Military Strykers Bring Initial Safety to Baghdad

Deaths Are Down Two Weeks After Expanded Military Effort Begins
By TERRY MCCARTHY

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 22, 2006 — - Military Stryker vehicles saturating Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods have been credited with what Iraqi authorities say is a 30 percent drop in violence in the city since the deployment of 5,000 additional U.S. troops to the region.

While U.S. figures show a 22 percent drop in violence, either way, its good news for the troops.

"It's been great. We get a lot of smiles and waves," said Lt. Patrick Paterson of the 114th Cavalry.

One of the most dramatic changes has occurred in the Dora neighborhood. In July up to 20 people were killed in the area every day. As part of this new military effort, U.S. and Iraqi troops have been searching thousands of buildings in an effort to stop car bombs.

"We established entry control points where we inspect, even now, every single vehicle [moving] in and out," said Col. Michael Beech, the commander of the 4th Brigade, 4th Infantry Division.

And there are signs it's working. During 14 days of patrols in Dora, there has been just one killing.

Similar success has occurred on Mechanic Street in southern Baghdad, generally considered among the most dangerous routes in the city. Now American troops patrol the region and people increasingly feel it is safe to frequent the street's businesses.

"I am happy because we are safe. … The stores are open, and we can move around freely," said Majid al-Asawa in Arabic.

The added U.S. troops were brought in after a military operation earlier this summer flooded Baghdad with Iraqi forces, only to find the violence worsened. U.S. commanders say the additional American firepower can be only a temporary solution.

"It has to be the Iraq people with the Iraqi security forces that ultimately bring success and security to Baghdad," Beech said.

But hope has often gone sour in Iraq. If the country's political leaders cannot make their own peace, America's latest success in Baghdad could quickly reverse.


http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage/story?id=2344042

They can blow up tanks.

They'll blow up Strykers.

This is a bandaid on a sucking chest wound LeninFlux. It's nothing.

The only thing that will solve the problems of the Sunni triangle will be something drastic. Bush isn't gonna do it, and the international community has its head so far up their asses that they won't even touch it with a twelve foot pole.

The opinions I've heard about the new operation is that it works really well in the short term, but the insurgents just leave the area for a while, move to a new neighborhood, and when teh military presence dies down, they come back. In the end it really does no permanent damage to them, it just keeps them laying low for a short time. Unless we want to keep this up forever, this is no solution to the problem.

Fair enough, Little Wing and punkdavid. But what else can we do at this point?

The international community, as Little Wing accurately stated, is not going anywhere near Iraq, so we can forget UN or NATO involvement. This, of course, would be a good solution but they can't get a force together to police the Israeli/Lebanese border.

I've heard extremist views such as - "Martial Law and a strict curfew in Baghdad. Anyone caught wandering the streets after the curfew is shot on site." This will last a day or two until some kid goes wandering out looking for his dog and takes one in the head.

I think this is the only thing we can do for now. In fact, I agree with Senator McCain that we still don't have enough troops. If we poured another 150,000 troops into the hot spots and if that quieted all of this killing then we could focus on finishing up training the Iraqi military/police and then get the hell out of there.
In the end we cannot stop trained Iraqi soldiers and police from taking part in a civil war, but we have to at least give this a chance. We can't focus on training when we are running around putting out fires (flames of violence).

This article at least gave me some hope that this could be part of an exit strategy.

Are you in the military?

If not, I hate to sound like a dick (ok not really) but you first.

A bomb blew up under my buddy's Stryker about 3-4 weeks ago. Vehicle was totaled, no injuries.

It's pretty hard to argue that more troops would help to stem the violence, I just don't think that in the long term it solves any problems. It just pushes things under the surface. Once the troops eventually leave (you do expect them to leave EVENTUALLY, right?), the violence will pop back up. While our presence in Iraq has undoubtedly fueled the violence, it is not the root cause of it, and neither our presence nor our absence will make it go away.

That's why I'm in favor of getting out as soon as we can. It's just an endless game of Whack-a-mole. In the end, no matter how good you are at the game, you eventually lose. There is no glory in getting the "high score" at war. Just save your money and don't even buy the tokens in teh first place.

Fuck Chuck E. Cheese.

Sure, I expect them to leave. Sooner, rather than later as far as I'm concerned, but not until the job is done.
Now, you bring up a valid point - will we ever be able to stop sectarian violence? Good question. The reason for more troops, in my opinion, would be to allow for the proper training of Iraqi soldiers and police so they have an adequate force to do what we are doing. At the very least, we have to give this a chance for success. Ultimately we can't be assured that we do that....leave....and Iraqi brigades splinter along sectarian lines and start shooting at each other. But we have to give the elected government a chance at succeeding.
The worst case scenario would be an overthrow of the government by extremists and we would be worse off than when Hussein was in power (at least he was a secular tyrant). Again, that could very well happen when we leave.....but at least we should leave an adequate Iraqi force to try to prevent that from happening.

If I believed that an Iraqi force capable of doing what we're currently doing could exist in the forseeable future, I'd support that path, fully. I just don't see the progress. My concern is just as you say, that even if we do create an Iraqi force that appears to be adequate that enough sectarian violence will eventually split the army and police.

I'm willing to give it some more time, but not much more.

We also gotta keep in mind, that right now, we're talking about just a few provinces. We don't even HAVE troops in Kurdistan at this point. Very few American's are in the south as well and the British troops have reducing troop levels in the south as well and relocating units up north. Britain is planning to halve its troops next year as well.

The international community needs to get over itself. You don't use people as pawns in a "my cock is bigger than your cock" game. And that's exactly what the Iraqi's are at this point.

I don't want an international peacekeeping force in there so that we can get out. I do want one in there to bolster what we have on the ground though. It may or may not help, but it'd be nice to try. Would they be targeted as much? How would the Iraqi people percieve them? At any rate, the international community needs to start doing something about this problem.

If things were to go down as PD says, it'd be no good for anybody in the west. Iraq would undoubtedly turn into an absolutely brutal civil war and out of the ashes would come a great place for terrorism to continue to fester. And then, we'll be right back in there.

I definitely support sending more troops. And if I got tapped on the shoulder I'd go. Achieving peace in Iraq is absolutely crucial to the global peace picture and people need to start doing something about it instead of riding this fucking circus wheel in the sunni triangle.

Special Report: Maj. Gen. McCoy responds to Washington Post

Sunday, 06 August 2006

To the editor of the Washington Post,

After spending almost three days traveling with and being interviewed by one of the co-writers of a very poorly written article (“Much Undone in Rebuilding Iraq, Audit says”, Washington Post, August 2, 2006), I’m astounded at how distorted a good story can become and what agenda drives a paper to see only the bad side to the reconstruction effort here in Iraq. Instead of distorting the facts, let’s get to the truth.

There is no flailing reconstruction effort in Iraq. The United States has rightfully invested $20 billion in Iraq’s reconstruction - in the opinion of many here, we should do more. This massive undertaking is part of a wider strategy for success in Iraq that involves the establishment of a democratic government, the development of professional Iraqi security forces, and the restoration of basic essential services and facilities to promote the sustained economic development of this new country.

Yes, this reconstruction effort has been challenged occasionally by security, poor materials, poor construction program management practices, and in some cases poor performance by contractors for a variety of reasons. The Department of State and Defense professionals over here, many of them civilian volunteers, and the Iraqi associates who risk their lives every day to have a future that approximates what America has today, continuously see the challenges and develop and implement solutions. This is a core part of managing construction anywhere in the world and, while somewhat more complex here, it is successfully being accomplished. Have we been guilty of poor planning and mismanagement? The answer to that is, at times, yes. But professionals constantly strive to overcome challenges that arise and we are succeeding and making Iraq better every day!

The heart of the article rests on several old statements by the Special Investigator General for Iraq Reconstruction which infer these are recent or recurring problems. The SIGIR knows that, in fact, program management, construction quality, progress, and accountability have all improved significantly since the early days of the effort some three years ago. Yet, the reporters’ “project problems” comments infer that these are recent issues. Such actions inflame public opinion in the United States and create resentment by the very people so many conscientious Americans over here are trying to help here in Iraq and worse, embolden our very enemies.

When I arrived here a year ago we planned to complete 3,200 reconstruction projects. Today we are focusing on the completion of 3,700 projects. We’ve started 3,500 of those projects and completed almost 2,800…and work is continuing! This is not a failure to meet our commitment to the Iraqi people as the article states. In some cases we are not executing the same projects — we have changed to meet new priorities of three government changes in Iraq since our arrival — but in all cases, rest assured, these projects will be completed. We discussed this at length with the reporter…and he was taking notes and recording our conversations.

We told the reporter that, while 141 health clinic construction projects were taken away from a U.S. contractor who failed to perform, they were re-awarded to Iraqi contractors who are already demonstrating progress, have improved quality and shown their great desire to work with the United States to help Iraq improve … and they are doing so phenomenally!

We did talk to the reporter about on electricity. Three-quarters of Iraq gets twice as much electricity today as they did before the war. Furthermore, we are working with the Minister of Electricity to improve the situation in Baghdad daily and have doubled the hours of power from four to eight in the capitol in the last six months in spite of the fact that demand is markedly increased with Iraqis’ new ability to buy personal electrical products.

What is truly amazing to me is that we took the reporter to the Nasiriyah prison project and, while it is true that we terminated the prime U.S. contractor for failure to perform, the Iraqi sub-contractor continues to work there (now directly for us) and his progress and quality have improved significantly ... and he saw that! We are not turning unfinished work over to the Iraqis as he stated in his article; we are fulfilling the U.S. commitment to the people of Iraq and using Iraqis to do it!

The reporter didn’t tell you about the hundreds of dedicated military and civilian professionals he saw over here working to make Iraq better, or the Iraqis who come to work every day at their own peril because they believe in what we, and they, are accomplishing together.

He failed to tell you about Aseel or Salah who worked for the Corps of Engineers since we arrived in 2003, because they wanted to make their country like ours, but who were recently brutally murdered in the streets because they worked for the Americans.

He never wrote about the Water Treatment Plant he visited that will provide fresh potable water to over half a million people in southern Iraq in just two more months, or the one in northern Iraq that is providing water for the 330,000 citizens of Irbil.

He never told folks back home about the thousands of children that are now in 800 new or rebuilt schools, or about oil production now being back to pre-war levels and getting better everyday, or raw sewage being taken out of the streets and put back in the pipes where it belongs, or about the thousands of miles of new roads, or post offices, police stations or courthouses or… well, he just left a great deal out now, didn’t he?

Why?

Perhaps it’s because some in the press don’t want the American people to know the truth and prefer instead to only report the negative aspects of the news because “it sells papers.”

We deserve better from those who claim the protection of the Constitution we are fighting to support and defend.

America, don’t give up. You are doing much better over here than all too many of your press will tell you. If you are tired of fighting for freedom and democracy for those who so strongly long for the country we have, then think of the alternatives for a moment. Iraq will be better for our efforts and so will the world. And you are making it happen. Be proud and keep supporting this vital effort. It is the most important thing America can do.

Thank you. I invite you and your staff to come over at any time to get the facts. I took a risk with Mr. Mosher and obviously got what I consider to be a very unbalanced representation of what he saw, personally. But I still believe in general in the press and will always be open to helping you tell a balanced story.

Essayons! Deliverance!

Maj. Gen. Bill McCoy
Commanding General
Gulf Region Division
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Multi-National Force-Iraq

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?optio ... &Itemid=47


Here is a link to the original Washington Post article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01453.html

Thank you General McCoy.

It's almost a virtual certainty at this point: Any time we hear about a "positive" development in Iraq, inevitably the situation will go even further to shit.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,210731,00.html

I have three thoughts:

It's hard to imagine that anyone thought this was a good idea 3 years ago.

It's hard to imagine that anyone still thinks this is a good idea.

It's hard to imagine an even remotely positive outcome.