Commanders Say Push in Baghdad Is Short of Goal

[rodeodance]

Source: nytimes




June 4, 2007
Commanders Say Push in Baghdad Is Short of Goal

By DAVID S. CLOUD and DAMIEN CAVE

BAGHDAD, June 3 — Three months after the start of the Baghdad security plan that has added thousands of American and Iraqi troops to the capital, they control fewer than one-third of the city’s neighborhoods, far short of the initial goal for the operation, according to some commanders and an internal military assessment.

The American assessment, completed in late May, found that American and Iraqi forces were able to “protect the population” and “maintain physical influence over” only 146 of the 457 Baghdad neighborhoods.

In the remaining 311 neighborhoods, troops have either not begun operations aimed at rooting out insurgents or still face “resistance,” according to the one-page assessment, which was provided to The New York Times and summarized reports from brigade and battalion commanders in Baghdad.

The assessment offers the first comprehensive look at the progress of the effort to stabilize Baghdad with the heavy influx of additional troops. The last remaining American units in the troop increase are just now arriving.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/04/world/middleeast/04surge.html?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print

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well, when they control 51% in September it will be a Victory/Progress?

[acmavm]

1. Masters of understatement, 'short of goal'. What bullshit. There

is not goal because there's no friggin' light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

[Maeve]

2. And just who around here is surprised???

what, in this FUBAR mess HAS gone "as expected" by the misAdministration?
:eyes:

[gratuitous]

3. Short of the goal? Is that failure or success?

What is the goal? Half? Three-quarters? What, right now, is the goal we're looking for in September? What would be classified as "succeeding beyond our wildest dreams"? What would be deemed "meeting expectations"? What would "short of the goal, but encouraging" look like? And what would our commanders on the ground, those know-all sages of the military so beloved by Bush call an "unacceptable" result?

And what is Plan B if the result in September is unacceptable? Or are we to be jerked around by an ever-shifting list of goals and benchmarks such that no one can possibly know or evaluate anything, so we just kick the deadline down the field another three, six or 15 months?

[montanto]

4. So I guess that means that

I can't just stroll around any neighborhood in Bagdad without security?
Sheesh, I wonder if I can get a refund on those plane tickets.