U.S. military commanders fear Iraqi forces cannot hold areas seized with American blood

[bigtree]

June 26, 2007 12:12 PM
Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) - American military commanders now seriously doubt that Iraqi security forces will be able to hold the ground that U.S. troops are fighting to clear - gloomy predictions that strike at the heart of Washington's key strategy to turn the tide in Iraq.

Several senior American officers have warned in recent days that Iraqi soldiers and police are still incapable of maintaining security on their own in the most crucial areas, including Baghdad and the recently reclaimed districts around Baqouba to the north.

Iraqi units are supposed to be moving into position to take the baton from the Pentagon. This was the backbone of the plan President Bush announced in January when he ordered to five more U.S. brigades, or about 30,000 soldiers, to Iraq. The goal is to reduce the violence to a level where the Iraqis can cope so that Americans can begin to go home.


To the south, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch says he's mapped out plans to stem the flow of roadside bombs into Baghdad from the outskirts of the capital.

''The issue is we can't stay here forever and there's got to be a persistent presence and that's got to be Iraqi security forces,'' Lynch said. ''And that's always our biggest concern.''

All that sounds quite different from the assurances Bush gave in January - that Iraqi forces would succeed this time - when he announced the U.S. buildup.

''In earlier operations, Iraqi and American forces cleared many neighborhoods of terrorists and insurgents, but when our forces moved on to other targets, the killers returned,'' Bush said. ''This time, we'll have the force levels we need to hold the areas that have been cleared.''

report: http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=565040456007026190

[KansDem]

1. Don't worry...they have until September.

:sarcasm:

[Vinca]

2. Yeah - just keep throwing warm, American bodies at the problem.

As long as their not your kids (Jenna, Babs), who cares?:mad:

[endarkenment]

3. "hold the ground that U.S. troops are fighting to clear "

Which would be a complete pile of total bullshit. We are occupying Iraq and fighting an insurgency. There is no 'ground to clear', there is only occupied Iraq. Consider Fallujah, ground 'we cleared' two years ago in a bloody and criminal siege. State of the art clearage was employed on that ground. And yet two years later Fallujah remains hostile, unsafe, part of the disaster of anbar province. Absent outright genocide, rather than the slow kind we are now practicing, there is no possiblity of "clearing ground". Now about the supposed Iraqi army that is going to 'hold' this 'cleared ground', which militia units are we sending in? Shiite militias to hold sunni regions? That is not going to work. Sunni militias to hold sunni regions? That has the possibility of appearing to work, as in they won't be chased out and/or slaughtered outright, but instead will simply go through the motions of doing whatever their nominal bosses tell them to do while being part of the insurgency itself.

[bigtree]

7. It's like in Vietnam

they 'hold ground' and the line on someone's map moves, that's all.

Relief Web describes it from the perspective of the Iraqis who are being driven out by the escalated occupation. All they are managing is to push Iraqis around in their occupied zone. The rest of Iraq's millions do whatever they please, as they should. This is nothing more than a hunkered down defense of their junta.

[coalition_unwilling]

11. We had to destroy Fallujah in order to save it -n/t

[tonkatoy57]

14. What you said...

That's the thing that leaped off the page at me. "Holding ground"? How do you hold ground in a guerilla war? All your opponent has to do when you show up is melt back into the general population.

There are two things that trouble me about this whole misbegotten clusterfuck. One, why did the military, which knew the probable outcome of invading Iraq, allow itself to be steamrolled? And number two, why in an institution like the military, which proports to place "honor" high on the list of desired attributes for their officers were there not resignations of senior officers? It would have been both the "honorable" thing to do and it would have sent a message to the country that this enterprise was destined to be mistake of epic proportions.

(Before someone answers my question they only two things I can think of are "duty" to their men and rampant careerism.)

[Bonhomme Richard]

4. Gee, it was my understanding that the surge was to be done...

by assisting the Iraqi troops take control of areas. At least that was how the pentagon and WH sold it.

[emilyg]

5. Stop spilling American blood.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. Oh, my God, that headline hits hard. Blood on so many hands. nt

[bigtree]

10. Associated Press Writer

ROBERT H. REID

[malaise]

8. Duh!!

Tell Bush his fugging gig is up.

[guitar man]

9. Anybody who says

this isn't Vietnam all over again is out of their damn gourd!! :grr:

[coalition_unwilling]

12. I've taken to calling it "Iraq-nam" in homage to the many

obvious and not-so-obvious parallels. Next up: the creation of a Iraqi National Liberation Front, formed by fused elements of al Sadr's Mahdi Army and various elements of the Sunni Resistance.

[guitar man]

18. yep, that's it

"Iraqnam"

Same mistake, different country.......:grr:

[Javaman]

13. "Wake Me Up When September Ends"

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends

like my fathers come to pass
seven years has gone so fast
wake me up when september ends

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are

as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when september ends

summer has come and passed
the innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends

ring out the bells again
like we did when spring began
wake me up when september ends

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are

as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when september ends

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends

like my father's come to pass
twenty years has gone so fast
wake me up when september ends
wake me up when september ends
wake me up when september ends

[DeepModem Mom]

15. Thank you. Tears here, at the song and the headline. Damn you, George Bush. nt

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

16. OH! I SEE WHERE THESE EFFERS ARE GOING: PULL OUT,...

,...TAKE THE U.S.A. 2008 ELECTIONS,...GO FORWARD WITH PNAC!!!

My crystal ball dictates that's what these fuckers have 'learned' from history.

Hope,...it is wrong. We'll see.

[Sapere aude]

17. Just get the hell out, let the pieces fall were they may and clean up afterwords.

How fucking long will we put up with this shit? You know they just want the oil, the sooner we get out the sooner the Iraqis will fight it out among themselves.

There is no pretty picture to be made out of this.

[Phredicles]

19. Right, we can start cutting reparations checks once we know who to make 'em out to.

[Sapere aude]

20. Why not start writing the checks now instead of killing people and paying Halliburton?

[Phredicles]

21. I agree about removing Haliburton, but who do we make the checks out to?

By which I mean, what real government or other institutions are in place to make us of them?

[Sapere aude]

22. Families of Iraqis who have been killed by the US

[Phredicles]

24. That IS a good start, but there's also the question of rebuilding the society

as a whole.

[Sapere aude]

25. That will take a long time and lots of money. We need help from the rest of the world.

[Phredicles]

26. The world will say, You made that mess - you can pay for the repairs.

[Sapere aude]

28. Yes you are right but we helped out Europe in 1946 maybe we can get some help back.

[madokie]

23. the bushie boys have a mess on their hands and the American people are starting to wake up

and ask question and if there is one thing the bushie boys can't pass and that is scrutiny. bushco* is going down

[Monk06]

27. You can't bail out a lifeboat with an ax. n/t