The Final Mission, Part III
Via Michael Totten: The Final Mission, Part III.
READ.IT.ALL.
Exerpt:
You know who else is in Iraq and therefore knows what the country is really like? Iraqis. (Of course.) They see and experience much of the same kinds of events George Packer and I have seen and experienced. They don’t learn about Iraq from Reuters and Hollywood. And they are less anti-American than they were during the initial invasion in 2003 – at least many of those who have had sustained contact with Marines and soldiers. Sustained contact with the “other” breaks down bigotry all around, even in war zones.
The violent strain of anti-Americanism in Fallujah and the surrounding area has ebbed almost completely. People here know Americans are not the enemy. They know Americans protect them from murder and intimidation from the head-choppers and car bombers. They know Americans provide medical care to Iraqis hurt by insurgents and even to insurgents wounded in battle.
If the Iraqis who listen to the Marines’ lectures on human rights and the rules of engagement ever took seriously the once common comparison between the American invasion of 2003 and the bloodthirsty Mongol invasion of the 13th Century, they certainly don’t anymore. They may not absorb all the lessons of their coursework, and they may still resent the American presence on principle to an extent, but at least they know what Americans really are like as people and warriors. The class taught by Lieutenant Eric Montgomery wasn’t designed with public relations in mind, but it has that effect all the same.
Again, READ.IT.ALL. and pass it on to everyone you know. That is the only way to convert ignorant, liberal douchebags to military/war effort supporters.
Also see: Blackfive – Iraqi Politics at The Long War Journal
February 15, 2008 , 12:45AM Posted by Michael in MI | COIN, Embed Bloggers, Iraq, Liberalism, Michael Totten, Military, Operation Iraqi Freedom, The Long War, US Marines, War Effort in Iraq | Comments Off on The Final Mission, Part III
Al Qaeda in Iraq is Crumbling
Via Charles Johnson at LGF: Al Qaeda Documents Show They’re in Big Trouble
There’s new evidence tonight that Al Qaeda in Iraq is falling apart: U.S. Military Says Seized Docs Show Al Qaeda in Iraq Is Weakened.
BAGHDAD — A diary and another document seized during U.S. raids show some Al Qaeda in Iraq leaders fear the terror group is crumbling, with many fighters defecting to American-backed neighborhood groups, the U.S. military said Sunday.
The military revealed two documents discovered by American troops in November: a 39-page memo written by a mid- to high-level Al Qaeda official with knowledge of the group’s operations in Iraq’s western Anbar province, and a 16-page diary written by another group leader north of Baghdad.
Click here for the English translation of the diary. (PDF)
Click here for the original version of the diary. (PDF)
In the Anbar document, the author describes an Al Qaeda in crisis, with citizens growing weary of militants’ presence and foreign fighters too eager to participate in suicide missions rather than continuing to fight, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a U.S. military spokesman.
“We lost cities and afterward, villages… We find ourselves in a wasteland desert,” Smith quoted the document as saying.
The memo — believed to have been written in summer 2007 — cites militants’ increasing difficulty in moving around and transporting weapons and suicide belts because of better equipped Iraqi police and more watchful citizens, Smith said.
David Ignatius of the Washington Post also nails the point that those who were saying “more troops!” was the answer were completely missing the point of what works in Iraq in COIN operations:
Traveling in Iraq and Afghanistan in late January, I kept encountering two themes that cut across the usual U.S. political debate about these conflicts: The hard-nosed operations of U.S. Special Forces are increasingly effective, and so are the soft-power tactics of provincial reconstruction teams.
The debate over troop numbers may be missing the point. What’s making the real difference isn’t how many Americans are on the ground but how they are being used. That’s true at both ends of the spectrum — hard power and soft. And, as commanders learn to use these tools of counterinsurgency effectively, they may also be able to operate with fewer people and a lighter footprint.
As I said before, Senator McCain was wrong.
Also, as Charles Johnson notes, so too was Senator Obama, who stated last August that the war effort in Iraq was a “Complete Failure“. Note above that the memo citing the failure of Al Qaeda was written last summer… right around the time that Presidential Candidate Obama was declaring Iraq a “Complete Failure”.
Yet this man is set to become the Presidential Candidate for the Democrat Party. Brilliant.
February 10, 2008 , 8:31PM Posted by Michael in MI | al Qaeda, Barack Obama, COIN, Iraq, John McCain, Military, Terrorism, The Long War, War Effort in Iraq | Comments Off on Al Qaeda in Iraq is Crumbling
Sorry, John McCain, You Were Wrong on the Surge
Not that the average voter even has a damn clue about what the “surge” offensive was actually about, since they spend their time getting their news from the mass media and morons like Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews and those leading organizations of military strategic thought such as CODE PINK, Think Progress, Moveon.org, et al. Ask anyone if they read MILBLOGS and I bet you get a blank stare. Ask them if they even know what is a MILBLOG and I bet you get an even blanker stare.
The fact is the commentor RC at Protein Wisdom is exactly right. Every time I hear John McCain and his idiotic ranting about “leading the way on the surge” or whatever bullshit he peddles, I want to scream. I am really sick of his lying bullshit and pandering to the ignorant idiots of our society who don’t even know what the “surge” is.
As an only slightly OT point, I’m way past sick and tired of McCain claiming the current strategy is what he had been calling for all along. The only thing the dumbass was calling for was more troops to “lock down” Iraq. That is not at all what is going on. It may be too nuanced for Mr. Maverick but the extra troops were not sent to “lock down” anything. They were sent to provide a continuing presence in small locations to help stand up local Iraqi assets and build relationships at the sub federal level since it became obvious that clearing and handing over to Iraqi forces wouldn’t work until competent Iraqi organizations were available and they weren’t coming from centralized training fast enough to do the trick. If some of the Iraqi’s see our troops as an occupying army think of how many more actual moderate Iraqi’s would have joined any sort of resistance force if we had tried to “lock down” Iraq with more troops. For many Iraqi’s our troops have simply become members of the Amerika tribe and are allied with their tribe and country. Never could have happened under McCains “plan” (BTW, sending more troops is not a plan it’s just sending more troops). [ … ]
February 3, 2008 , 4:37PM Posted by Michael in MI | 2008 Presidential Election, COIN, Iraq, John McCain, War Effort in Iraq | 1 Comment
Sounds of Iraq One Year After Surge: Laughter of Iraqi Children
Hopefully you have already read about the Continued Success and Progress in Iraq. If not, just click on that link and go read about it now.
In addition to that, Laughing Wolf at Blackfive has put together a great Blackfive TV video about “The Surge at One Year: Handshake for the Future”
[You can watch all videos from Blackfive here]
January 12, 2008 , 1:21AM Posted by Michael in MI | COIN, Iraq, Military, The Long War, War Effort in Iraq | Comments Off on Sounds of Iraq One Year After Surge: Laughter of Iraqi Children
ABOUT
“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life.
But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.
To quote from Whitman, “O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless… of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?”
Answer. That you are here – that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.
That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?” — Professor John Keating, Dead Poets Society (1989)
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“Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon.”
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“A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.”
—Ronald Reagan 1975
“Don’t give up your ideals, don’t compromise, don’t turn to expediency — and don’t, for heaven’s sake, having seen the inner workings of the watch — don’t get cynical.”
—Ronald Reagan, 1976
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Rorschach’s Journal. November 12th, 1985: Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout “Save us!”… and I’ll whisper “no.”
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“You see, Doctor, God didn’t kill that little girl. Fate didn’t butcher her and destiny didn’t feed her to those dogs. If God saw what any of us did that night, He didn’t seem to mind. From then on I knew… God doesn’t make the world this way. We do.“
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“Men get arrested. Dogs get put down.”
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“And I am reminded, on this holy day, of the sad story of Kitty Genovese. As you all may remember, a long time ago, almost thirty years ago, this poor soul cried out for help time and time again, but no person answered her calls. Though many saw, no one so much as called the police. They all just watched as Kitty was being stabbed to death in broad daylight. They watched as her assailant walked away. Now, we must all fear evil men. But there is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men. —Monsignor, Boondock Saints (1999)
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“Never shall innocent blood be shed, yet the blood of the wicked shall flow like a river. The Three shall spread their blackened wings and be the vengeful striking hammer of God.” —Il Duce, Boondock Saints (1999)
———- ———- ———-
“Now you will receive us. We do not ask for your poor, or your hungry. We do not want your tired and sick. It is your corrupt we claim. It is your evil that will be sought by us. With every breath we shall hunt them down. Each day, we will spill their blood till it rains down from the skies. Do not kill, do not rape, do not steal, these are principles which every man of every faith can embrace. These are not polite suggestions, these are codes of behavior and those of you that ignore them will pay the dearest cost. There are varying degrees of evil, we urge you lesser forms of filth not to push the bounds and cross over, into true corruption, into our domain. For if you do, one day you will look behind you and you will see we three. And on that day, you will reap it. And we will send you to whatever god you wish. And shepherds we shall be, for Thee, my Lord, for Thee. Power hath descended forth from Thy hand, that our feet may swiftly carry out Thy command. So we shall flow a river forth to Thee, and teeming with souls shall it ever be. In nomine Patri. Et Fili. Spiritus Sancti.” —Boondock Saints (1999)
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