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Condoleezza Rice is, by her own admission, not "that self-reflective." But in an interview in her office on Thursday the secretary of state took a moment to contemplate the improved security situation in Iraq. Asked whether she and the Bush administration had made any mistakes early on "that you're perhaps trying to redeem yourself for," she responded with her trademark steely smile. "I'm sure there are lots of things we might have done better," she said. "I'll give you one with Iraq. If I had to do it all over again, we would have had the balance between center, local...

FORT MEADE, Md. -- An Army officer who once was in charge of the interrogation center at Abu Ghraib prison was a failed leader whose errors set the stage for abuses committed by military police under his control, a military prosecutor told jurors Tuesday. However, a defense lawyer and a prosecution witness said Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan was a solid leader who didn't have command responsibility for the MPs who helped prepare prisoners for interrogation. The conflicting characterizations of Jordan's role comprise the central dispute at his trial for decisions that allegedly set the stage for detainee abuses at...

Anthrax Mystery: Evidence Points to al-Qaida Ross E. Getman Thursday, June 7, 2007 The anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001 have faded from the media spotlight. The FBI appears to have pursued all possible leads, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee in January that FBI Director Mueller was committed to seeing it to "some kind of conclusion in the relatively near future." But an analysis of the anthrax mailings suggests that U.S.-based supporters of one of Osama bin Laden's closest advisers, Ayman al-Zawahiri, were responsible. Al-Zawahiri was head of al-Qaida's biochemical program. He called it...

An Israeli Cabinet meeting has authorised a commission of inquiry into the failures of the war with Hezbollah. Defence Minister Amir Peretz says Israel will examine the mistakes it made during the month-long offensive. A government official briefing reporters on the weekly Cabinet meeting quoted Mr Peretz as saying everything would be put on the table at the inquiry because it was a duty to prepare for the next round. He said Israel would prevent the Lebanese Army from deploying within two kilometres of the border before the multinational peacekeeping force was in place. The Lebanese Army has already deployed...

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2006 – Aerial strategy practiced by coalition pilots during Operation Iraqi Freedom hinged on knocking out pertinent enemy targets while preserving vital Iraqi infrastructure as well as citizens' lives, an F-16 pilot who flew combat missions over Iraq early in the war recounted here today. A U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon flies through the sky during a combat mission over Iraq on July 23, 2004. Before then, South Carolina Air National Guard F-16 pilot Maj. Michael Norton flew his fighter in the aerial vanguard that launched Operation Iraqi Freedom on March 19, 2003. Photo by...

Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Saturday said the United States has made "serious mistakes" during the Iraq war that have led to the rising violence the country now faces. "We made some serious mistakes in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Baghdad," Powell told a crowd of thousands at the McCormick Place conference. "We didn't have enough troops on the ground. We didn't impose our will. And as a result, an insurgency got started, and . . . it got out of control." Now, American troops must "stick with the people of Iraq" until order is...

SUFFOLK, Va., March 24, 2006 – Can history be wrong? Not exactly, but history can be distorted if data is provided by only one side's perspective. U.S. Joint Forces Command has released an unclassified historical report of military operations conducted in Iraq. The twist is that this historical report reflects the Iraqi civilian and military leadership's perspective of events. "Opinions are not facts; one data point is not a trend, and a group of data points from a single perspective isn't going to convince anyone," said Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Cucolo, commander of JFCOM's Joint Center for Operational Analysis. So...

Survivors Praise Body, Vehicle Armor to House Subcommittee By Donna MilesAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Feb. 1, 2006 – Three soldiers just back from Iraq -- including two who credit personal and vehicle armor with saving their lives -- traveled to Capitol Hill today to tell Congress that when it comes to protecting troops, more isn't always better. "We're here to say we're pretty happy with what we have," Brig. Gen. Karl Horst, the 3rd Infantry Division's assistant division commander for maneuver, told the American Forces Press Service before appearing at today's House Armed Services Committee's Tactical Air and...

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday night in the Twin Cities that he harbors no regrets about the U.S. invasion of Iraq but acknowledged wartime mistakes and warned that Iraq's eventual government might not be as broad-based as American leaders had hoped. In a speech at Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park, he urged nearly 1,000 people to pray for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the people of Israel. Powell called Sharon, who suffered a major stroke last week, a man of peace. Powell said that the world is in better shape now than at any...

By Will Dunham Fri Jan 6, 11:19 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Better body armor could have prevented or limited about 80 percent of fatal torso wounds suffered by Marines killed in Iraq, a report by U.S. military medical experts obtained on Friday said. The report, conducted for the Marine Corps by the Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner and not released to the public, examined the cases of Marines fatally wounded from the start of the war in March 2003 through June 2005, and found weaknesses in the torso protective gear. Bullets or shrapnel hit the Marines' shoulders,...

Santorum Wants Non-Partisan Panel To Evaluate Iraq War WASHINGTON -- Sen. Rick Santorum yesterday wrote a letter to President Bush asking him to create an independent, non-partisan commission to objectively evaluate progress in Iraq. The letter is a significant shift by the Pennsylvania Republican, whose stalwart support for nearly all aspects of the Bush administration's policies in Iraq could be a significant handicap in his race against state Treasurer Robert P. Casey this year if Pennsylvanians' support for the war continues to decline. Mr. Santorum told the president that he was joining other members of Congress in their call for...

Iraq now finds itself in a period of uncertainty and transition after more than three decades of Ba'ath party rule. Following the end of Saddam Hussein's rule in the spring of 2003, Iraq was governed for a year by the "Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA)" led by the United States and the United Kingdom. On June 28, 2004, the CPA transferred power to a sovereign Iraqi interim government, with national elections held on January 30, 2005. On May 3, 2005, the new transitional government was sworn in, with Ibrahim Jaafari as Prime Minister. A constitutional referendum was held in October 2005,...

Subject: Commander 18th MP Brigade Observations From a 12-Month Tour A great after action report by the Commander, 18th MP Brigade in Iraq. Camp Victory, Iraq 4 November 2005 It is my last night in Iraq. Tomorrow night I will begin the long journey home as we depart BIAP and fly to Kuwait and then fly on to our homes in Germany at 0300 the next day. Cindy has forwarded me a lot of your discussions of strategy in Iraq, discussions about Nate Sassman, the media and questions about the way ahead. I just wanted to share with you some...

One of the strangest, and most useful, bombs employed in Iraq has been the concrete filled JDAM. Why deliver a 500 pound bomb filled with concrete instead of explosives? You do that if you want to do some damage, but not a lot. Concrete JDAMs were first used in the 1990s to destroy anti-aircraft guns, radars and missiles that Saddam Hussein placed in residential areas. He believed that the Americans would not attack these weapons, for fear of hurting nearby civilians. But it turned out that a laser, or satellite (JDAM) guided concrete smart bomb could take out the air-defense...

A commander with the Iowa Army National Guard says training problems at a Texas Army base left his unit ill-prepared for duty in Iraq, according to a copyrighted story in The Des Moines Register. Capt. Aaron Baugher of Ankeny, Iowa, was the commander of the first Iowa infantry division trained at Fort Hood. In a report obtained by the Register, he said the 2004 training "was of very little value and poorly instructed" by soldiers who typically had never served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Baugher's unit of 58 soldiers, the 194th Long-Range Surveillance Detachment of Johnston, returned to Iowa in...

THE WASHINGTON TIMES The Pentagon is judging success or failure in Iraq by more than daily casualty and attack statistics. It recently set up an "Iraq Room" where officers study and measure a long stream of data, to produce what the Pentagon calls "metrics" that tell Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld whether the Iraq campaign is headed in the right direction. "The secretary is big on metrics," said a senior Pentagon official. "He's a metrics kind of guy. He believes you cannot tell how you are doing unless you are taking measurements."

Col. Robert Marr Jr. was in charge of air defenses during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. (Photo by Dick Blume) Commander of 9/11 Air Defenses Retires BY ROBERT A. BAKER   ROME, N.Y. -- On Sept. 10, 2001, Col. Robert Marr Jr.'s mission at Griffiss Air Force Base appeared to be on the wane. The Cold War threat his National Guard unit was designed to keep in check had all but disappeared. Twenty-four hours later, Marr found himself in the center of another war. His command, the Northeast Air Defense Sector, coordinated the military's air response to the terrorist...

I have just returned from a weeklong visit to the United States. I spoke with many people. The situation is very bad. Anti-Turkish sentiment in the United States is very strong. The rejection of US troop deployment two years ago has once again started to create trouble. Mehmet Ali BIRAND I am sure you heard about the things I will write below from various commentators with varying opinions. It was Sami Kohen who reported on the matter most recently. Well, this time, you will hear it from me. The situation is now bad. It's beyond that. We are facing an...

The level of insurgency in postwar Iraq wouldn't be so high if the U.S.-led coalition had been able to invade from the north, through Turkey, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday.

On second anniversary of war, U.S. troops, Iraqis slowly learn to adapt By BRYAN MITCHELL, mitchellb@knews.comMarch 20, 2005Cpl. Chad Rector learned a lot during his seven-month tour in Iraq. But it was a lesson a group of Iraqi children taught him on a Fallujah soccer field the Halls Marine recalls best. In between daylong convoy security missions and midnight patrol details, the 21-year-old machine gunner would gather with kids on a field in the war-torn city to play. Rector quickly noticed a unique trend. "The guy who scores the most points gets to keep the ball at the end of...