Today in Iraq

Note to Readers, September 25, 2004 I'll be traveling again today. In absence of an update, I'm posting an open thread for readers. I'll try to post an update tomorrow. YD 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for September 24, 2004 Bring ‘em on: One US Marine killed in fighting in al-Anbar province. Bring ‘em on: Three Iraqis wounded in RPG attack on Italian embassy in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqis killed, 14 wounded in Baghdad mortar attack. Bring ‘em on: US patrol ambushed, ten Iraqis wounded in fighting near Dhuluiyah. Bring ‘em on: Insurgents kidnap six Egyptian contractors in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: US air strikes, artillery hit Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Three US soldiers wounded in fighting in Sadr City. Bring ‘em on: Oil pipeline sabotaged near Najaf. Bring ‘em on: Five Illinois Guardsmen wounded by car bomb in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: US troops fighting in central Ramadi. Rummy calls for limited "elections." Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday raised the possibility that some areas of Iraq night be excluded from elections scheduled for January if security could not be guaranteed. ‘Let's say you tried to have an election and you could have it in three-quarters or four-fifths of the country. But in some places you couldn't because the violence was too great,’ Rumsfeld said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. ‘Well, so be it. Nothing's perfect in life, so you have an election that's not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet,’ he said.” Rummy forgot to tell DoS. The second-ranking official at the State Department said today, in an apparent contradiction of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, that the elections scheduled for Iraq in January must be ‘open to all citizens.’ ‘We're going to have an election that is free and open,’ Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said at a House committee hearing, ‘and that has to be open to all citizens.’” More troops. “Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday that he expects Iraq to become a more violent place as elections approach, and he said Abizaid will be getting more troops. Rumsfeld, however, also expects the forces to come largely in the form of new Iraqi security recruits. He also said that more U.S. troops could be sent if combat commanders request them.” European media abandons Iraq. “Germany's biggest television network, ARD, said on Friday it planned to pull out its two correspondents in Iraq after a foreign ministry warning that German journalists could be singled out for kidnappings. Separately, the Spanish government has recommended to media that they withdraw their correspondents from Iraq following the increase in attacks and kidnappings there, the newspaper El Mundo said on its Web site on Friday. The Spanish news agency EFE has withdrawn its only Spanish correspondent, Jose Manuel Seage, from Baghdad, a senior journalist at the agency said.” Commentary Editorial: “Until Iraq holds free elections, Mr. Allawi cannot claim to speak for more than the narrow coalition of exile parties that maneuvered his appointment as interim prime minister. Increasingly well-organized and deadly attacks are directed against American troops, foreign relief workers and Iraqi security recruits. Sunni towns like Falluja and Mosul and Shiite areas, including much of Baghdad, are gripped by insurgencies that American military analysts believe are nowhere near being overcome. Oil pipelines are attacked regularly, electricity supplies remain erratic, and foul drinking water breeds disease.” Editorial: “Elections - let alone lasting peace - will not deliver democratic rule to Iraq unless some new undertakings are made and order is restored. Yet it seems that order will not be brought to Iraq merely through the continuing presence of more than 130,000 coalition troops, let alone a premature security handover to the nascent Iraqi authorities. Elections held in such circumstances may not just lack legitimacy but fuel further insurgency. A process that does not genuinely embrace the Shiite majority along with other sectarian and political groups is doomed.” Opinion: “At the moment there is no evidence the president understands anything about the war. He led the nation into it with false pretenses. He never mobilized sufficient numbers of troops. He seemed to believe the war was over in May 2003. And he seems not to know how to proceed now.” Opinion: “Mr. Bush claims that Mr. Kerry's plan to secure and rebuild Iraq is "exactly what we're currently doing." No, it isn't. It's only what Mr. Bush is currently saying. And we have 18 months of his administration's deeds to contrast with his words. The actual record is one of officials who have refused to admit that their fantasies about how the war would go were wrong, and who have continued to push us ever deeper into the quagmire because of their insistence that everything is going according to plan.” Analysis: “In truth, the reason for this has more to do with the Sunnis than with Ayatollah Sistani. Without Sunni participation, the election results would be worse than useless. To understand why, one must bear in mind that the purpose of the election is not just to choose a legitimate government but also to elect leaders who can negotiate a new and permanent Iraqi constitution. Although such a constitution would guarantee basic rights, it would be first and foremost a power-sharing deal reached among different factions of Iraqis - Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni. Thus if the Sunnis were excluded because of security problems, or if they boycotted, they would not be able to elect leaders empowered to negotiate on their behalf, and the resulting constitutional deal would be rejected by the great majority of Sunnis as illegitimate.” Casualty Reports Local story: Illinois Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Indiana soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Texas soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: New York Marine wounded in Iraq. Local story: Illinois Guardsman wounded in Iraq. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for September 23, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Insurgents reportedly execute two Italian hostages. Bring ‘em on: Heavy fighting, air strikes continue in Sadr City. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi oil official assassinated near Mosul. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed in patrol ambush near Mosul. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed, four wounded in Baghdad car bombing. Bring ‘em on: US patrol attacked near Samarra. Bring ‘em on: Retaliatory air strikes, further fighting reported near Samarra. How to piss off the most powerful man in Iraq. “According to people with knowledge of the talks, Ayatollah Sistani is concerned that the nascent democratic process here is falling under the control of a handful of the largest political parties, which cooperated with the American occupation and are comprised largely of exiles. In particular, these sources say, Ayatollah Sistani is worried about discussions now under way among those parties to form a single ticket for the elections, thus limiting the choices of voters and smothering smaller political parties.” New Zealand withdraws troops from Iraq. Secret Service investigates angry mother of KIA soldier. Idiot. “President George W. Bush corrected himself Wednesday after mixing up the names of terrorists Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas during several recent campaign speeches.” Another idiot. “The rise in the number and ferocity of terrorist attacks by insurgents in Iraq is proof that they are getting weaker, not stronger, according to Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi.” Allawi has the RNC talking points down pat. Up is down, black is white, increased insurgent activity means they’re only getting weaker, and the only reason people don’t believe it is because of the liberal media. Lieutenant AWOL at the UN. European newspapers, including some that supported the American military campaign in Iraq, were largely critical of Mr. Bush's address on Tuesday to the United Nations, accusing him of being unrealistic about the worsening situation in Iraq. The Financial Times contended in its lead editorial that the Bush administration ‘systematically refused to engage with what actually has happened in Iraq’ - namely, in the newspaper's view, that American policy ‘mistakes’ had "handed the initiative to jihadi terrorists" who ‘now have a new base from which to challenge the West and moderate Islam.’” Casualty Reports Local story: North Dakota soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Texas Marine killed in Iraq. Local Story: Ohio Air National Guardsman wounded in Iraq. Local story: Alabama Guardsman wounded in Iraq. Local story: Colorado soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: New York Guardsman wounded in Iraq. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for September 21 and 22, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Two US hostages executed by insurgents. Bring ‘em on: Two US Marines killed in fighting in al-Anbar province. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed in roadside bomb ambush near Tikrit. Bring ‘em on: Eleven Iraqis killed, “dozens” wounded in Baghdad car bombing. Bring ‘em on: US helicopter shot down near Nassiriyah; three crew members wounded. Bring ‘em on: Ten Iraqis killed, 92 wounded in heavy fighting, air strikes in Sadr City. Bring ‘em on: One Iraqi detainee killed in insurgent attack on Abu Ghraib. Bring ‘em on: US air strikes reported in Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqis killed in fighting with US troops near Samarra. Bring ‘em on: Four US soldiers wounded in car bomb attack on US convoy in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqi civilians wounded by US patrol near Samarra. Bring ‘em on: One Iraqi killed; five civilians, two police wounded by two roadside bombs near Baquba. Bring ‘em on: US troops raid al-Sadr offices in Najaf. Haifa Street. “Until last week, the world knew little about Haifa Street. Then came the spectacular car bombs in front of the Iraqi police station, and suddenly, Haifa was Iraq’s newest war zone. But to the soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, who must patrol the sector that includes Haifa Street, that area has been an all-out war zone for months. In fact, soldiers with the 1-9 Cav don’t call it Haifa Street. To them, it’s ‘Grenade Alley,’ or ‘Purple Heart Boulevard.’” Sovereignty. “Two Iraqi female prisoners being held by U.S. authorities in Iraq will not be released imminently, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad said on Wednesday. ‘The two women are in legal and physical custody of the multinational forces in Iraq and neither will be released imminently,’ a spokesman for the U.S. embassy said. Senior officials in the Iraqi Justice Ministry said earlier on Wednesday that at least one of the two, microbiologist Rihab Taha, could be freed as early as Wednesday following a review of her detention status.” I seem to remember that part of the “sovereignty” deal was that the Iraqi interim government would receive legal custody of detainees. Sovereignty, Part Deux. “After This Week arranged with Allawi's office for Sunday's interview, the U.S. State Department called ABC to say that the office of U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte in Baghdad had decided that the interview would not happen until this coming Sunday, after Allawi's U.S. visit. This attempt by the U.S. embassy to exercise sovereignty over the prime minister raised interesting questions about just what was actually transferred on June 28 when sovereignty was supposedly given to the Iraqi government. The White House recognized the inconvenience of such questions. The interview occurred.” More money. The Pentagon has begun tapping into its $25 billion emergency fund for the Iraq war to prepare for a major troop rotation and intense fighting this fall, administration officials said on Tuesday, despite the White House's initial insistence that it had enough money…. Bush has so far spent $120 billion in Iraq, not including the $25 billion contingency fund, and officials said he could seek another $50 billion in February. With the rate of spending in Iraq already at more than $1 billion a week, the Pentagon may not have enough money to ‘get past Christmas,’ let alone wait until February, said John Pike, a defense analyst with GlobalSecurity.org. He said the White House could need closer to $75 billion next year.” Allawi campaigns for Lieutenant AWOL. “The Bush administration began an intensive campaign this week to present Prime Minister Ayad Allawi of Iraq as the face of his nation and a symbol of progress, even as the violence in the country has been mounting and doubts have been growing that elections can be held there in January.” Coalition of the squabbling. “Bulgarian Defense Minister Nikolai Svinarov has accused the Polish command in Iraq of failing to consult him on a plan to redeploy the Bulgarian troops stationed at Karbala, the Bulgarian daily 24 Hours reported Tuesday. Bulgaria alone will decide whether to relocate its troops in Iraq, and ‘our country will not allow decisions to be imposed on us,’ Svinarov said on Monday in a sharply worded letter to his Polish counterpart, Jerzy Szmajdzinski. He was referring to the transfer of 480 Bulgarian troops announced by Polish Major General Andrzej Ekiert.” Fried Rice. "’There's no evidence that the Iraqis are falling into civil war,’ Rice told NBC television's ‘Today’ show, claiming progress is being made despite the recent wave of car-bombings and hostage-takings. She insisted that ‘there's a political process underway in Iraq that has already brought into power a very good government.’" Commentary Editorial: “Mr. Bush has never exhibited much respect for the United Nations at the best of times. But the United States now desperately needs the partnership of other nations on Iraq. Without substantial help from major nations, the prospects for stabilizing that country anytime soon are bleak. American soldiers and taxpayers are paying a heavy price for Washington's wrongheaded early insistence on controlling all important military, political and economic decision-making in post-invasion Iraq. “ Casualty Reports Local story: Pennsylvania soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Pennsylvania soldier dies from wounds received in Iraq. Local story: North Carolina Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Tennessee soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Arkansas soldier killed in Iraq. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

Note to Readers I am traveling to Tucson today to visit my parents. I will post an update tomorrow afternoon, PST. During the next few weeks,anticipate irregular updates. Beginning on Monday, September 27 I will attend a mandatory two-week training course that requires extensive out-of-class reading and preparation. Since I work for a living - and my continued employment rests on successfully completing this course - my primary focus will not be on Iraq. During the second week of October, I intend to visit sisterdoodle in Chicago for a few days because she's still very, very sick. I usually try to post daily updates no later than 9:00 am PST, Saturday through Wednesday. From today until mid-October, I expect to post updates in the evening, PST. I apologize for any inconvenience. YD 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for September 19, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Three US soldiers wounded by car bomb near Baghdad airport. Bring ‘em on: Two US soldiers killed, eight wounded by car bomb in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: US troops launch anti-insurgent offensive in Ramadi. Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqis killed in firefight with US troops near Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: US troops raid homes of al-Sadr officials in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Three Iraqis wounded by roadside bomb in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqis killed, five wounded in US air strike near Fallujah. Britain announces troop cutbacks in Iraq. “The British Army is to start pulling troops out of Iraq next month despite the deteriorating security situation in much of the country, The Observer has learnt. The main British combat force in Iraq, about 5,000-strong, will be reduced by around a third by the end of October during a routine rotation of units.” Failure. “The extent to which the situation is deteriorating may not be obvious to the Iraqi government itself, or to its American allies. Mr Allawi lives under the protection of US security men. He and his ministers are under constant threat of assassination, while their officials frequently have to take cover from mortar bombs lobbed into the Green Zone (now officially called the international zone). The US embassy, equally isolated, is spending $200m (£110m ) fortifying and refurbishing Saddam Hussein's old Republican Palace to house some of its 900 staff members. The US public is just as ignorant of the surging violence in Iraq because, ironically, it is now too dangerous for American television crews and print journalists to cover it. In the battle for Najaf in August, US correspondents with the dateline ‘Najaf’ on their copy, or reports to camera, were often "embedded" with US forces several miles away from the fighting. The result? Network news in the US gives the quite false impression that Iraq is a crisis under control.” Another failure. “Twelve weeks after Americans transferred sovereignty to Iraqis, he is more endangered than ever. If Dr. Allawi was popular among moderate Iraqis in the first weeks after his interim government took over in June, it is plain now that his grace period has expired. In the suicide bombings and attacks on American military vehicles in the last week in Baghdad, at least 75 Iraqi civilians, policemen and police recruits were killed. One constant was the fury that survivors turned on the Allawi government, accused of being the creation of the American troops who brought miseries to Iraq, and of failing so far to stem the growing violence.” Fix what you broke and leave. “Iraq is struggling with a guerrilla war, a stagnant economy and widespread despair. Many of its people are ambivalent about the continuing U.S. presence. Among the great majority of Iraqis who applauded the downfall of Saddam Hussein, there is deep resentment of what they view as Washington's myriad missteps. Chief among them is disbanding the military and police forces, a step they blame for today's rampant lack of security. Iraqis consistently identify lawlessness and violence as their country's gravest problems. Polls show increasing anti-U.S. sentiment and a growing sense that American forces should get out and leave things to the Iraqis. Despite such complaints, many Iraqis hesitate to endorse an immediate U.S. pullout, before some semblance of an effective Iraqi national security apparatus is in place. Some of those angriest about perceived U.S. missteps are the ones most adamant that U.S. forces stick around and try and patch things up, or at least assist in elections scheduled for early next year.” Mahdi Army refuses to disband. “A new round of talks to cease hostilities in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City has ended in deadlock, with fighters loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr refusing American demands to disband and turn in weapons, both sides said Sunday.” Lieutenant AWOL is “pleased with the progress in Iraq.” Pre-deployment lockdown.

The trouble began Labor Day weekend, when 13 members of the 1st Battalion of the 178th Field Artillery Regiment went AWOL, mainly to see their families again before shipping out. Then there was an ugly confrontation between members of the battalion's Alpha and Charlie batteries -- the term artillery units use instead of "companies" -- that threatened to turn into a brawl involving three dozen soldiers, and required the base police to intervene. That prompted a barracks inspection that uncovered alcohol, resulting in the lockdown that kept soldiers in their rooms except for drills, barred even from stepping outside for a smoke, a restriction that continued with some exceptions until Sunday's scheduled deployment. The battalion's rough-and-tumble experience at a base just off the New Jersey Turnpike reflects many of the biggest challenges, strains and stresses confronting the Guard and Reserve soldiers increasingly relied on to fight a war 7,000 miles away. This Guard unit was put on an accelerated training schedule -- giving the soldiers about 36 hours of leave over the past two months -- because the Army needs to get fresh troops to Iraq, and there are not enough active-duty or "regular" troops to go around. Preparation has been especially intense because the Army is short-handed on military police units, so these artillerymen are being quickly re-trained to provide desperately needed security for convoys. And to fully man the unit, scores of soldiers were pulled in from different Guard outfits, some voluntarily, some on orders.

Draft notice. “Where to find the extra troops to fight a seemingly intractable insurgency that echoes Vietnam has become a pressing question. And although you wouldn't hear it from the Bush Administration, the prospect of deploying a draft for the first time in a generation may be edging towards reality.” PTSD. “A leader of the Purvis unit said that 60 to 65 percent of the National Guardsmen show signs of combat stress. ‘A lot of them have made statements that they just don't feel like they fit in anymore,’ said Staff Sgt. John M. Hankins, who has been with the unit for 25 years. ‘The same amount have trouble being in crowded places, such as restaurants.’ Hankins said many of them have bouts of anger and a few report nightmares. Several of their wives have called asking for help. Hankins estimates that 90 percent saw violence that affected them. Most of them were rocked by frequent mortar attacks on their camps or went on convoys that were hit by improvised explosive devices, the roadside booby traps now used by insurgents.” October surprise? “A senior American commander said the military intended to take back Falluja and other rebel areas by year's end. The commander did not set a date for an offensive but said that much would depend on the availability of Iraqi military and police units, which would be sent to occupy the city once the Americans took it. The American commander suggested that operations in Falluja could begin as early as November or December, the deadline the Americans have given themselves for restoring Iraqi government control across the country.” Commentary Editorial: “The official White House line, dutifully echoed by Republican members of Congress, was that the rebuilding of Iraq was going ahead just fine. The only reason that reconstruction appeared to be in trouble was that the media reported it that way. You don't hear that anymore. Indeed, you are beginning to hear Republican criticism of the lack of progress in Iraq…Security concerns and bureaucratic foot-dragging may play a role in the failure to launch timely infrastructure projects that would get restless and angry Iraqis off the streets and into productive jobs. But the indications are that the administration was overwhelmed by the scope of the problem.” Editorial: “Here are the two central truths about the war in Iraq that voters might want to ponder before Nov. 2: (1) The situation in Iraq, while not hopeless, is perilous and getting worse by the day - in part because almost every prediction upon which President Bush's team has based its actions has been proven wrong. Bush's many adjustments in Iraq policy (the unkind would call them flip-flops) haven't compensated for how the occupation was bungled at its start. (2) The Iraq invasion, far from being a bold stroke in the war on terror, was a fatal distraction from it that has left America more vulnerable.” Editorial: “Yet Mr. Bush, who spent the week campaigning for reelection, has offered scant acknowledgment of the quandary he faces or of the worsening state of a mission that has dominated more than half of his first term. His description of Iraq is bland to the point of dishonesty: ‘Despite ongoing acts of violence,’ he repeated Friday, ‘that country has a strong prime minister, they've got a national council and they are going to have elections in January of 2005.’ Not only has Mr. Bush not said how, or whether, he intends to respond to the worsening situation; he doesn't really admit it exists.” Editorial: “We must remember that the United States cited the U.N. Security Council's resolution that called for the abolition of Iraq's WMD as the justification for invading that country. And it was Secretary of State Powell who, in February last year just before the opening of the war, presented many pieces of evidence at the Security Council and ardently warned of an imminent Iraqi threat. The United States invaded Iraq, after all, without a Security Council resolution that explicitly approved the war. Countries that nonetheless supported the United States, including Japan, asked for the understanding of their peoples by contending that Iraq had WMD. It appears, however, that Iraq did not possess such weapons. The problem is more than just the fact that the world was not told the truth. A war takes lives of many people, including noncombatants. A war is fraught with danger of causing confusion and disorder instead of peace. The actual conditions in Iraq prove that. As the United States argues, Saddam's government was a dangerous dictatorial regime. But this war is too costly for the United States and the world. Countries around the world likely want the United States to take responsibility for the misinformation and mistakes that led to the war.” Editorial: “On the campaign trail, an odd double standard has appeared: Sen. John Kerry gets hammered unmercifully for not having what critics believe is a viable plan for dealing with Iraq. But President Bush gets a pass on 1) having personally created this monumental American disaster and 2) having no plan before the war and having none now to clean it up. Kerry does deal in nuance, but that can be a good thing when the alternative is to push blindly ahead with a policy that is demonstrably wrongheaded. Too, as author and journalist Seymour Hersh observed recently, the reason Kerry's solutions may seem lacking to some is that there simply are no good answers to Iraq.” Analysis: “As clouds of disaster gather over the West's grand project to reconceive Iraq, a critical ‘tipping point’ has now been reached, and confidence that the goals of the American occupation can be achieved is fast ebbing away. The many terror groups active in Iraq have launched an overt psychological war of intimidation against the US and its allies, while international critics of the American-led operation have also begun speaking out. The foreign civilian presence inside the country is dwindling fast, as further hostage-taking raids are mounted: two Americans and a British contractor were snatched from their compound in the heart of Baghdad yesterday morning, and some 20 Westerners are unaccounted for after the latest upsurge in kidnappings.” Opinion: “Instead of a gold star, Sue Niederer, 55, of Hopewell, N.J., got handcuffed, arrested and charged with a crime for daring to challenge the Bush policy in Iraq, where her son, Army First Lt. Seth Dvorin, 24, died in February while attempting to disarm a bomb. She came to a Laura Bush rally last week at a firehouse in Hamilton, N.J., wearing a T-shirt that blazed with her agony and anger: ‘President Bush You Killed My Son.’ Mrs. Niederer tried to shout while the first lady was delivering her standard ode to her husband's efforts to fight terrorism. She wanted to know why the Bush twins weren't serving in Iraq ‘if it's such a justified war,’ as she put it afterward. The Record of Hackensack, N.J., reported that the mother of the dead soldier was boxed in by Bush supporters yelling ‘Four more years!’ and wielding ‘Bush/Cheney’ signs. Though she eventually left voluntarily, she was charged with trespassing while talking to reporters.” Casualty Reports Local story: Washington State Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: North Carolina Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Kansas soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: Washington State soldier wounded in Iraq. Talk Like a Pirate Day A pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel attached to his penis. "What's with the steering wheel?" asked the bartender. "Arrr," replied the pirate. "It's driving me nuts!" 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for September 17 and 18, 2004 Bring ‘em on: One US Marine killed in fighting in al-Anbar province. Bring ‘em on: Thirteen Iraqis killed, 50 wounded by car bomb in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Twenty-three Iraqis killed by car bomb at Iraqi army headquarters in Kirkuk. Bring ‘em on: Three Iraqis killed, three wounded in US air strike in Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi working for British troops in Basra assassinated. Bring ‘em on: Kidnapped governor of al-Anbar province executed by insurgents. Bring ‘em on: Nine Iraqis killed by mortar fire in Baquba. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi oil official survives assassination attempt near Mosul; four bodyguards killed. Bring ‘em on: Two American, one British contractor kidnapped by insurgents in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Insurgents execute three Iraqi truck drivers transporting US supplies. Bring ‘em on: British troops raid al-Sadr’s offices in Basra. Bring ‘em on: One Iraqi killed, two wounded by roadside bomb in Baghdad. British officer sounds off. “Colonel Tim Collins, the British commander whose stirring speech to his troops on the eve of the Iraq invasion was reportedly hung on a wall in the Oval Office by George Bush, has criticised the British and US governments over the war. The officer, who has now left the Army, condemned the lack of planning for the aftermath of the conflict and questioned the motives for attacking Iraq. He said abuses against Iraqi civilians were partly the result of ‘leaders of a country, leaders of an alliance’ constantly referring to them as the ‘enemy ... rather than treating them as people.’ This attitude was inevitably adopted by some soldiers on the ground, he said.” Now THIS is what I call a re-enlistment incentive. “Soldiers from a Fort Carson combat unit say they have been issued an ultimatum - re-enlist for three more years or be transferred to other units expected to deploy to Iraq. Hundreds of soldiers from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team were presented with that message and a re-enlistment form in a series of assemblies last Thursday, said two soldiers who spoke on condition of anonymity.” No good options.

But, according to the US military's leading strategists and prominent retired generals, Bush's war is already lost. Retired general William Odom, former head of the National Security Agency, told me: "Bush hasn't found the WMD. Al-Qaida, it's worse, he's lost on that front. That he's going to achieve a democracy there? That goal is lost, too. It's lost." He adds: "Right now, the course we're on, we're achieving Bin Laden's ends." Retired general Joseph Hoare, the former marine commandant and head of US Central Command, told me: "The idea that this is going to go the way these guys planned is ludicrous. There are no good options. We're conducting a campaign as though it were being conducted in Iowa, no sense of the realities on the ground. It's so unrealistic for anyone who knows that part of the world. The priorities are just all wrong." Jeffrey Record, professor of strategy at the Air War College, said: "I see no ray of light on the horizon at all. The worst case has become true. There's no analogy whatsoever between the situation in Iraq and the advantages we had after the second world war in Germany and Japan." W Andrew Terrill, professor at the Army War College's strategic studies institute - and the top expert on Iraq there - said: "I don't think that you can kill the insurgency". According to Terrill, the anti-US insurgency, centred in the Sunni triangle, and holding several cities and towns - including Fallujah - is expanding and becoming more capable as a consequence of US policy. "We have a growing, maturing insurgency group," he told me. "We see larger and more coordinated military attacks. They are getting better and they can self-regenerate. The idea there are x number of insurgents, and that when they're all dead we can get out is wrong. The insurgency has shown an ability to regenerate itself because there are people willing to fill the ranks of those who are killed. The political culture is more hostile to the US presence. The longer we stay, the more they are confirmed in that view."

Kofi Annan sounds off. “But Mr. Annan's radio interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday, in which he said for the first time that he believed the war was ‘illegal,’ set off a tempest of reaction and raised questions in a number of capitals about why he had chosen that moment to adopt more muscular language about the war. Iraqi officials are irritated by the timing of Mr. Annan's remarks, diplomats said, as Iraq's interim government struggles to organize its first elections in the face of a tenacious insurgency. His statements will be seen as a signal of wavering international support, they said. Mr. Annan also made clear his reservations about elections. ‘You cannot have credible elections if the security conditions continue as they are now,’ he said.” Intelligence estimate. “The estimate outlines three possibilities for Iraq through the end of 2005, with the worst case being developments that could lead to civil war, the officials said. The most favorable outcome described is an Iraq whose stability would remain tenuous in political, economic and security terms.” Oil sabotage. “The sharp rise in attacks on Iraq's oil pipelines in recent weeks has substantially impaired the country's production, dealing a blow to the economy and threatening the struggling reconstruction effort, U.S. and Iraqi officials say. Insurgents are bombing pipelines and other parts of Iraq's oil infrastructure almost daily, another sign that the country's security situation is deteriorating beyond the control of U.S. military and Iraqi security forces.” Reservists may get extended again. “Under current law, under a partial mobilization order, they cannot be involuntarily activated for more than 24 cumulative months. The Pentagon is considering seeking a change to the law to limiting it to 24 consecutive instead of cumulative months, which would allow the military to call mobilize and demobilize Reserve and Guard forces indefinitely. But that option likely will further demoralize a force already facing a possible mass exodus of troops leading to retention and recruitment woes in the next few years, the GAO study states.” Grudge match.

Foreign Office documents marked "secret and personal" reportedly warned the Prime Minister that British and coalition troops would need to remain in the country for "many years" following any military intervention. The documents are also said to contain claims that US President George W Bush was pushing for war to complete his father’s "unfinished business" and described it as a "grudge match" against Saddam Hussein. The papers, allegedly sent to the Prime Minister by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw a year before the war began, also advised that Mr Blair would have to "wrong foot" the Iraqi dictator into giving the allies an excuse for war. But it is the nature of the warnings about a post-war Iraq, which has seen the deaths of more than 900 allied troops since the war ended, that is likely to cause most embarrassment in London and Washington. The reports, from papers leaked to the Daily Telegraph, claim Mr Straw predicted a post-war Iraq would cause major problems, telling Mr Blair that no-one had a clear idea of what would happen. And he questioned the US claims that an invasion would eliminate the threat of weapons of mass destruction, saying "no one has satisfactorily answered how there can be any certainty that the replacement regime will be any better."

Commentary Editorial: “Bush has known of the National Intelligence Council's report since June. The situation in Iraq has only confirmed the assessment since. The disconnect between the reality on the ground and what Bush is telling the American public doesn't merely put in question Bush's credibility. It raises the disquieting possibility that Bush has lost sight of reality in Iraq, that his vaunted ‘ability to make a decision,’ as Vice President Dick Cheney describes it, has become more important than his ability to correct the wrong decision.” Editorial: “Increasingly, it becomes clear that the Bush Iraq strategy put too much emphasis on military power and not enough on the political and cultural issues that are roiling the country. The damage is approaching irreparable. The president ought to stop proclaiming that everything is going to be OK in Iraq and start talking about a strategy for getting Americans out of a place where they are less welcome every day.” Editorial: “Cheney's comparisons Thursday between current events in Iraq and the United States' 13-year struggle for a constitution and democratically elected government following the Declaration of Independence are naive, except as a reminder of how hard people will fight to evict foreign troops. Nor is there much evidence to support Bush's claim that Iraq now has a strong prime minister. The president's enthusiasm for elections in January is genuine, but if the security situation stays this bad, meaningful balloting will be impossible.” Analysis: “After 18 months of occupation, the US continues to grope in the dark. Its technical intelligence agencies find themselves totally helpless in the absence of the use of modern means of communications by the terrorists and resistance fighters. Its human intelligence (HUMINT) agencies are as clueless as ever, despite their claimed capture of dozens of alleged terrorists and resistance fighters. Their interrogation, despite the use of shocking techniques of mental and physical torture, has hardly produced any worthwhile intelligence. One does not need a mole in the US intelligence to know this. Had there been any worthwhile intelligence, one would have seen the results on the ground.” Analysis: “Well into his third month in office, Allawi has little to show for his overtures to Sunni and Shiite insurgents. His offer of amnesty has found no takers; his emergency powers to deal with resistance have apparently failed to deter anyone. The perception of Allawi as America's puppet is ever more entrenched as he embarks next week on his first official trip to the West.” Opinion: “The ordnance destroys homes and automobiles and the pitiful possessions of the dispossessed, and it creates even more recruits to the war against the Americans. You blow up my house and kill my mother, and I will soon be waiting on a rooftop with an AK-47 and an RPG launcher and hatred in my heart for all Americans. This is why the main emphasis in counter-insurgency warfare is, or should be, on the political side of political-military operations. This is why there can be no purely military solution in Iraq. This is why, until and unless some political solution is found, Americans and their allies will continue to be maimed and killed in Iraq on a daily basis.” Opinion: “But putting Allawi on a pedestal -- especially if it is to burnish a political campaign -- underlines the dangers of basing policy on image and a war strategy on any one individual. The administration rushes past the dubious history of U.S. involvement with Third World ‘strongmen’ eager to praise benefactors and crush opponents. Graveyards in African or Asian jungles, as well as on the French Riviera, are filled with allies deemed indispensable by past U.S. presidents. More significantly, the administration papers over widening inconsistencies in Allawi's approach to his country's main population groups and to the rule of law in Iraq. With U.S. acquiescence, he ignores the Transitional Administrative Law when that interim constitution is inconvenient for his purposes. His vaguely defined role in ordering U.S. troops into battle in the new "pol-mil" plan that is being pursued in Baghdad also causes confusion.” Casualty Reports Local story: Guam Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: California soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Illinois Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Georgia soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: California soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Wisconsin Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Washington D.C. Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Texas Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Washington State soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Tennessee Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Maryland soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: North Carolina soldier wounded in Iraq. Local story: Three Wisconsin soldiers wounded in Iraq. Local story: Illinois contractor killed in Iraq. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for September 15, 2004 Bring 'em on: One US Marine killed in fighting in al-Anbar province. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqis killed, ten wounded by car bomb at Iraqi Army checkpoint near Suwayrah. Bring ‘em on: Three beheaded bodies found near Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Ten Iraqis killed in fighting with US Marines near Ramadi. WIA this week. “More than 200 U.S. service members were wounded in Iraq in the past week, the Pentagon said yesterday, and the total since the invasion was launched in March 2003 is 7,245. Of the 219 wounded in the past week, 81 service members were returned to duty; the 138 others were not. Journalists are terrorists. “US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says journalists have received tip-offs from terrorists of impending attacks in Iraq, singling out Al-Jazeera television as ‘Johnny-on-the-spot a little too often for my taste.’ Rumsfeld gave no specifics or evidence to back up the accusation, which he made during a talk to troops at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home of the army's 101st Airborne Division.” Is there any wonder that American troops shoot journalists when the Secretary of Defense makes an inflammatory and unsubstantiated statement like this to US combat troops? The entire US press corps should tear Rummy a new asshole for this outrageous accusation. More US officers sound off. “Lt. Gen. James Conway, the outgoing commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Unit, told the Washington Post he resisted called for revenge after four American security workers were killed and mutilated in Fallujah March 31. Instead, civilian authorities, Coalition Provisional Chief Paul Bremer and the White House, decided to send the Marines in to capture or kill the perpetrators….More telling is the fact that senior commanders universally said in interviews -- all of them on condition of anonymity -- if they were making the decision, they would not have gone into Fallujah at that time under those conditions. It is a basic U.S. military tenet to choose the time and place of a battle. The streets of Fallujah may be an unavoidable and tricky battlefield, but the immediate aftermath of the March 31 killings was not the time to fight, they said. First, that robbed them of the element of surprise. It was well known -- because it was announced from press podiums in Baghdad -- that U.S. forces were going in to find the perpetrators and bring Fallujah under control. Second, it "taught" the insurgents that their provocative acts could draw the United States into an urban battle when they wanted it, rather than the other way around. Third, finding the individuals whose faces were on the videotape of the contractor killings is in essence a police job. Fallujah being the tribal city that it was, it would be easy under peaceful conditions to have local police find the identities of the killers and arrest them. Hunting down a handful of men and boys is not the best use of U.S. military capabilities.” You can be sure that the reasons not to assault Fallujah in April and cited in this article are the same reasons these anonymous “senior commanders” gave Bremer, Rumsfeld and Bush before they made the decision to attack. Instead, the White House saw domestic political advantage in pressing an attack so they ignored the professional military advice. When the casualty count began to affect Bush’s poll ratings, the White House ordered an end to the assault, again contrary to military advice. As I said in my September 13th Rant of the Day, these officers are clearly angry about these decisions, and by giving anonymous interviews to journalists – something senior officers rarely do – they are trying to communicate their anger to the American public. A story you won’t see in the US media:

“TONY JONES: And the ABC's foreign affairs editor Peter Cave joins us now from Baghdad. Peter, we'll come to the still unresolved question of whether there are or are not any Australian hostages in a moment, but first, we've just seen some extraordinary pictures, another of bloodiest days since the war, is there a sense there that the security situation is simply deteriorating? ”PETER CAVE: It certainly is. We're seeing kidnappings in the centre of Baghdad that we haven't seen the like of before. 30 armed men coming in and pulling those two Italian women and a couple of Iraqis out of their house. We've had a over the weekend on Sunday, we had five car bombs in and around Baghdad, 13 or 14 rockets and mortars rained down on the green zone and one of them landed at a building behind me here as a matter of fact. Today we've had that huge car bomb that you saw. There was another one outside the planning ministry. It didn't achieve its aim. Only the driver of that car was killed. And just in the last little while there's been another attack in central Baghdad, a roadside bomb which struck a column of three four-wheel drive vehicles, completely destroying one of them. The other two managed to escape. Not sure at this stage how many people died there. So certainly the temperature is hotting up.”

Lieutenant AWOL goes begging to the UN for help. “The United States and Iraq on Tuesday both pressed wary nations to contribute more to stabilising Iraq and helping the country get past the latest surge of deadly attacks by insurgents. Just hours after more Iraq violence killed at least 73 people, the two allies told the UN Security Council that the international community was vital in helping the country prepare for its first post-Saddam Hussein elections.” Commentary Editorial: “At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the War on Terror is a joke. It never really added up. The Americans should have known better. They won the War of Independence by refusing to take on huge standing armies. They preferred to fight the British on their own ground and on terms of their own choosing. They should know that it’s silly to chase terrorists with large standing armies. Terrorists don’t obligingly line up in formation to fight conventional armies. They hide among civilians and they target civilians as well as soldiers. When innocent people are killed by US army or Iraqi police retaliation, the terrorists gain recruits.” Analysis: “To make matters worse, the United States is trying to impose a quick solution by force in time for its own November presidential elections in which the issue of Iraq looms large, Neep said. ‘The entire notion that we can really influence what happens in Iraq in a timetable dictated by the American presidential election in November is simply absurd. One of the reasons why things have been going wrong is that the Americans have been trying to impose a timetable which doesn't bear any relevance to what's happening on the ground in Iraq,’ he said.” Casualty Reports Local story: Two Oregon Guardsmen killed in Iraq. Local story: Kentucky soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Utah Marine dies in Iraq. Local story: Virginia soldier killed in Iraq. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for September 14, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Car bomb at Baghdad police station kills 35 Iraqis. Bring ‘em on: Twenty Iraqis killed in US air strikes in Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Two US soldiers killed, three wounded in Baghdad ambush. Bring ‘em on: Insurgents execute Turkish truck driver in Iraq. Bring ‘em on: Insurgents capture two Australian security contractors in convoy ambush near Samarra. Bring ‘em on: Camp Zulu mortared again. Bring ‘em on: Six Iraqis killed, seven wounded by US artillery fire near Hilla. Bring ‘em on: Eight US soldiers wounded in Baghdad car bombing. Bring ‘em on: Eight Iraqi police killed, two wounded in ambush near Baquba. Bring ‘em on: Oil pipeline ablaze near Beiji. Bring ‘em on: One US soldier killed, five wounded in patrol ambush near Mosul. Bring ‘em on: Explosions reported near al-Muthanna airport in central Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqi soldiers wounded by roadside bomb near Baquba. How to screw up a counterinsurgency. “Even now, the get-tough approach is showing signs of backfiring. On Sunday, when a suicide bomber crippled an American personnel carrier, a gun battle broke out, followed by an airstrike by two American helicopters. At least 15 Iraqis died and 50 were wounded, including a 12-year-old-girl and a television journalist. Inside the grim and chaotic wards of Baghdad's hospitals on Sunday, the Americans seemed to have made more enemies than friends. On Monday, the scene repeated itself in another corner of Baghdad. When three insurgents opened fire on an American sport utility vehicle, American soldiers sprayed the area with gunfire, destroying three cars and killing at least one Iraqi civilian and wounding three others.” Another US ally alienated by Bush’s War. Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul warned the U.S. to halt military operations in the northern Iraqi town of Tall Afar, the government-run Anatolia news agency reported on its Web site. Gul said he told U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell that, if the action continues, ‘Turkey's cooperation on issues tied to Iraq would be brought to an end,’ Anatolia reported.” Letter from Baghdad. “I waited in the car as U.S. soldiers set up a roadblock at a major intersection. An angry American hollered at an Iraqi officer not to let any vehicles through. ‘I decide when the cars come,’ he yelled. The Iraqi cop wasn't having any of it, and he began yelling back in Arabic until a second U.S. officer calmed them both. Just then a convoy of U.S. armored vehicles charged by. An armored tow truck was pulling a still-blazing Bradley fighting vehicle through the intersection, spreading oily residue in its wake. Some of those who had been blocked at the intersection got out of their cars to cheer. Others angrily honked their horns and ordered the celebrants to get back into their cars -- not in defense of the Americans, but because they simply are sick of the bloodshed.” Commentary Editorial: “Fallujah offers a stark example of what's gone wrong in Iraq. Entrenched insurgents hold the city, giving lie to U.S. hopes of control over the country, and military actions to dislodge them amid tight urban quarters risk civilian casualties that wave the red shirt for further Iraqi resistance and world disapproval.” Editorial: “Where we are now is that George Bush is getting our soldiers killed -- a thousand so far -- in pursuit of a war to make himself a war president, a president whom the rest of us are supposed to support and give another term. Yet this is a war that he got us into, with unclear objectives, a war he doesn't know how to get us out of. He is also spending way too much of the public's money -- at least $200 billion so far -- in pursuit of his war, putting money into the pockets of Halliburton and other companies that finance his political campaign. Yet you know what we need that money for -- to fund Medicare, to preserve Social Security, to repair our roads and bridges, to put enough teachers in our schools so that Mr. Bush's claim of ‘no child left behind’ will not be just a cruel joke.” Opinion: “U.S. news organizations are under constant pressure to report good news from Iraq. In fact, as a Newsweek headline puts it, ‘It's worse than you think.’ Attacks on coalition forces are intensifying and getting more effective; no-go zones, which the military prefers to call ‘insurgent enclaves,’ are spreading - even in Baghdad. We're losing ground. And the losses aren't only in Iraq. Al Qaeda has regrouped. The invasion of Iraq, intended to demonstrate American power, has done just the opposite: nasty regimes around the world feel empowered now that our forces are bogged down. When a Times reporter asked Mr. Bush about North Korea's ongoing nuclear program, ‘he opened his palms and shrugged.’” Casualty Reports Local story: Virginia Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Texas Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Iowa Marine wounded in Iraq. Local story: Alabama contractor killed in Iraq. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for September 13, 2004 Bring ‘em on: US troops in heavy fighting near Ramadi; ten Iraqis killed, 40 wounded. Bring ‘em on: Thirty-seven Iraqis killed in Baghdad fighting. Bring ‘em on: Three Polish soldiers killed, three wounded in ambush near Hilla. Bring ‘em on: US troops launch offensive near Tal Afar. Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqi policemen killed, three wounded in ambush near Mosul. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqi security guards wounded in attack on oil facility near Kirkuk. Bring ‘em on: Five Iraqis killed by car bomb targeting US convoy near Samarra. Bring ‘em on: Fifteen Iraqis killed in heavy fighting with US troops near Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Three Iraqi soldiers killed in roadside bomb ambush near Hilla. Bring ‘em on: US patrol attacked by roadside bomb near As-Sina. Bring ‘em on: Camp Zulu under mortar fire. Bring ‘em on: CJTF-7 reports US troops repelled coordinated attack on Abu Ghraib prison. Another uprising begins. “Starting Saturday night, witnesses said, insurgents fired a series of mortar shells into the International Zone, a heavily fortified area in central Baghdad where the Iraqi government and the American Embassy are based. The area is often the target of mortar fire, but rarely has the bombardment been so persistent and intense. About a dozen rounds were fired into the area through the night, said Tahir Rahim, a Pakistani who works as a chef there.” Curfew announced in Baghdad. General Conway sounds off. “He echoed an argument made by many Iraqi politicians and American analysts -- that the U.S. attack further radicalized a restive city, leading many residents to support the insurgents. ‘When we were told to attack Fallujah, I think we certainly increased the level of animosity that existed,’ Conway said. He would not say where the order to attack originated, only that he received an order from his superior at the time, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the overall commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. Some senior U.S. officials in Iraq have said the command originated in the White House. ‘We follow our orders,’ Conway said. ‘We had our say, and we understood the rationale, and we saluted smartly, and we went about the attack.’ The Marine assault on Fallujah in April ended abruptly after three days. Conway expressed displeasure at the order he received from Sanchez to cease offensive operations, a decision that culminated in the formation of the Fallujah Brigade. ‘When you order elements of a Marine division to attack a city, you really need to understand what the consequences of that are going to be and not perhaps vacillate in the middle of something like that,’ he said. ‘Once you commit, you got to stay committed.’” Australian elections. “Last night, the first 20 minutes of an hour-long national television debate were devoted to national security, terrorism and the question of whether Australia's support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq has made the country more of a target. Mr. Latham, leader of the Labour Party, called the Iraq conflict a poor use of resources that, he said, would have been better used in the campaign against Osama bin Laden and regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, which is blamed for the embassy attack. ‘I have no doubt that if all the time, the effort, the money, the resources that went into Iraq had been used to break up al-Qaeda, to smash JI, to find bin Laden, the world today would be a safer place. Australia would be safer and more secure.’ Mr. Howard said the decision to attack Iraq was the right one.” First Spain, now Australia. It’s clear that one of the most disastrous effects of Lieutenant AWOL’s war is the isolation of the United States from our natural allies among the world’s parliamentary democracies because an enraged electorate will vote out leaders who support American policy.. Commentary Opinion: “President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld still refuse to acknowledge the established facts of the case, much less respond to them. Investigations by the Army of itself have predictably stopped at the rank of colonel, while the CIA refuses to cooperate with any investigation but its own. The head of the outside panel picked by Rumsfeld to deflect calls for a more independent inquiry, James Schlesinger, spoke warmly of his "35 years of association" with him. Congress is controlled by a Republican leadership with no desire to challenge the White House and the Pentagon -- even if there were not an election fewer than 60 days away.” Rant of the Day I don’t think I’ve ever heard a flag officer publicly sound off about civilian decision-making during combat operations like LTG Conway. Clearly, this officer is angry. LTG Conway’s comments are significant because of the implied criticism that the Bush administration made a foolish decision to attack Fallujah despite strong opposition from senior military officers in the field. “’We follow our orders,’ Conway said. ‘We had our say, and we understood the rationale, and we saluted smartly, and we went about the attack.’” This is the closest thing to a “told you so” I’ve ever heard from a flag officer and directed against civilian officials. “‘When you order elements of a Marine division to attack a city, you really need to understand what the consequences of that are going to be and not perhaps vacillate in the middle of something like that,’ he said. ‘Once you commit, you got to stay committed.’” Translation: “You idiots don’t know jack shit about warfare.” More significant is what LTG Conway didn’t say. He didn’t directly mention where his orders originated, other than through his military chain of command, because as a serving officer he is forbidden by law and regulation from criticizing civilian officials. In the context of his original mission, to pacify Anbar province by working with local leaders to arrive at political solutions - which, by the way, is the doctrinally correct counterinsurgency strategy – it’s clear that LTG Conway chose his words carefully and his criticisms are aimed directly at the Bush administration.

“Conway arrived in Iraq in March pledging to accelerate reconstruction projects as a way to subdue Anbar province, dominated by Sunni Muslims. But on March 31 he was confronted in Fallujah with the killing of four U.S. security contractors, whose bodies were mutilated or burned by a celebrating mob. Conway said he resisted calls for revenge, and instead advocated targeted operations and continued engagement with municipal leaders. "’We felt like we had a method that we wanted to apply to Fallujah: that we ought to probably let the situation settle before we appeared to be attacking out of revenge,’ he said in an interview with four journalists after the change-of-command ceremony. ‘Would our system have been better? Would we have been able to bring over the people of Fallujah with our methods? You'll never know that for sure, but at the time we certainly thought so.’”

There’s a clear implication here that LTG Conway believes the administration’s decision to attack Fallujah was motivated more by domestic US demands for revenge than by any desire to apply a long-term pacification strategy to Iraq. "’When we were told to attack Fallujah, I think we certainly increased the level of animosity that existed,’ Conway said.” I hope Americans listen carefully to this officer. He’s telling us that the Bush administration is incapable of comprehending the consequences of their decisions, and his Marines are paying the price in blood. 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for September 12, 2004 Bring ‘em on: Heavy fighting erupts in central Baghdad; 17 Iraqis killed, four US soldiers wounded. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi interior ministry official assassinated by car bomb in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Three Iraqi policemen killed by car bomb in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Car bomb detonates near Abu Ghraib. Bring ‘em on: Multiple rocket attacks reported in central Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Oil pipeline sabotaged near Kirkuk. Bring ‘em on: One Iraqi policeman killed in Baghdad ambush. Bring ‘em on: Five Iraqi security guards wounded in attacks on oil facilities near Kirkuk and Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: US launches air strikes in Sadr City. Bring ‘em on: US troops ambushed near Ramadi. Bring ‘em on: US troops ambushed near Baghdad airport. Bring ‘em on: Car Bomber killed attempting to attack Green Zone in Baghdad. One British soldier killed in vehicle accident near Amarah. Iraqi casualties. "At Sheik Omar Clinic, a big book records 10,363 violent deaths in Baghdad and nearby towns since the war began last year - deaths from car bombs, clashes between Iraqis and coalition forces, mortar attacks, revenge killings and robberies. The violent deaths recorded in the clinic's leather ledger come from only one of Iraq's 18 provinces and do not cover people who died in such flashpoint cities as Najaf, Karbala, Fallujah, Tikrit and Ramadi. Iraqi dead include not only insurgents, police and soldiers but also civilians caught in crossfire, blown apart by explosives or shot by mistake - by fellow Iraqis or by American soldiers and their multinational allies. And they include the victims of crime that has surged in the instability that followed the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime.” Portrait of an insurgent. “Intelligence experts in Iraq talk of three main types of insurgent. There is the Mahdi Army of Shia Muslims who follow the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and have led recent resistance to coalition forces in northern Baghdad, the central shrine city of Najaf, and Basra, the southern port under British control. There is also 'al-Qaeda' - non-Iraqi militants who have come to Iraq to wage jihad. And finally the 'former regime loyalists', who are said to want the return of Saddam Hussein or, if that is impossible, his Baath party. Abu Mujahed, worryingly for the analysts, fits into none of these easy categories. For a start, he was pro-American before the invasion. 'The only way to breathe under the old regime was to watch American films and listen to their music,' he said. He had been a Bon Jovi fan.” Thai troops leave Iraq. Lawsuit. “In a lawsuit that reads like a proposal for a Hollywood movie, Mobile businessman Robert Isakson, his brother Bud and 14-year-old son Bobby have accused a company led by an ex-CIA agent of kidnapping them at gunpoint and forcing them to flee ‘through the Sunni Triangle, the most dangerous area of Iraq ... without weapons, security or guards.’…As told in the legal filings, Custer Battles took revenge against Isakson and DRC after Isakson accused Custer Battles of defrauding the Coalition Provisional Authority, the American-led body that governed Iraq until the United States turned that role over to the Iraqis in June.” Najaf. “Three weeks of urban warfare killed at least 1,000 Iraqi rebels and civilians, the governor of this battle-weary city said Saturday in his first estimate of the death toll since the standoff ended two weeks ago. During last month's relentless close-quarters combat between U.S. troops and militants loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, hospital officials and military officers had estimated the death toll in this southern holy city had climbed far into the hundreds, though most conceded any estimates could not be verified until fighting eased.” Yesterday, Rummy said Najaf was “taken back peacefully.” Is Rummy not reading the Army’s after-action reports, is he lying, or does he just live in an alternate universe? Morale indicator. “A Schweinfurt Army officer was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days of confinement after shooting himself in the chest in order to be sent home from Iraq.” Can’t keep his story straight. “US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld mixed up al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein twice in a speech about the war against terrorism.” Lousy pilot. “George W. Bush twice required multiple attempts to land a one-seat fighter just before he quit flying for the Texas Air National Guard in 1972, his pilot logs show. He began flying a two-seat training jet more frequently in the period, according to the logs. The logs show that Bush flew nine times in T-33 trainers in February and March 1972, including eight times in one week, and four of those only as a co-pilot. Bush, then a first lieutenant, flew in T-33s only twice in the previous six months and three times in the year ending July 31, 1971.” The obvious explanation is that he was a flying T-33 because his squadron safety officer thought he wasn’t competent to handle an F-102 without remedial training. Commentary Editorial: “So far, the preventive war doctrine has had one real test: the invasion of Iraq. Mr. Bush terrified millions of Americans into believing that forcibly changing the regime in Baghdad was the only way to keep Iraq's supposed stockpiles of unconventional weapons out of the hands of Al Qaeda. Then it turned out that there were no stockpiles and no operational links between Saddam Hussein's regime and Al Qaeda's anti-American terrorism. Meanwhile, America's longstanding defensive alliances were weakened and the bulk of America's ground combat troops tied down in Iraq for what now appears to be many years to come. If that is making this country safer, it is hard to see how. The real lesson is that America dangerously erodes its military and diplomatic defenses when it charges off unwisely after hypothetical enemies.” Editorial: “The record of the U.S.-trained Iraqi security organizations up to this point has been less than stellar. Polls suggest that Iraqis themselves take considerable pride in their newly fielded forces - and that, to be sure, is something to build on - but they haven't been effective. In some cases, units have actually been infiltrated by insurgents. More of the same is unlikely to help. In fact, Mr. Negroponte - who is in some ways reprising a role he first played as American proconsul in Honduras in the 1980s - does have a few refinements in mind. He reportedly wants to create two new agencies: a paramilitary force to maintain public order and an elite unit to provide what might be called palace security. Accounting rules would be loosened as well, even though corruption is already rampant in Iraq. This setup, bluntly stated, practically invites abuse.” Opinion: “Given that this currency is so precious, we're morally obligated to spend it carefully. So even though we're talking about ‘only’ 1,000 lives, it seems fair to pause and consider what they have bought. Actually, it's easier to list the things they have not bought. They have not bought a sense of security. Pollsters say over half of us expect a terrorist strike in the near future. They have not bought peace in Iraq. The death toll rose by four while I was writing this column. They have not bought the world's respect. We are feared by allies and vilified by people we purported to liberate. So what have those lives bought? As near as I can tell, only tickets to a magic show. Maybe you consider that an insult to those who lost their lives in their country's service. I would only point out that the search for meaning in death has nothing to do with the dead. It is, rather, a comfort the living give themselves to soften the rough edges of mourning.” Analysis: “It's not only that U.S. casualty figures keep climbing. American counterinsurgency experts are noticing some disturbing trends in those statistics. The Defense Department counted 87 attacks per day on U.S. forces in August—the worst monthly average since Bush's flight-suited visit to the USS Abraham Lincoln in May 2003. Preliminary analysis of the July and August numbers also suggests that U.S. troops are being attacked across a wider area of Iraq than ever before. And the number of gunshot casualties apparently took a huge jump in August. Until then, explosive devices and shrapnel were the primary cause of combat injuries, typical of a ‘phase two’ insurgency, where sudden ambushes are the rule. (Phase one is the recruitment phase, with most actions confined to sabotage. That's how things started in Iraq.) Bullet wounds would mean the insurgents are standing and fighting—a step up to phase three.” Analysis: “What happened this summer, and particularly last week, is likely to be recalled as the end of the era of network news. At the very least, mark this as the moment when the networks abdicated their authority with the American public.” "I hate this fucking blog." 86-43-04. Pass it on.

War News for September 10 and 11, 2004 Bring ‘em on: US air strikes continue in Fallujah. Bring ‘em on: Forty-five Iraqis killed, 80 wounded in fighting with US troops near Tal Afar. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqis killed, five wounded as Iraqi troops open fire on demonstrators in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqi policemen kidnapped in Najaf. Bring ‘em on: Car bomb detonates at Baghdad church. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi policeman kidnapped in Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Three rocket attacks reported in and near Baghdad. Bring ‘em on: Senior Iraqi National Guard officer assassinated near Baquba. Bring ‘em on: Iraqi National Guard officer and family kidnapped near Hibhib. Bring ‘em on: US troops lay siege to Tal Afar. Bring ‘em on: US troops fighting in Sadr City. Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqis killed, three wounded by roadside bomb at US consulate in Basra. Fallujah. “Islamic militants in Iraq are strengthening their grip on the insurgent stronghold of Falluja, four months after American commanders struck a ceasefire deal that was supposed to pacify the city and return it to government control, residents said yesterday. Militants have imposed religious law on communities, issuing edicts and executing those accused of spying and even stealing. US patrols no longer enter the city, 40 miles west of Baghdad, and the Falluja Brigade, a government force established in May to maintain security, was disbanded this week.” Fallujah Brigade. “The controversial Iraqi military force formed by U.S. Marines in a last-ditch effort to pacify the restive city of Fallujah has been officially disbanded after months of continuing violence, assaults on government security forces and evidence that some members have been working openly with insurgents….’The Fallujah Brigade is done, over,’ said Marine Col. Jerry Durrant, who oversees the 1st Marine Expeditionary Unit's involvement with Iraqi security forces. ‘The whole Fallujah Brigade thing was a fiasco. Initially it worked out OK, but it wasn't a good idea for very long.’” Read the following story of the soldier re-enlisting, also. Illinois National Guard. “The 1544th, just 260 of the more than 3,000 men and women with the Illinois National Guard currently in Iraq, has suffered half of all the deaths and injuries for the entire Illinois National Guard. So far, four from the unit have been killed and 26 wounded.” Burn center. “There are more than 100 soldiers at BAMC recovering from injuries they suffered in Iraq. Five more Marines arrived Friday afternoon.” Interim assembly. The 100-member assembly, set up in August at a national political conference, won't hold its first policy session until Sunday. But many in Iraq already see it as little better than the widely despised U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, which dissolved itself in June. ‘They are two faces of the same coin,’ said Abdul Haleem Salem, a 26-year-old from Kut who was in Baghdad on a religious pilgrimage. ‘This assembly doesn't represent the Iraqi people, which makes it a failure.’ Indeed, 19 of the assembly's members are former Governing Council members, and many of the remaining 81 belong to the five political parties that already control Iraq's executive branch.” But Rummy’s still loose. “Specialist Armin Cruz, 24, a military intelligence analyst, had pleaded guilty to maltreatment and conspiracy to maltreat detainees, and the court martial accepted his guilty plea.” “Peacefully”? “Rumsfeld, meanwhile, described another restive city, Najaf, as ‘taken back peacefully’ due to an overwhelming show of force that persuaded rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to tell his fighters to disband. That followed widespread fighting involving Sadr's militia, U.S.-backed Iraqi forces, and American soldiers and Marines. Still, the fighting ceased before U.S.-backed Iraqi troops went forward with plans to retake holy Shiite mosques in the city by force.” Commentary Editorial: “Mr. Rumsfeld gave President Bush the legal advice that led to the president's famous memo declaring that the United States could, at his discretion, suspend the Geneva Conventions in the ‘global war on terror,’ and that prisoners with the newly minted designation of ‘unlawful combatants’ were not entitled to the conventions' protections. Mr. Rumsfeld authorized the use of brutal interrogation techniques at the prison in Guantánamo Bay, some of which he later rescinded. His war plans left the Army without enough forces to face the uprising that followed Mr. Bush's ludicrously premature ‘mission accomplished’ photo-op. Those policies - which commanders were afraid to challenge - left 97 untrained military police guarding some 7,000 Iraqis at Abu Ghraib who were not considered prisoners of war.” Opinion: “Iraq, as you know, is the front line in the War on Terror that began Sept. 11, 2001. Or at least, that's what the president keeps stubbornly saying and polls indicate half of us keep stubbornly believing. And never mind that intelligence experts say Iraq had about as much to do with Sept. 11 as Canada did. No need to focus too closely on that. We're watching a sort of magic show, after all, public opinion manipulated like a handkerchief borrowed out of the audience. Nothing up his sleeve, presto! The lie becomes the truth. And a thousand people die.” Analysis: “Iraqi insurgents are slowly but surely extending their control over key cities in the notorious ‘Sunni Triangle’ north and west of Baghdad, a creeping consolidation of their influence that bodes ill for the fumbling transitional government and the U.S. forces propping it up. Continued uprisings by Shiite irregulars of the Mehdi Army militia, led by cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, scion of a revered religious family, point to the possibility of Shiite militants seizing and holding other ‘no-go zones’ in southern Iraq, further undermining the putative central government in Baghdad.” Casualty Reports Local story: New Jersey soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Indiana soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Texas soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Tennessee soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Ohio soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Ohio soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Virginia soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Oklahoma Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: Texas soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: Texas soldier killed in Iraq. Local story: California Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: California Marine killed in Iraq. Local story: California Marine wounded in Iraq. Local story: Maine Marine wounded in Iraq. Local story: Three Alabama soldiers wounded in Iraq. Rant of the Day In the last two days, the US media has provided more coverage and in-depth analysis to the properties of obsolete typewriters than they have to the events in Iraq over the last month. 86-43-04. Pass it on.