Oct 31
Mark at Kaedrin links to the continuing reports from artist Steve Mumford in Baghdad. The amazing thing is that it is the best eyewitness reporting coming out of Iraq right now, and it isn’t coming from the press but from an internet art magazine.
Just in case you haven’t been following:
Oct 31
The Sophorist links to a report that Leon Panetta stated on C-Span that Presidents Clinton and Bush received the same intellgence on Iraq WMD (i.e. that there was a danger). So Bush didn’t lie, President Clinton wasn’t wrong to at least bomb in 1998, and all those Democratic politicians weren’t wrong to speak out about the dangers of Iraq and support action against Iraq by both Presidents based on the intellegence at the time. What is wrong is for them to act like they never did such things in the past and the intellegence info was different under Bush.
Another blogger who is helping all Americans out by serving his country: Rich Galen at Mullings is going to Iraq to help the Department of Defense get the word out of Iraq. Good Luck.
Danielle Pletka had an op ed in the NYT the other day that argues that problems in Iraq (currently overblown in the media, but still real) aren’t caused by a lack of US troops, but a lack of Iraqi troops:
“The problem American commanders in the field face is not too few troops, but too little intelligence to act upon. And that problem is getting better as well. In the months since the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein, more Iraqis have been stepping forward with information — leading United States forces to Baathist fugitives and arms caches.This is the kind of work United States forces need to be doing. The time has come to get American troops back to this core mission, and take them out of the night watchman game. But even if we weren’t winning on the ground, the answer would not be to call up more reservists, but to train more Iraqis to do this kind of work. Indeed, virtually every task that could be done by additional American forces would be better assigned to Iraqis. Iraqis are directly plugged into intelligence. They speak the language, know the local population and are more sensitive to anomalies in behavior, dress and speech that give away bad actors. They are also perfectly capable of painting schools and directing traffic. Most important, a better Iraq will come about only if Iraqis themselves feel a sense of ownership.”
Right now, successfully replacing a murdering, terrorist supporting dictator with a half way decent, reasonably representative government in Iraq is critical to the US, but it is with no exaggeration a matter of life and death for Iraqis. For decades, they haven’t held their own futures in their own hands. Right now, they do. We can support them to the best of our abilities, but ultimately, what Iraq becomes is up to the Iraqis.
Link via Andrew Sullivan
Sep 23
The Saint Louis Post Dispatch is St. Louis’ only major daily newspaper. It’s not a very good paper, and tilts alarmingly to the left (though many a leftist also dislikes it). While I would have canceled my subscription long ago, the Other Fearless Leader has informed me that because we save more in coupons from the paper than we spend on it, we are not cancelling. Tightwad that I am, I have complied. At the last Midwest Blogbash, the idea of a PostWatch site was discussed and quickly dismissed because somebody would have to actually read it reguarly.
This morning over my breakfast, I felt compelled to write a couple of letters to people at the post. The first was over an article about the drop in City homicides. I sent the following letter:
I’m glad to read that homicide is down across the St. Louis Metro area. I found it odd that the focus of the article was on the city of St. Louis when, as you relate in the last quarter of the article, it showed one of the lowest homicide rate decreases. I suppose it is to be expected that the police and prosecutors pat themselves on the back, but it isn’t clear that the other jurisdictions are doing the same thing as the city and thus it isn’t clear that the undoubtedly fine police and prosecutorial work is the cause. Perhaps a follow up article could shed more light on this.
That’s right, the article was all about how the City of St. Louis had a big drop in homicides, had quotes from prosecutors saying what a great job the prosecutors were doing and how the locals and feds were cooperating, had quotes from the police about how their aggressive police work was paying off. And then at the end they let on that St. Louis County had a larger drop in the homicide rate, along with the all the neighboring counties in Missouri. No back pats for these guys, though.
Then, a headline for a front page article set me off (I can’t give a URL for that because the miserable Post website only puts selected articles on the net), and here’s my letter for that one:
I noticed on today’s front page a sub heading about the suicide bombing in Iraq says “attacks across nation intensify”. In what way have they intensified? Are they more frequent, more deadly, involve larger numbers of attackers? Given that it is over an article about a repeat bombing that wasn’t as bad as the first one, it seems to be particularly inappropriate. I’ve been reading that the attacks have been intensifying ever since early May, shortly after President Bush declared an end to major combat operations. This is odd, since just before the intensification process started we were fighting a major war. I have yet to see a chart showing the intensity of combat versus time in Iraq, yet many media outlets tell me over and over that the attacks have intensified. Quite frankly, not only is it not supported by anything in the article, I don’t think it’s supported by the facts in Iraq. Please keep the headline(s) closer to the facts of the article.
I’m sure I’ll get a nice email blah blah blah but nothing will change. The Post gives me a choice – either get my news off the net, or get my news from late night talk hosts.
UPDATE: No replies to my email so far, but Andrew Sullivan linked to an oped in the NYT that claims attacks have declined from an average of 25 a day in July to about 15 a day today – still too many, but certainly refutes the claim of “intensifying attacks”.
Sep 19
The Wall Street Journal ran a condensed version of a briefing by the officer in charge of investigating the looting of the Iraq National Museum (long version complete with slides used is available at DefenseLINK). Roughly 13,500 items were stolen; about 3,500 of those have been recovered. While that sounds like a lot, most of the items were small – over 10,000 were taken from a single basement storage area and could fit in a single, large backpack. Some of the items were huge – one statue weighed over 300 pounds. Numbers alone don’t tell the story.
There were random looters who grabbed what they could, professionals who knew what was worth stealing, and one group that knew the museum and where to find keys to the basement storage vaults. Fortunately, they dropped the keys, lost them in the extensive litter, and then had to flee from the smoke of the fire they started looking for the keys. They recovered fingerprints off of these guys which didn’t match any of the staff who have returned (or US soldiers). And yes, the museum was used as a fighting position during the war.
A lot of items (over 1,700) were turned in by ordinary Iraqi’s – most of whom wanted to be clear that they were turning them into the American’s soldiers for safekeeping until a new government came to power because the old museum staff was too closely identified with the Baath Party. Interesting stuff. Oh yeah, the person arrested most recently over this was a journalist entering the US with 3 of the cylinder seals that were stolen.
Aug 8
Instapundit linked to a post of Chris Regan’s at Junkyard Blog that picked up a NewsMax story that said the planes may be equiped with Russian and French made electronics that were sold in violation of the post Gulf War embargo. Chris goes on to state that the planes is a Foxbat “D”, and possibly the latest D variant, the RBSh. Well, I looked at the photos, and I don’t think so. So I commented, and Chris agrees with me. I could have gone over to Tacitus who has a very large Power Point presentation of pictures from the excavation where the plane is labeled as a Foxbat B.
So I think it’s settled that it’s a Foxbat B model (which referes to the airframe), which is a pre-embargo model. But from the pictures you can’t tell what the electronics are. They could be standard issue Russian stuff (RBT or RBF), or they could be something special for the Iraqi’s. A friend of mine once worked on a radar upgrade for Egyptian MiG-21’s; maybe the Russians, or a possibility according to the reporting, the French put something together just for the Iraqi’s (or maybe the French and Russians have been working together on upgrades), or even less likely but still possible, the Iraqi’s put together something for themselves (they did develop their own extended range SCUDs). Only the intel guys know and they aren’t talking (yet).
While it isn’t settled that anybody violated the embargo, it does point up the difficulty in finding WMD or any other contraband in Iraq. Bury it in the desert, kill the people who buried it (Saddam started out as a leg breaker who graduated to assassin for the Baath Party) and viola, WMD all gone (I know I read that idea someplace else first, but I can’t find where – sorry).
Jun 25
There’s a lot of ominous talk in certain circles about Iraq being a new Vietnam quagmire because of the outbreak of Guerrilla Warfare. Well, I admit to being an optimist by nature. But I do think there are a few things to keep in mind.
First, it isn’t clear that the attacks in Iraq are being carried out by new organizations or remnants of Hussein’s regime. To me, the former is far more troubling than the latter, because it indicates a new opposition to America among the Iraqi people and not just the continuing resistance of a defunct and discredited regime.
Second, the guerrillas in Vietnam (the Viet Cong) were destroyed by 1968 as a meaningful force. It was the regular forces of North Vietnam that fought the US for the final five years of our involvement and eventually overcame the South. Guerrilla warfare shouldn’t hold any special terror for the United States, although it does tend to frustrate our desire for quick solutions.
Third, Vietnam was a quagmire because of the quality and leadership of the US Armed Forces, most importantly in the earlier stages of the war when opinion turned against it and became set. General Westmoreland picked a strategy of attrition, and tried to fight large battles. The experience of Vietnam sparked a host of reforms that have become ingrained and have led to the current outstanding quality of our Armed Forces and current leadership. Consequently, the US hasn’t fought battles of attrition since, and understands that small actions can be as important as large ones. There is always room for improvement, and that is something that is understood throughout the ranks.
Wars can always be lost. While I feel that the United States is a special place, that doesn’t mean that we always do the right thing, or that we can’t be beaten. Iraq still hangs in the balance, and will for some time. There are many troubling reports, and there are many reassuring reports, and the situation is confusing. Certainty comes more from people’s prior views than anything that is happening in Iraq. But as I said, I’m an optimist by nature, and while failure in Iraq would be bad for us, it would be far worse for the Iraqi’s.
Jun 18
U.S forces in Iraq just captured the fourth most wanted Iraqi criminal. When you consider that the three above him are all named Hussein, as in Saddam and his two sons, you realize he’s a big catch. And they didn’t just find him – they found millions in various currencies, and millions in gems and jewels. The 4th ID bagged him as part of their raids around Tikrit. Maybe the ambushes against U.S forces aren’t spontaneous guerrilla warfare, but the last gasp of a dead regime.
Jun 6
Okay, I can’t help myself. Here’s another story about getting things right in Iraq [via Virginia Postrel]:
“Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace, commander of V Corps, in charge of Army operations in Iraq, wanted to make an immediate difference in the lives of the people in Baghdad’s poorest neighborhoods. Long neglected or actively repressed by Saddam’s regime, they now were despairing because their trash was gathering uncollected in the streets, their police force had vanished, or was powerless to protect them from crime, drains were backing up, pure water was impossible to find and many other things were just going wrong while the governing occupation authorities promised much, but delivered little improvement. Wallace’s assignment was for Martin, as the corp’s engineer, to apply the Army’s engineering capabilities to help solve some of the people’s problems.”
…
“Spec. Jessica Schmitz, a mechanic with 561st Medical Co., 30th Medical Brigade, says she came to provide security for her unit’s dental clinic at the soccer stadium project. “I just wanted to come down and see this,” she says. “I think it gives purpose to what we’re doing.”
The story is so well written and flows so well, it’s hard to excerpt it in a meaningful way, so go read it.
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