prisoners, but says that it cannot even begin to guess at the numbers detained. An Iraqi exile who had been in Baghdad for only three days after living in Denmark for the past 27 years found himself caught up in an American swoop after a shooting in a street market. Not realising that the man could read English, his interrogator made no attempt to cover up his case file, which described him as “suspected assassin”. The man, who was held for more than 30 days, is afraid to give his name and says that he is now considering leaving Baghdad for good. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-739722,00.html
Bush, responding to concern about the rising casualty toll, said, “There’s no question we have a security issue in Iraq, and we’ve just got to deal with it person to person. We’re going to have to remain tough.” MSNBC NEWS SERVICES BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 10 — Insurgents launched fresh assaults on U.S. soldiers in Iraq, killing at least two servicemen and wounding a third in shootings and rocket-propelled grenade attacks, the military said Thursday — bringing to 31 the number of U.S. troops killed by hostile fire since President Bush declared major combat in Iraq over on May 1. On a week-long tour of Africa, Bush acknowledged a deepening “security issue” in U.S.-occupied Iraq, but vowed to “remain tough” against insurgents. http://www.msnbc.com/news/870749.asp?vts=071020031020
