Good news from Iraq in the Washington Post

Posted By Uncle Jimbo

Since I spare no effort to slag the press when it fails, I will point out some very straight forward writing by David Ignatius of the Washington Post:

BAGHDAD -- Three years on, the U.S. military is finally becoming adept at fighting a counterinsurgency war in Iraq. Sadly, these are precisely the skills that should have been mastered before America launched its invasion in March 2003. It may prove one of the costliest lessons in the history of modern warfare.

I still have to smack him for the skills should have been mastered before garbage though. I am unaware of any consensus that showed a likelihood of an insurgency like we have faced, not from the military, politicians or the press. All the worries were about the carnage of a street to street battle for Baghdad, and the resultant thousands of civilian deaths, or even what iffing the possibility of chemical weapons. The idea that we should have changed the entire composition of our forces for a possibility no one I knew or read felt was likely, is silly. Moving on though.

I had a chance to see the new counterinsurgency doctrine in practice here this week. U.S. troops are handing off to the Iraqi army a growing share of the security burden. As the Iraqis step up, the Americans are stepping back into a training and advisory role. This is the way it should have happened from the beginning.

Except first we had to raise, equip and train an army, untainted by Sadaam to do that with, but I take his point.

I visited two bases where you can see the new U.S. strategy begin to take hold. The first was at Taji, straddling the Tigris River north of Baghdad, where the American 4th Infantry Division is gradually handing off responsibility to Iraqi units. After the Samarra bombing, enraged Shiites killed two Sunni clerics, and there was a danger that the reprisal killings could escalate.

Tensions eased after an Iraqi brigade commander, a Shiite, rolled his armored vehicles into the Sunni stronghold of Tarmiya and told local imams that his men would protect their mosques against Shiite attacks -- and that in return, they must control Sunni militants. "He laid down the law," remembers Col. Jim Pasquarette, who commands U.S. forces in the area.

And there you have it. Once the Iraqi Security Forces are seen as the non-sectarian power of the Iraqi state, we have reached our endgame. It is not perfect, but it is working, this crazy project to free people and help them raise a barn looks like it may stand. Ambassador Khalilizad has said the talks among the partners in the new government are the best he has ever seen and thinks they will form a government comprised of all three major groups. I hate to have a positive attitude, but....

                                     - Uncle J

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Good news from Iraq in the Washington Post

Since I spare no effort to slag the press when it fails, I will point out some very straight forward writing by David Ignatius of the Washington Post:

BAGHDAD -- Three years on, the U.S. military is finally becoming adept at fighting a counterinsurgency war in Iraq. Sadly, these are precisely the skills that should have been mastered before America launched its invasion in March 2003. It may prove one of the costliest lessons in the history of modern warfare.

I still have to smack him for the skills should have been mastered before garbage though. I am unaware of any consensus that showed a likelihood of an insurgency like we have faced, not from the military, politicians or the press. All the worries were about the carnage of a street to street battle for Baghdad, and the resultant thousands of civilian deaths, or even what iffing the possibility of chemical weapons. The idea that we should have changed the entire composition of our forces for a possibility no one I knew or read felt was likely, is silly. Moving on though.

I had a chance to see the new counterinsurgency doctrine in practice here this week. U.S. troops are handing off to the Iraqi army a growing share of the security burden. As the Iraqis step up, the Americans are stepping back into a training and advisory role. This is the way it should have happened from the beginning.

Except first we had to raise, equip and train an army, untainted by Sadaam to do that with, but I take his point.

I visited two bases where you can see the new U.S. strategy begin to take hold. The first was at Taji, straddling the Tigris River north of Baghdad, where the American 4th Infantry Division is gradually handing off responsibility to Iraqi units. After the Samarra bombing, enraged Shiites killed two Sunni clerics, and there was a danger that the reprisal killings could escalate.

Tensions eased after an Iraqi brigade commander, a Shiite, rolled his armored vehicles into the Sunni stronghold of Tarmiya and told local imams that his men would protect their mosques against Shiite attacks -- and that in return, they must control Sunni militants. "He laid down the law," remembers Col. Jim Pasquarette, who commands U.S. forces in the area.

And there you have it. Once the Iraqi Security Forces are seen as the non-sectarian power of the Iraqi state, we have reached our endgame. It is not perfect, but it is working, this crazy project to free people and help them raise a barn looks like it may stand. Ambassador Khalilizad has said the talks among the partners in the new government are the best he has ever seen and thinks they will form a government comprised of all three major groups. I hate to have a positive attitude, but....

                                     - Uncle J

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» The Same Old New Strategy from Dadmanly
David Ignatius notes some positive results in Iraq in his Washington Post Op-Ed today, but he seriously misreads these results as the part of a new approach to the War. It’s the same approach that has been in place for at least the past 2 years, and wh... [Read More]