To hear John McCain tell it, you'd think the fall-off in American casualties in Iraq is due solely to his foresight and foreign policy experience. It's amazing to me just how many people have bought the McCain line, even those who should know better. "As we now know nearly four years later," a Newsweek commentator recently noted, "McCain was dead on in his analysis of what went wrong in Iraq ... McCain was so right that, among military experts today, the emerging conventional wisdom about Bush's current 'surge' is that if had occurred back then -- when McCain wanted it and the political will existed in this country to support it for the necessary number of years -- it might well have succeeded."
From Huffington Post and by Lt. General Robert G. Gard Jr. (USA, Ret.)
Huntington Post link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lt-general-robert-g-gard-jr-/marketing-a-myth-how-john_b_112477.html
http://tinyurl.com/59tqfu
What a bunch of bunk.
Since the beginning of this year, military experts that I've talked to argue that the fall-off in violence in Iraq had almost nothing to do with the increase in American troop levels -- and everything to do with actually talking with and supporting the previous insurgents.
Recent published reports confirm that talks with the insurgents began all the way back in December of 2003, when military officers met with Sunni insurgent leaders in Amman, Jordan. Not only that, but when those talks were actually opposed by the administration, the military went ahead with the talks anyway.
But don't take my word for it, go back and read what General David Petraeus told the Congress in April of 2007, before the surge was actually in place. Back then, Petraeus told the Congress that the levels of violence in Iraq were down significantly and that "the tribes" were the key to that transformation.
Let me repeat that: recruiting the Sunni tribes (and not the surge) has been the key to success in Iraq, along with the stand-down of the Mahdi Army. Petraeus is not alone in his thinking. The tribes of Anbar joined U.S. forces, according to U.S. Captain Jay McGee -- an intelligence officer with the 69th Armored Regiment -- because "everyone is convinced Coalition forces are going to leave and they are saying, 'We do not want Al Qaeda to take control of the area when that happens."
This isn't exactly new information. Dozens of American newspapers and magazines have documented how the military recruited Iraq's Sunni tribes as our allies -- the same tribes that had once been fighting us. And all of this began before the U.S. increased the number of troops in the country. So let's stop taking John McCain's claim, his myth, at face value.
The increase in American troops in Iraq had nothing to do with defeating the Iraqi insurgency and everything to do with actually talking with them. To claim otherwise is to market a myth and it's time for John McCain to acknowledge it -- to give credit where credit is due: to those fine officers of our military who decided to talk, even as the administration continued to beat the war drums.
Lt. General Robert G. Gard Jr. (USA, Ret.) is the steering committee chairman of Vets for Obama. Visit their official site or join them on Facebook.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
HOW McCAIN GOT THE SURGE WRONG
BREAKING NEWS: LATEST REPORT ON VIOLENCE IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The following is a list of violence in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, we start off our report with the latest casualty report of a U.S. soldier. For additional details click on the "BLUE" in each incident.
SOURCE: http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/
Casualty Reports:Lance Cpl. Justin Rokohl, 21, suffered numerous injuries in a roadside bomb blast that tore through his Humvee on June 20 as he and his unit were delivering mail in southern Afghanistan. Since then, Rokohl has undergone multiple surgeries to repair his broken back and most recently lost his legs, the left above the knee and the right below the knee, according to family spokesman David Cole, pastor of Cross Trails Cowboy Church in Orange Grove.
War News for Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Reported Security incidents:Baghdad:#1: An Iraqi minister survived a roadside bomb explosion near his convoy in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday morning, an Interior Ministry source said. "Waheed Kareem, minister of electricity, escaped unhurt from a roadside bomb explosion targeting his convoy in Zayouna neighborhood," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. Kareem was heading for his work during the attack which wounded two bystanders, the source said.Three bodyguards of Electricity Minister Kareem Waheed and two civilians were wounded when his motorcade came under an improvised explosive device attack in eastern Baghdad on Tuesday, police said.
#2: Monday Two unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad by Iraqi Police today; one in Waziriyah and the other in Sheikh Maroof.Diyala Prv:
Baquba:#1: Two suicide bombers detonated explosives-laden vests, one after the other, outside an Iraqi army base Tuesday, killing at least 28 people and wounding 55 others, officials said. Most of the casualties were army recruits, the Interior Ministry and hospital officials said. The attacks occurred outside the recruitment center at Saad military base in Baquba, about 37 miles (60 km) north of Baghdad. An Interior Ministry official said the attacks targeted recruits who were waiting outside the base Tuesday morning. The U.S. military confirmed the twin attacks but gave a lower figure for the casualties.At least 35 people have been killed and more than 50 injured in a double suicide bombing north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, army sources say. The two attackers mingled with a crowd of would-be recruits at an army base in the city of Baquba and then blew themselves up simultaneously, they say. At least one of the bombers is said to have been disguised as a soldier
.Iskandariya:#1: A bomb killed one member of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrol unit and wounded another on Monday in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.
Basra:#1: An Iranian Coast Guard patrol opened fire upon an Iraqi fisherman fishing in Iraqi waters off the coast of Fao district 100 km to the south of Basra City, said Iraqi Police. The fisherman was hit squarely in the back and barely made it to hospital.
Tikrit:#1: Around 9am a bomb planted inside a police car detonated in downtown Tikrit city. The policeman was injured in that incident.
Kirkuk:#1: Three Quick Intervention Force personnel were wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) went off near their patrol in central Kirkuk on Tuesday, a police source in the city said. "An IED went off today near the Baghdad Garage, in central Kirkuk, when a Quick Intervention force patrol was passing by, wounding three of them and causing damage to their vehicle," the source, who asked not to have his name mentioned, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.
Mosul:#1: Two Iraqi women were killed in an attack by unidentified gunmen in eastern Mosul city on Tuesday, a security source in Ninewa province said. "Two gunmen in a civilian vehicle opened fire at two women in the area of al-Karama, eastern Mosul, killing them instantly," the source, who refused to be named, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.
#2: "A roadside vehicle rigged with explosives went off near an Iraqi army patrol in the area of 17 Tammuz, western Mosul, wounding six people, including two patrol men," a police source who spoke only on condition of anonymity told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq.
#3: In another incident, "a suicide bomber was trying to ram his explosive vehicle into an Iraqi police checkpoint in al-Nour neighborhood, eastern Mosul, when security personnel opened fire on him before he could reach the point. One of the policemen was killed in the explosion," Maj. General Khaled Hussein al-Hamadani, the Mosul police chief, told VOI.
#4: An explosives-rigged car detonated on Tuesday in front of a security agency building in northern Mosul city, but no casualties were reported, a local security source said. "Today, a car bomb parked in front of a security agency building in al-Hay al-Arabi area, northern Mosul, blew up, leaving no casualties," the source, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq.
Afghanistan:#1: Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense says that seven insurgents have been killed in fighting in eastern Afghanistan. The statement says the clash on Monday happened in Wanat, a village in Nuristan province where on Sunday nine U.S. soldiers were killed when militants breached their remote base.
#2: Unknown gunmen kidnapped two Turkish nationals working on construction project in western Afghanistan, a senior police official said. Kidnapping has become a lucrative business in Afghanistan, where dozens of locals and foreigners have been abducted by criminals or Taliban-linked militants. "The Turkish engineers were working on a project in the town of Islam Qala, bordering Iran, where they were kidnapped from the vehicle yesterday afternoon," regional Police Chief Abdul Rahoof Ahmadi said.
#3: Taliban insurgents killed eight civilian passengers they seized from vehicles in Ghazni province on Monday, an official said on Tuesday. A Taliban source in the province confirmed the incident, saying those killed were spies of U.S.-led forces.
#4: A roadside bomb killed six civilians in southeastern Paktika province on Monday, an official said.
#5: Insurgents have suffered "heavy casualties" after attacking national army posts overnight in Wardak province which lies on a vital highway linking the capital with the southern and western regions, the defence ministry said on Tuesday.
CNN BREAKING NEWS: TWIN ATTACKS KILL 22 IRAQI ARMY RECRUITS AND WOUND 57 OTHERS AND STILL FOX NEWS CLAIMS IRAQ IS PEACEFUL
Twin attacks kill Iraqi army recruits
From Mohammed Tawfeeq
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/15/iraq.violence/index.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Two suicide bombers detonated explosives-laden vests, one after the other, outside an Iraqi army base in Baquba Tuesday morning, killing at least 22 people and wounding 57 others, officials said.
Most of the casualties were army recruits, the Interior Ministry said.
The attacks targeted them, as they were waiting outside the base, an official at the Ministry said.
Baquba is about 37 miles (60 kilometers) north of Baghdad.
With all this happening in Iraq, FOX NEWS still has unmitigaed gall to try and peddle to their braindead audience that things are getting better in Iraq.
Show me ONE person in this world who gets their news from FOX NEWS and I will show you th dumbest SOB that ever walked the face of this planet.
Bill Corcoran, Editor of Corksphere, the hottest blog on the internet about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, url: http://corksphere.blogspot.com/
