Iraq News (6 Mar)

The Good: The Ministry of Oil has been given the green light to go ahead on oil deals with multi-national corporations. This investment will be crucial to improving the infrastructure in Iraq and will provide employment opportunities. The Oil Minister, Shahristani, has even suggested employing the tribes in the region the pipelines run through to provide security.

The Bad: A former Kurdish minister has been killed by gunmen. Also, Turkey has resumed it's misguided offensive against the PKK by performing air strikes in northern Iraq. You'd think they'd learn from our mistakes of how to deal with an insurgency.

The Ugly: Trouble with the Chemical Ali execution. There are 3 defendants that were convicted of war crimes in June 2007 by an Iraqi court, one of them being the notorious "Chemical Ali". One of the other guys is former Defense Minister Sultan Hashim, who surrendered voluntarily to the coalition forces and has been portrayed by the Iraqi President as a man just following orders under Saddam. The presidency council just wants Chemical Ali executed but is at loggerheads with the Prime Minister who wants all 3 executed.

Perpetually Outraged America

There were some memoirs published recently by Margaret Jones, which told her chilling tale of being half-white and half-Native American, growing up on the mean streets of South Central LA running with the Bloods. It certainly sounds like she grew up in unfortunate circumstances, but too bad she actually grew up in the Valley attending private school and she made the whole goddamn thing up.

This sort of behavior always strikes me as bizarre and I sought to understand it. Certainly there are some born into more advantages than others in this fine country of ours. And certainly persecution and social injustices have existed in America, which deserve acknowledgment. But why the hell would you want to be unfortunate or persecuted? The Washington Post recently published a satirical article “We Scream, We Swoon, How Dumb can we Get?” written by a woman clearly for the sake of a humorous read on a Sunday morning. I guess some folks felt left out of the joke, because they were hoppin’ mad about this sexist article. The Washington Post even has a politically correct addendum at the top of the online report that directs you where you can email your flaming daggers representing your outraged self. Don’t people have senses of humor anymore?

But don’t think this type of behavior is limited to women, as I previously ranted about the joker in Aspen who thought white men had it tough in this election cycle. Stuff White People Like has successfully ridiculed this culture of victimhood in their latest post chastising those “poor Graduate students”:

Being in graduate school satisfies many white requirements for happiness. They can believe they are helping the world, complain that the government/university doesn’t support them enough, claim they are poor, feel as though are getting smarter, act superior to other people, enjoy perpetual three day weekends, and sleep in every day of the week!

This article helped me understand. Being faux-persecuted fills up your moral quotient so that the banality of our current mainstream American culture of consumption and stupidity is valid. Also, being perpetually outraged gives an individual free rein to carry on an argument that has little justification in facts or reality. Take a look at the latest “Marine throws pooch off cliff” incident that has appeared on YouTube, which Mrs. Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette clearly points out that it is not representative of the military, but just a couple of cruel yahoos. You wouldn’t know that by looking at the comments section of this Democratic Underground piece though. They use this one incident to make broad sweeping assertions that US imperiali$t stormtroopers have a culture of massacring everything!

Should I feel outraged from these commentaristas, since I’m in the military and everyone should be feeling sorry for me? No. Nobody owes me anything, and I would be giving these imbeciles more credibility than they deserve if I became “outraged”, “persecuted”, or a “victim”.

Guys like this definitely got the short end of the stick in America (h/t to Hot Chicks w/Douchebags)

Iraq News (5 Mar)

The Good: The 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne is redeploying from Iraq. They were sent here in January 2007 as part of the surge strategy to move off large FOBs and into neighborhoods in Baghdad. Even a terse analysis of their deployment could not call it anything less than successful, as violence in Baghdad has plummeted from the beginning of 2007 when the city was rife with sectarian violence. On a personal note, it may seem a little abstract when folks back home "Thank them for their service", but for a guy residing in the Green Zone, I unequivocally "Thank them for their service" as I can sleep well at night in my trailer knowing these guys have got my back. You can thank them personally for their 15-month deployment via the milblog Eighty Deuce on the Loose. Admiral Fallon, CENTCOM commander, has testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee and stated that the surge worked in clamping down on violence in Iraq.

The Bad: An Mi-17 Iraqi helicopter crashed leaving no survivors, presumably due to dust storms. Despite a lot of smiling photo-ops from Ahmadinejad and promises of prosperous future relations, Iran is still making a lot of trouble for Iraq.

The Ugly: It's no secret that the Iraq war has been pretty damn expensive, but Mr. Herbert at the NY Times says the money should've been used to spend on government entitlement programs. Obviously I disagree with him on that. But he does bring up a good point about the Bush Administration being the only people who lowered taxes during a time of war (two in this case!) and didn't cut back on government spending elsewhere. Maybe that's why our deficit is coming up on $10 Trillion. With the way the dollar is turning into funny money, I should invest in a wheelbarrow, so I can have the means to schlep enough cash to the gas station to buy a pack of smokes. Returning Lt. Gen. Odierno says we need time to re-assess the situations on the ground following the drawdown to 15 Brigade Combat Teams in Iraq in the July timeframe. With our current mission, I certainly agree with my superior, but where we get these military personnel to continue supporting the mission in Iraq is a question for a man on the right in the picture below.

Bush remains mum on strains of the military

A Realistic Prognosis of Iraq

Finding good non-partisan analysis on Iraq from a Western perspective can be difficult. Popular sites like the Huffington Post tend to embellish casualty-inducing events in an effort to make the war look like it is going poorly to take stabs at the Bush administration. I'm certain they are gearing up for that "4,000 US Soldiers Killed!" story to further their cause. On the other hand, Neoconservative publications will defend any progress in the war in Iraq, while not acknowledging any setbacks or a disturbingly over-used military force. Recently, The Weekly Standard proclaimed Gen Petraeus as the "Patton of Counterinsurgency". While I agree that General Petraeus runs a good counter-insurgency and I'm glad to work for him, let's not go off the deep end here. The Kagans illustrate their affection:

Great commanders often come in pairs: Eisenhower and Patton, Grant and Sherman, Napoleon and Davout, Marlborough and Eugene, Caesar and Labienus. Generals David Petraeus and Raymond Odierno can now be added to the list.

C'mon, Caesar?!? Does that mean that all coalition forces are Roman Legionaries traipsing through Mesopotamia? If it does, I would like to know where the wine is at and which way to the Bacchus-styke orgy. But seriously, viewing the Iraq war through a bi-partisan prism of media can be self-defeating as every fact will be conveyed to suit a political agenda and speculation without justification will run rampant.

So that's why I try to turn to sources outside the US, which has been so bitterly divided by this war. Here's a good Op-Ed from the London Times entitled "Iraq: For Once There's Hope" (h/t ThisFuckingWar):

There is less gunfire, and fewer explosions. No longer do I instinctively look for mutilated torsos floating down the Tigris. I have ventured out to shop and eat - albeit in one of Baghdad's safest districts. The night-time curfew has been relaxed. Schools, markets and the national theatre have reopened. Families visit refurbished parks. Men sit outside cafés drinking sweet, black tea. Children play soccer on side roads.

Which the author couterpoints himself with:

But all this must be set in context. What passes for normality in Iraq would be utterly abnormal anywhere else. The number of Iraqis killed in January was the lowest in 23 months, but still numbered 541. Hundreds of thousands of Baghdadis now live in walled-in, ethnically cleansed, heavily guarded enclaves that they are terrified to leave. Sunnis do not venture into Shia areas, and vice-versa. Sectarian hatreds have been contained, but not resolved.

I certainly agree that violence has been tempered, but there is much chaos ailing Iraq. One of the biggest problems is lack of basic services (electricity, sewage, etc.) and a government that has been not incredibly ambitious in providing them as we had hoped. Thanks to Martin Fletcher for giving an honest look from an outsider's eye without all the political hoopla.

A US soldier in the eyes of some

Tuesdaze Bloggin' Roundup of Iraq (4 Mar)

Here's my shameless way to build Technorati credibility. Enjoy the stuff on Iraq that dinosaur media fears:

• Michael Totten's latest dispatch from Fallujah is up!
• Chickenhawk Watch has put me on their shit list for some reason (see The Sniper for details), but it's not because I tossed a puppy off a cliff
• Obsidian Wings isn't pleased with the Ministry of Health trials (they aren't alone)
• Crooks and Liars says crazy ole' Melanie "We should've blitzed Iraq" Morgan is off the air
• Abu Aardvark decries that Public Diplomacy in the Middle East has been a disaster
• McClatchy Watch has a good round-up of transpirings in Mosul
• Operation Yellow Elephant encourages female pundits to have there male cohorts Enlist! and be proud manly men
• CDR Salamander brings up the Obama hubris during the Crocker/Petraeus testimony in Sep
• Army of Dude has new photo story up, awesome
• This Fucking War has the link to justification for IVAW's Winter Soldier II
• Inside Iraq talks about convoys of senior Iraqi leaders
• Iraq: The Purgatorium dissects the strange Japanese culture (he's on R&R from Iraq)
• SGT Grumpy discusses the weather in Iraq
• The Long War Journal has the gritty details on more dead terrorists up in Mosul
• Doc in the Box talks about why the chain of command is cool with blogging (I know for a fact that milbloggin' is kosher as I've spoken with some PAOs about this issue)
• Zen Traveler spots some Iraqi youngsters sporting an odd T-Shirt
• IAVA discusses the plight of Iraqis betrayed by our own government
• Michael Yon discusses Prince Harry
• VoteVets is not Anti-War (FYI)
• IraqPundit talks about a Tale of Two Doras (Dora is a neighborhood in SouthWest Baghdad)
• False Motivation discusses his first hand knowledge of the Sons of Iraq
• Small Wars Journal analyzes recent Pew Research polling
• Democracy Arsenal discusses a plausible counter-terrorism strategy
• A Soldier's Perspective highlights sexual harassment in the Green Zone
• Iraqi Mojo talks about Arba'een
• Captain's Journal analyzes transnational insurgencies
• Talisman Gate talks about the courage of Iraqis in maintaining security
• VetVoice calls all war supporters to take up arms (that means you, young republicans)
• Hot Air takes a look at Iraq policy and the current presidential primaries
• Jules Crittenden discusses this policy debate as well
• TSO at The Sniper questions the IVAW position
• Veterans Talk discusses life after war (New Blog)
• Daily Gut Gregalogue on that lameass anti-war music
• Kaboom gets the dreaded Dear John
• Fuzzilicious Thinking sympathizes with LT G at Kaboom (don't forget us single folks ladies! haha)

Here's my homework for VetVoice:

• Terrorism in the modern day
• Uninformed military commentary from young pundits
• Marines get hung out to dry by bureaucracy
• Some stuff on Turkey
• On REMFness
  

Cheers!

Iraq News (4 Mar)

The Good: Brig Gen. Thomas says slow steady progress in Mosul that may take months to flush out the Islamic State of Iraq (aka Al-Qaeda in Iraq). This comes as no surprise to anyone except the press who was hoping for all the heavy fighting of a Fallujah-style offensive to get some Pulitzer winning photo shots. Mosul is Iraq's third largest city with a complex make up of ethnicity and sects. Progress will be measured by kinetic operations followed with reconstruction/reconciliation initiatives much like what was done last year in Baghdad. It might not play out like a Hollywood movie, but remember that war is boring. It should be stated that this is as far north as the insurgency can flee, since the Peshmerga have things pretty under control in the autonomous Kurdish region. Their only option is to surrender, flee the country, reconcile, or get dead.

The Bad: A mass grave was unearthed near Samarra with bodies that were bound and shot in the head. Two car bombs went off in Baghdad yesterday, despite a heavy security presence for the Ahmadinejad visit. Also, the ex-Ministry of Health officials must have had the resurrected Cochrane on their side, because they have been acquitted. The charges were funneling money to the Mahdi Army, executing Sunnis, using ambulances to schlep around weapons, and other sectarian crimes. Something doesn't feel right about this trial, and the Sunni Vice President, Tariq Hashimi, was not happy.

The Ugly: Iraqi youth are cynical about their religious leaders due to power-hungry thugs exploiting religion for criminal purposes (never seen that before in history /sarc). Also, don't expect US forces to be drawing down in large numbers anytime in the foreseeable future according to El Presidente.

Battle of Mosul to take some time

SGT Freedom Discusses Homeless Veterans

On a serious note, a public service announcement from LT Nixon:

SGT Freedom is good people. I occasionally disagree with his take on illegal immigration and the religion of Islam (I really have nothing against the religion itself), but all in all he is a very energetic supporter of the troops. His most recent video rant takes on the problem of homeless veterans. While homelessness is a problem in America in general, the fact that vets are homeless is an absolute disgrace. I'm not big on social entitlement programs, but veterans have provided an invaluable service to the country and we as taxpayers are contractually obligated to ensure that they have all their basic necessities covered. I used to live by the VA center off the 405 in West LA, and there was a huge amount of homeless Vietnam vets living on the streets. I would always see them on the bus back to Hollywood, one gentleman still wearing combat fatigues and shades screaming to himself during the entire bus ride. Another vet I ran into a lot had the sores on the side of his mouth characteristic of crack abuse. Being a smart ass college kid, I was at first skeptical of his service initially, but he went into great detail about his tour in Vietnam. Some vets may be homeless due to drug/alcohol abuse and a cynic could say "Well, that's their own damn problem", but shouldn't we help them get into shelters to treat their addictions instead of leaving them out on the streets of the LA concrete jungle? The disproportionately larger number of homeless vets (25%) compared to the number of vets in American society (~10%) is the result of trauma suffered while in combat. The IAVA does a lot of outreach for homeless veterans, and VoteVets.Org will criticize pundits like Bill O' Reilly who claims homeless vets aren't a problem. SGT Freedom taking on homeless vets completes the political spectrum (coming from the right) to take on this issue. I'm glad there's some things all vets can agree on.

Iraq News (3 Mar)

The Good: Outgoing #2 officer in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Odierno, talks with Michael Gordon of the New York Times about the future of Iraq. He recommends more job creation, which isn't sounding like a bad idea, since unemployment fuels the insurgency. More dead terrorists up by Tal Afar. Ninawa province in northern Iraq is currently hosting the brunt of Al-Qaeda activity, and small victories like these will aid in preventing future violence in Iraq.

The Bad: 5 civilians killed in Diyala province by an IED. The Pope himself has called for the release of Chaldean archbishop Rahho as he was abducted after thugs murdered his bodyguards earlier this week in Mosul. Oh yeah, electricity for Baghdad's citizens still sucks. The services we take for granted back in the states (trash collection, electricity, clean water) are still in major disrepair in Iraq thanks to Saddam, UN Sanctions, and sabotage by the insurgency. This does not bode well for economic development, which will encourage more poverty-stricken Iraqis to join gangs, racketeering operations, terrorist proxies, etc.

The Ugly: Iraqi-Iranian relations are important to boosting economic/political development in the region. But crazy Ahmadinejad has used his visit to Baghdad to, predictably, take pot shots at the "Great Satan", despite the fact that the coalition took out two of Iran's greatest enemies (Taliban and Saddam). And some of the lefty blogs have bought into this propaganda hook, line, and stinker. Many of Iraq's Sunnis were not happy with the Iranian President's visit and openly protested in the streets of Fallujah and Kirkuk.

Ahmadinejad smug in his accusations

Red Eye: Friend to the Military

Many celebrities are self-righteous, pompous, horrible people. Examples include writing horrendously uninformed commentary at the Huffington Post, wearing little ribbons of solidarity with those "poor" terrorists at Gitmo, or being talented enough to win "Best Actress" while still being dumb enough to think 9/11 and even the moon landing was an imperialist farce. Greg Gutfeld is able to expose all this elitist bullshit with posts mocking limousine liberals without all that neo-con smarminess. Modern politics has become so ridiculous in its grand-standing that no one can get off their high horse and see the forest for the trees. Lucky for me, I get to watch Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld once in awhile out in Iraq (one of my few pleasures) and it seeks to expose all the nonsense involved with our current political malaise. The Gregalogues are quick, hilarious, and insightful. There's a fan site that's pretty decent with other folks like me who don't take themselves so seriously that it would prevent good times. Red Eye also frequently hosts notable intelligent babe Kerry Howley, who is an editor at Reason and was once subjected to an interview from a very strange man. Once in a blue moon, I'll send an email to someone famous just to see what kind of response I get (remember that the IZ is boring), and he was the first to write me back. So thanks, Greg, you're LT Nixon's Friend to the Military for the day.

Greg discussing shenanigans at the Oscars with his Mum

Iraq News (2 Mar)

The Good: The Diyala Sons of Iraq, who had been on strike for days in protest of allegations of sectarianism against the Provincial Police chief, have returned to their duties. Diyala has been a hot-bed of Al-Qaeda activity and this is crucial to eradicating the hated extremist group from the province. Jar Allah, an Al-Qaeda foreign fighter facilitator, has been killed in Mosul, and the leader of a cell responsible for female suicide bombers has been detained.

The Bad: Ministry data on Iraqi deaths from extremist violence indicate an uptick for February. This is most likely due to the Baghdad pet market bombings on 1 Feb which killed nearly 100 people. Recall these bombings were carried out by females who were mentally impaired. Expect a lot of discourse that the Surge is a total failure based on this one month of data. One only need to look a year ago at the number of civilian deaths to understand that the Surge has significantly reduced the violence.

The Ugly: Ahmadinejad and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mullen show up in Iraq on the same day?!? Only in this place.

Rocket thru the Roof, Good Shot!

Smokin' with Al-Qaeda

The worldwide health gestapo is at it again, this time in New Zealand (H/T Reason). They have used the symbolism of 9/11 in the above ad to invoke the guilt of associating a personal choice to the most horrific terrorist act of the 21st century. I am so sick of these people. It's not bad enough that smokes have been taxed to all holy hell, now being a smoker makes you a goddamn AK-47 totin' jihadist. While the ad may be a lame attempt to state that smoking deaths caused more deaths than 9/11, the imagery speaks for itself. In their self-righteousness to encourage conformity to their ideals of what a good citizen should be, they fail to understand the irony of "laws" imposed by terrorists in regions they operate. Real Clear Politics explains the true link between smoking and terrorism:

Sheikh Abdul Sattar al Rishawi, founder of the Anbar Salvation Council, gave similar reasons for his change of allegiance. When al Qaida ran Baquba, it would amputate the two fingers used to hold a cigarette of any Iraqi caught smoking. Men who refused to grow beards were beaten, as were women for the "sexually suggestive" behavior of carrying tomatoes and cucumbers in the same bag, Mr. Yon said. He recounted finding the bodies of beheaded children.

So the people that commited the 9/11 attacks are probably big on stopping others from smoking too. Congratulations, health nuts, you just made a bunch of asses out of yourself. I'll keep my stash of Kools, thanks.

Iraq News 1 Mar

The Good: US casualties are down for Feburary from a small increase in January. While every death of a US service member is a tragic loss, it's helpful to look at long-term casualty trends to get a feel for the security progress or lack thereof in Iraq. Sadly, according to iCasualties, the Iraqi civilian deaths have slightly increased from Jan., but I'm going to wait on a report from the Iraqi Ministries to get the actual numbers. More details on the scheduled execution of the tyrant Chemical Ali, who must be executed within 30 days by Iraqi law.

The Bad: Chaldean Archbishop Rahho has been kidnapped by a group of thugs in Mosul after his bodyguards were killed. Christians have been the target of significant extremist violence as Sunni terrorists and Shi'ite militias alike see them as sharing the religion of the crusader.

The Ugly: The symbol of gross misappropriation of taxpayer dollars and Bush administration hubris, the US embassy, is being investigated by Rep. Waxman. Also, there are allegations that the monstrosity is more prone to catch fire than Richard Pryor freebasing coke.

Aging Hippie Douche of the Weekend Pic

From Zombie, by way of Little Green Footballs. I never understood why the far left would sympathize with a group of terrorist thugs like Hezbollah (Reason explains). Perhaps they were upset with Imad Mugniyah being assassinated, or perhaps they ally with whatever interest, no matter how nefarious, in their conquest to lambaste the American capitali$t--zionist regime. I don't understand this irrational thought process. Are they supporters of AIDS, since it kills Americans? I hope that these people are a small faction of a generation on it's way to geezerdom, but I fear these types of people have always been around and will always be around to make a mockery of themselves. I wonder if in the 14th century there were aging drug-addled hipsters wearing berets with signs about the Bubonic Plague destroying imperialist knight crusaders...we can only speculate.

Who says a War Zone can't be mildly entertaining

Ron Burgundy is a sure fire way to pimp out any humvee and get the ladies.

These jokers may have never been to Iraq, but I have to agree...5 years and billions of dollars later, it is probably the best war ever.

If you don't know what BOHICA is an acronymn for, think about repeatedly dropping the soap in the shower while doing time in prison.

The Sadr City Pub Crawl shirt is a coveted item, but I have been unsuccesful in locating one. Some Spring Break Baghdad '08 shirts may be in order. What do you think?

Iraq News 29 Feb

The Good: The Iraqi Presidency council has approved the execution of Saddam's cousin, Chemical Ali. He was involved in the genocidal Anfal campaign and I don't think many people are going to be missing this guy. The Arba'een pilgrimage in Karbala has finished up and the Prime Minister has declared that "We have suceeded in eliminating sectarianism", a bit optimistic but it's a helluva lot better than report of mass casualties due to intrasect violence like the last pilgrimage in Karbala in August. Also, Turkey has actually listened to international diplomatic pressure and withdrawn its forces from northern Iraq.

The Bad: On a selfish note, as Jason mentioned on his most excellent blog, today is the 29th of Feb in a leap year, which means one extra day of deployment in Iraq for me and everyone else. You win this one, US military, but I'll get you back, I won't forget this!

The Ugly: While Afghanistan and Iraq are usually in the limelight, let's not forget about our other strategic defense interests in the rest of the world. Admiral Keating discusses the resource drain at PACOM.

No one will be shedding tears for this guy

Muddled over Ahmadinejad

The big news out here is that Ahmadinejad is coming to Iraq on March 2nd (Iranian media is calling it historic). Once again, the complexities of this war have presented me with a bit of a conundrum. Our stated mission is to assist with security and economic development, and good Iraqi-Iranian relations are helpful in achieving this. Believe it or not Iran has done some constructive things for Iraq such as planning to build a 320-MW power station for the city of Najaf. There are also numerous Iranian pilgrims taking part in the pilgrimage to Karbala (certainly I don't have anything against the people of Iran). But the reality of malign Iranian-backed militias wreaking havoc throughout Iraq is indisputable (EFPs, assassinations, etc.) That and the fact that Ahmadinejad is holocaust-denying nut. I'm guessing the Iraqi leadership will try and get Iran to halt it's nefarious violence, while encouraging its political and economic assistance. That or Ahmadinejad is going to turn the whole visit into a bitch session about "The Great Satan Occupation" of which I am part of. This goes to show how sometimes it is best to sit back and watch what happens. Your guess is as good as mine at this point. Maybe I should take a bunch of pep pills ala Saved by the Bell to study up on Iranian-Iraqi relations over the past three millenium so I can better understand this.



Not Quite as excited as Jesse Spano when she took those pep pills

Bush Sends a Zinger at the Senate

The Prez. Despite the fact that I'd jump off a cliff if the guy ordered me to, I'm not in the business of heaping praise upon Bush. After all his administration did give us a skyrocketing deficit, an overused-understaffed military, and a distrust for conservative values that will take years to repair. But I did like what he had to say at today's White House press conference about the Senate bickering over Iraq (via Bloomberg):

“Congressional leaders are still sounding the same old call for withdrawal. I guess you could say that when it comes to pushing for withdrawal, their strategy is to stay the course.”

The situation in Iraq changes rapidly. Last week it was whether or not Sadr would unleash the wrath of the Mahdi Army (he didn't). Then it was whether or not Turkey was going to invade northern Iraq (they did). Who knows what'll happen next week. Maybe Ahmadinejad will start break dancing at President Talabani's residence when he visits Baghdad. The fact of the matter is that the US leadership needs to stop being so damn intellectually lazy and start figuring out what's going on over here. Only then will we be able to begin the process of getting out of this place leaving behind a stable country. The bipartisan schism on Iraq of we need to withdraw now or we need to have permanent bases doesn't provide a solution to the mission at hand.

A not-amused POTUS

Iraq News 28 Feb

The Good: Millions are in Karbala for the Arba'een pilgrimage. For those that think life was great under Saddam's "secular" tyranny of genocide should heed this quote from the AFP: "Under Saddam, those who went to Karbala were killed or had their legs shot so they could not walk again." It should be noted that sectarian strife was not a Cheney conspiracy to gain greater control of oil fields as some on the far-left have mentioned. There is talk about the Sadr trend turning the Mahdi Army into some kind of cultural/humanitarian organization. While Mr. Sadr's people aren't going to be waving American flags anytime soon, this is a welcome change of behavior from the violence preceding the ceasefire in August '07.

The Bad: WaPo is running a front page article slamming the US alliance with the Sons of Iraq (just in time for that debate about Iraq in the Senate, not coincidentally). It's not enough that American media are out to get these guys, but the Iranians are apparently conspiring to target the mostly Sunni-group of Al-Qaeda killers too. I anxiously await Mr. IraqPundit's response to this. Update on the fiasco with Turkey here, and the entire operation may be a clever ruse to divert the Turkish public's attention from...headscarves?

The Ugly: Gross incompetence is apparently the standard when providing Marines on the front lines with the gear they need. The Pentagon is establishing a probe into why it took 18 months to get them lasers that are utilized at checkpoints. This culture of draggin' ass is a complete embarrassment in a time of war.

That's a lot of pilgrims!

The Sons of Iraq and Other Random Oddities

The Sons of Iraq: This is the newest name for the Sahwa movement, who are the Sunnis in Iraq who have risen up to protect their neighborhoods and struggle for political power in post-invasion society. Teflon Don of Acute Politics notoriety has an excellent piece on the Long War Journal discussing their effectiveness at counter-insurgency. Rolling Stone has another take on them in Baghdad (thanks Iraqi Bloggers Central) portraying them as a racketeering goon squad. Toy Soldier offers up his first hand account of their poor handling of weapons, while Fuzzilicious Thinking talks with a soldier who has a more optimistic outlook. I've heard a lot of stories about these guys. I can only imagine the frustration of soldiers having to play diplomat, judge, politician, and enforcer out in these tribal areas, and I have found their stories the most interesting concerning this new technique in Iraq that began in Anbar province. All I can do is analyze the effect of this type of warfare, and this article may offer some insight on the troubled Diyala province entitled "Iraqi Ghost Town comes back to life":

In a corner of his barber shop Ahmed trims the moustache of a customer covered in a white cloth, as nearby broken window panes stand proof of a battered city in the dark of the night. "Thanks to the young men who are guarding the streets, I am no longer afraid to keep my shop open late into the night."

Small victories are important in some ways.

Random De-Motivators: A couple things that don't make me happy are the American economy getting its ass whooped by the Euro and Fox News (except for Red Eye):



I have nothing bad to say about Alex P. Keaton, but there has to be something more important to a national news network. I'm no snob, but man, this is torturous.

The Life I Should've Lived: There's pictures of some gutter punks, in what looks like Portland, from Social Daily News (thanks Moonbattery) .


Sure these poorly-fed, possibly-diseased, yet very attractive young ladies may not be appetizing to some. But looking around at my current lifestyle, I'm certainly not above it. At least there would be an element of freedom to it, and I find the homeless/grunge look common amongst Northwestern gals very seductive for some reason. Maybe I've just been in the Navy too long.

Iraq News (27 Feb)

The Good: The massive Arba'een pilgrimage is ongoing in Karbala to honor Imam Hussein, and so far so good in reports from the holy city, despite some atrocities on the pilgrimage route. Coalition forces and Iraqi security forces are working hard to make sure that violence is kept to a minimum for the millions of travelers. General Casey, Army Chief of Staff, may announce reduction in combat deployments from 15-month to 12-month tours. While the Army will remain overburdened, this is certainly a welcome change.

The Bad: Violence in northern Iraq as a suicide bomber kills 8 by detonating his suicide vest on a bus near Tal Afar. Tal Afar is west of Mosul in Ninawa province, which is the only province that has not seen a decline in violence similar to the other 17 provinces after the Surge was implemented. One of the British contractors that was kidnapped last May at the Ministry of Finance in Baghdad by a group of thugs has gotten air time on Al-Arabiya. Note to Al-Arabiya, you're not helping with the release of the hostages and only making things worse.

The Ugly: The Iraqi government in Baghdad tells Turkish forces to get the hell out of our country as diplomatic uneasiness progresses concurrent with this questionable operation against the PKK. Also, Clinton-era Secretary of State Madeline Albright says the reputation of the US sucks on international TV.

Madeline not helpin' with furthering diplomatic relations for the US, nice broach BTW

VoteVets.Org takes on McCain

VoteVets released a 30-second ad that targets the McCain camp to come clean on how they are going to support a long term presence in Iraq. Predictably, the response from the McCain campaign was quick and partisan as they sought to portray the attacks as a liberal smear job. VetVoice has the reply posted:

National Liberal Democratic groups are rolling out their strategy for the General Election. It appears that the politics of "hope and change" are euphemisms for even more vicious attacks than we've ever seen before. All the usual liberal suspects; MoveOn.org, the Democratic National Committee, The New York Times and others are adding to the efforts under way by VoteVets and are plotting to spend over $20 million to smear John McCain. A line has been drawn in the sand.

This is reminiscent of Melanie Morgan, hack queen pundit of the "You don't support Bush, You Don't Support the Troops" meme, who had a similar attack on VoteVets last year deriding the group for taking donations from various left-wing groups. Of course, this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black, as her Move America Forward is in bed with big-money Freedom's Watch. Other pundits may liken this to some sort of "Swiftboat" campaign against the Senator, but Jon Soltz says McCain's military record is honorable in this AFP article. The skeezy politics involved cannot distract from the point of the ad which seeks an answer from McCain on his plans for foreign and defense policy with a troubled military and economy.

Hot Air called attacking McCain's "100 Years in Iraq" comment a "distortion". I give props to Hot Air because they tried to rationally dispute the claim, instead of calling the patriotism or "military credentials" of VoteVets into question. They retorted with the following:

the “100 years” comment isn’t a call for another century of hot war; it’s a projection of a token presence in a stable country along the lines of our “occupation” of Okinawa, one that certainly wouldn’t require the trillions of dollars being disingenuously tossed around here.

In response to that, the comparison of Cold War era bases in a stable country to bases in a country with an active insurgency is a bit foolhardy. Herschel Smith at the superb Captain's Journal has routinely questioned the need for bases in South Korea and Germany, while the nation fights two wars on extremism with an over-stretched military. I tend to agree with him. Most importantly, the fact that the military is at the breaking point has not been addressed by Sen. McCain (do we need a draft? more defense funding? fill us in on your master plan, sir). I only need to step outside my trailer in the IZ to understand this grim reality. Overuse of contractors, 55-year old reservists in uniform, active duty guys on their 3rd/4th tours, etc. Not that I'm bitching about my personal situation as a member of the military, but I'm quite concerned as a citizen about the future of our military as a whole. Sure partisan politics might be nasty business during an election year, but let's not stray too far from getting the McCain response to how, as commander-in-chief, he plans to support an enduring presence in Iraq with a military in trouble. While I do write at the Vetvoice blog (part of Votevets) frequently, I don't think I have political affiliation with the left or the right. I just want to see our military not all fucked up, but still able to win the Long War against Islamic extremism. I think it's a reasonable ad, IMHO. But I'll get off this proverbial soapbox and let you decide.



Flurry of controversy, just my style!

Tuesdaze Bloggin' Roundup of Iraq (26 Feb)

All the stuff they forgot to print in the "normal" news:

• War is Boring discusses "Three-Block Wars"
• Long War Journal on reconstruction in the Baghdad belts
• Democracy Arsenal has some insight on exit strategy
• Iraqi Bloggers Central does an about-face on one blogger
• Eighty Deuce (who I saw on CNN-intl yesterday) vents his frustration as he finished up his tour
• Dadmanly is critical of Obama
• StarCMC not happy with Winter Soldier II
• Inside Iraq on the Arba'een pilgrimage from an Iraqi perspective
• McClatchy Watch on Mosul Ops and photos
• Chickenhawk Express not happy with Winter Soldier II either
• Hot Air talks about the Cordesman Op-Ed
• Iraq: The Purgatorium on his hatred of Fobbits, very good piece (hits a little close to home)
• False Motivation on those sleepless nights at the COP
• Matthew Yglesias says Obama's comments are credible
• Defiant Compliance happy with the Sadr ceasefire
• The Sniper discusses shenanigans in Anbar
• IraqPundit has some scathing criticism of Muqtada al-Sadr
• Blackfive isn't a big fan of Sen. Kerry
• Doc in the Box talks about separation from society while deployed

Some stuff I dropped on VetVoice:

• Permanent Bases in Iraq
• On Turkey and Sadr
• USA #1
• Nevermind the Elephant in the Parlor

Cheers!

Iraq News (26 Feb)

The Good: Iran to help rebuild Iraq to help spruce up the Baghdad Municipality ? I know what you're thinking, that LT Nixon is some stooge for the theocracy in Iran by linking to the Tehran Times in "The Good" portion. My friends, if there's one thing I've learned it is to put ideology aside and savor small victories, and money from Iran to help with Baghdad's sub-par services is a lot better than EFPs and 240mm Rockets coming from Iran. Also, Minister of Oil Shahristani wants foreign companies to start coming in and investing in Iraq's oil infrastructure. That's sure better than US tax dollars. The paratroopers from the 82nd detained a special groups thug in Baghdad, good stuff, thanks for looking out guys.

The Bad: More violence during the Arba'een pilgrimage yesterday where terrorists attacked Shi'ite pilgrims in the Baghdad district of Karrada. It turns out that the mythical 130,000 personnel in Iraq by July isn't going to hold. It will actually be 140,000 troops as the Pentagon announced yesterday. This is bad since the military remains on an unsustainable deployment cycle, which even our top brass have acknowledged.

The Ugly: One of the managers at Al-Fourat TV has been detained by coalition forces for connections with Special Groups. The station is run by the Hakim's Supreme Islamic Council and I'm expecting the rumor mill in Iran and the Arab world to be rife with conspiracies for the next few days.

Best Picture Goes to a Not-Terrible Movie

The self-serving Oscars have seen a fair share of crap lousy movies get all the props throughout the last 20 years. Titanic, Forrest Gump, Shakespeare in Love...all movies that are supposed to make you feel "good" about yourself... I hate those movies. We have entered some dark days and we need Hollywood to make us realize that in new and creative ways. The Cohen Brothers (of legendary Big Lewbowski and Barton Fink fame) made a movie about a stone cold psycho who goes on a rampage with a silenced shotgun and retractable pneumatic boltgun. The rational and intelligent protagonists weren't able to save the day, which does a good job explaining the current malaise in our fight against ideologists. I thought the movie was excellent and was privileged enough to see it on the big screen during R&R and not on a fuzzy bootleg. Well "No Country For Old Men" won for Best Picture and I can at least say there is still some good tastes in film.

Of course, the perpetually outraged on the moral right weren't happy with this movie. Take Debbie Schlussel who proclaims:

And the bizarre, violent, weirdly-ending "No Country for Old Men" won Best Director and Best Picture. Yup, more Hollywood rewarding movies glorifying killing for no reason. Blood and the macabre.

She also likened McCain's babealicious daughter to being a Nazi and/or KKK member in her blog today, so I remain a bit skeptical of her commentary. I've always been a fan of the dark and strange movie and I welcome the recognition of film geniuses like the Cohen brothers.

On the other hand, apparently the troops announcing one of the awards didn't get a lot of applause (CJ at Soldier's Perspective was not impressed), but at least they didn't get booed or called "babykillers". I'll take that as a small victory.

The Oscar would have been "morally" acceptable if this guy was the villain

Iraq News 25 Feb

The Good: Washington Post discusses joint operations between Coalition Forces and Iraqi Security Forces in Mosul. Ninawa province, which contains Mosul (third largest city), is the only province where violence has actually increased since 2007, so security operations in Mosul will be crucial. The WaPo article focuses on some of the challenges faced by our troops and the Iraqi troops.

The Bad: Over 40 Shi'ite pilgrims were killed by a suicide attack on the road between Baghdad and Karbala. The pilgrimage is for the upcoming Arbaeen and Al-Qaeda operatives, most likely, purported this attack near Iskandariyah to inflame sectarian tensions. What a bunch of savages.

The Ugly: The PKK, The "Maoist revolutionary" or terrorist group as I would call them, have encouraged violence in Turkey in response to the ground operations launched by the Turkish military into northern Iraq. This whole thing is becoming a diplomatic hot potato, and meanwhile the Iraqi Prime Minister is AWOL getting medical treatment in London.

Excellent NYT Story

No, it's definitely not the McCain sex scandal nonsense. Read this piece here from an embed out in Afghanistan. Good stuff! Although, IAVA has some beef with the printed version. I cannot confirm this, since the NY Times doesn't deliver to Iraq yet, but the online report is excellent.

That Mortar Attack and Disinformation in the Media

Take with a grain of salt

I normally don't discuss much about the Green Zone due to OPSEC considerations. But this recent mortar attack has been making a run in the media, and by the tone of the reporting you'd think it was Tet '08 or something. Huffington Post commenters were virtually masturbating with bloodlust as this meant the demise of the Bush administration's stronghold. Fox News decided to air some file footage that looked like a cross between battle damage from a truck bomb followed by a cat-5 hurricane (I have no idea where this footage came from). I remain in my normal zombie-like state and realize that this was probably the handiwork of a bunch of thugs and not part of a large-scale offensive.

Now for a little gallows humor, I'm assuming that this was NOT the work of Mr. Sadr's people, rather a rogue cell. But in case someone didn't get the memo on the ceasefire, I've solicited the help of Bill Lumbergh of Office Space acclaim to get the message out.

The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Iraq News (24 Feb)

The Good: Despite a lot of hullabaloo in the media about one lousy attack on the IZ, Baghdad violence is way down from 2007 according to Brig. Gen. Milano. He cites numerous statistics to support this statement, and the recent Sadr ceasefire will help things remain that way. Also, 11 Al-Qaeda operatives were killed by Iraqi Security Forces near Tikrit.

The Bad: The fog of war is certainly in effect up north as both Turkey and the terrorist group PKK are citing different numbers of combatants killed in northern Iraq. The PKK have claimed to have downed a Turkish helicopter as well. There has been significant international pressure for Turkey to conduct "limited" operations to avoid civilian casualties and destruction of infrastructure. But, hey, at least the oil is still flowing to Turkey from a pipeline in Iraq. No need for a silly thing like war to upset the price for a barrel of crude.

The Ugly: More upcoming mass pilgrimages and religious festivities in the holy city of Karbala. I'm definitely no Theology scholar so I have trouble keeping up with them all, I just hope the pilgrimage goes off without loss of life. Hopefully, those members of that strange Mahdi cult who launched attacks during Ashura stay out of the mix for this one.

My Take on Obama-Platoon-Gate

All Hail the Future Commander-in-Chief

Meet Daniel Kingery. He's running a 2008 presidential campaign out of his '86 Crown Vic, thereby earning a lot of respect for his gumption and providing a humble view of America's future, instead of more hubris mixed with ignorance. More importantly, this allows me to be free of the partisan shackles of endlessly apologizing for a political party on this blog, rather than attempting an objective analysis. One issue I would like to discuss is this recent ruckus about Obama, a CPT in Afghanistan, and the tie-in to Iraq.

During a recent debate with Hillary, Sen. Obama mentioned that he received notice of a Captain who was ill-equipped to fight the war in Afghanistan:

You know, I've heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon--supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon. Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq. And as a consequence, they didn't have enough ammunition, they didn't have enough Humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief.

Matthew Yglesias says that the story is true, despite skeptics from numerous conservative outlets like Weekly Standard. I'm a little concerned since the whole issue might turn into some sort of "phony soldier" type inquiry, which ultimately denigrates the political awakening of OIF/OEF vets. One thing the blogosphere hasn't come to grips with is that people in the military aren't unilateral in their political opinions like some Smurf village. Rather, you will see a variety of different commentary. Allow me to illustrate by opposing a dichotomy of views:

Criticism of left-leaning pundits: Certainly there has been equipment shortages in Iraq and Afghanistan under the Bush administration. But there has also been a lack of resources for probably every other soldier in every major conflict as Thus Spake Ortner at The Sniper mentions. However, it's not like the US Army is as ill-equipped as the Soviet Army during the Siege of Stalingrad. I hold the equivalent rank to a CPT in the Army, and I could easily make some off-hand comment to Sen. Obama's staff about being over-equipped. Case and point being the lousy 9mm that I have to schlepp around that was issued to me by the Army at FT. Jackson. As a Naval officer, I am a horrendous marksman, and also I certainly don't need it to perform my routine duties in Iraq of powerpoints, answering emails, and preparing briefs. A comment by a disgruntled officer like myself could provide some insight, but is not a basis to decide the entire US defense policy.

Criticism of right-leaning pundits: Please discontinue your belief that every member of the US military holds the same views as Rush Limbaugh. The presumption that everyone who isn't politically aligned with the neo-conservative world view must be "phony" or telling "bullshit" makes you look childish and emphasizes that you hold a weak argument. I can staple a DD 214 to my head when I'm out of uniform to appease you, but the CPT in question probably does have a legitamate gripe. The military IS stretched thin as thinking conservative Jules Crittenden mentions, and yes, that is the largely the fault of the Iraq war acrhitects who thought this thing would be over in a short period of time.

Just my .02, and vote Kingery for a brighter future. Uh, hopefully that prosperous future does not involve me being duct taped in the trunk of an '86 Crown Vic.

God Awful Article about the "Angry White Man"

As a member of the surly male coalition of bloggers, I find that this article is incredibly silly and sets our movement back ions: "In election 2008, don’t forget Angry White Man". I guess I'm white, but I don't think about it much since I don't believe in identity politics. None of the presidential candidates in the primaries exploit the race card either, so I'm not sure why this type of criticism was dredged up into the public domain. Gary Hubbell sounds off on why white males shouldn't vote Democrat (by way of Wonkette):

The victimhood syndrome buzzwords — “disenfranchised,” “marginalized” and “voiceless” — don’t resonate with him. “Press ‘one’ for English” is a curse-word to him. He’s used to picking up the tab, whether it’s the company Christmas party, three sets of braces, three college educations or a beautiful wedding.

I'm guessing Gary has some kind of chip on his shoulder about having three kids and they all needed braces, and that all his tax dollars went to those damn illegals. This could quite possibly make him the most persecuted man on planet Earth. I have a lot of reason to not be running to the Democrats with open arms, but Gary's not highlighting any of them. He then regales us with what a true "man" is:

He’s a man’s man, the kind of guy who likes to play poker, watch football, hunt white-tailed deer, call turkeys, play golf, spend a few bucks at a strip club once in a blue moon, change his own oil and build things. He coaches baseball, soccer and football teams and doesn’t ask for a penny.

This 1950s tough guy-speak of a man's man is falling on deaf ears as he tries to lump all caucasian males into Ward Cleaver at the Gentleman's Club (not that I'm above that sort of thing). This is a foolish attempt at playing on people's need to feel like an alpha-male in order to vote Republican. Politics is never that simplistic, and we must take the painful route of thoroughly examining all issues in this modern, complex world instead of meaninglessly voting for the candidate with the best hair or who "seems like a guy I would go fishin' with". Gary pretty much puts the nail in his own coffin with this line:

He’s not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race. He’s willing to give everybody a fair chance if they work hard, play by the rules and learn English.

There's certainly a lot of other events going on in the world to be angry at than the Denny's restroom sign being in Spanish and English. I admit to harboring a lot of bitterness and anger towards our current society of gross consumerism and apathy, but it's certainly not at the same level of rubeness as Mr. Hubbell. What gets my goat is that this article is in an Aspen paper. That's right, Aspen, home of ski bunnies, unaffordable housing, and apparently lots of "Angry White Men" who lounge in their sprawling estates and fuck their gorgeous wives in the hot tub overlooking the mountains. I don't believe in the politics of victimhood, and somehow, I'm not seeing this dude's plight.

An Angry White Man of Aspen (pictured grinning on the right with LL Bean scarf)