Clearly something is afoot; perhaps the deal with the Sunnis or some piece of intelligence which presages the turn of the tide.
Posted on 06/20/2005 9:38:54 AM PDT by robowombat
Small But Decisive Victories in Iraq
By Ed Offley
While various and sundry politicians and pundits this week were squalling about the possibility of a lost war in Iraq, clear evidence continued to appear showing that victory is not only attainable but possibly closer than we think.
Here are two succinct examples:
The desert raid: Company H of the U.S. Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in a predawn raid On June 7 swept in on a house in the Iraqi town of Tal Afar as part of a larger operation to clean out the area of terrorists. They were hunting eight specific Iraqi resistance leaders and captured them without a fight. "Eight suspects were supposed to be in one house and all eight were there," Company Commander Capt. Greg Mitchell told a New York Times reporter embedded with the 3ACR.
American soldiers seized a total of 28 suspected insurgents in the morning's operation. The Times reporter noted, "The detainees, who seemed surprised by the size, timing and direction of the attack from the desert, were caught off guard."
Snatching a terrorist: A force of U.S. and Iraqi troops in northern Iraq on Tuesday captured Mohammed Sharkawa, the militant leader who leads al Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's operations in northern Iraq. U.S. military officials report that in the last few months alone, Sharkawa has been directly responsible for at least 50 car bombings and 150 beheadings and assassinations.
Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, director of operations for the JCS at the Pentagon, said of Sharkawa, "He has said that he will not be taken alive; that he wore a vest and would detonate himself. In fact, he gave up rather peacefully when U.S. and Iraqi forces went to, actually, an associate's house, and he happened to be there with a number of others."
Doubters and cynics will easily dismiss both incidents as minor tactical victories occurring in the midst of a strategic stalemate. I could not disagree more.
For the pair of events share one fundamental fact: Both the Tal Afar raid and the capture of Sharkawa occurred because ordinary Iraqis fed up with the terrorists' nihilist violence turned on them and told the U.S. military and Iraqi National Guard where they were.
As I noted last month ("Iraq Is Still Up for Grabs," DefenseWatch, May 19, 2005), a growing number of experts in guerilla movements and counter-insurgency operations have come to the conclusion that the loosely-affiliated fighters – including disaffected former Ba'athist regime officials, al Qaeda terrorists and criminal gangs – have blown the prime rule of guerrilla war: They have alienated the civilian population which Mao Zedong once described as the "ocean" in which the guerrilla "fish" swim. These two new events further underscore that assessment.
The Times report on the 3ACR's operation noted that Tal Afar, "a dusty, agrarian city of about 200,000 people," had been hijacked by only 500 terrorists, mostly foreign Arabs who infiltrated into the country through Syria or Turkey:
"On arrival here, [U.S. military] commanders found a town that was, for all practical purposes, dead, strangled by the violent insurgents who held it in their thrall. 'Anyone not helping the terrorists can't leave their homes because they will be kidnapped and the terrorists will demand money or weapons or make them join them to kill people,' said Hikmat Ameen al-Lawand, the leader of one of Tal Afar's 82 tribes, who said most of the city is controlled by insurgents. 'If they refuse they will chop their heads off.' "
"Khasro Goran, the deputy provincial governor in Ninewa, which includes Tal Afar, concurred. ... There are more than 500 insurgents in Tal Afar, he said, and they project a level of fear and intimidation across the city far in excess of their numbers. Thoroughfares lined with stores have been deserted, the storefronts covered with blue metal roll-down gates."
Despite a popular stereotype that the Sunni minority in Iraq – from which the Ba'athist Party and Saddam Hussein emerged to rule the country for more than a generation – has uniformly supported the violence directed against the American occupation force and the newly formed Iraqi government, the "ground truth" at Tal Afar is quite different.
"Many tribal sheiks here say they favor an all-out assault to rout the city's insurgents," Times reporter Richard A. Oppel Jr. wrote:
"Angered by the attacks and emboldened by the enlarged American military presence here, some sheiks have become outspoken critics of the insurgency. On June 4, at great risk to their own lives, more than 60 attended a security conference at Al Kasik Iraqi Army base near here. To the surprise of Iraqi and American commanders who organized the gathering, many sheiks demanded a Fallujah-style military assault to rid Tal Afar of insurgents and complained that American forces do not treat terror suspects roughly enough."
In Mosul, Sharkawa was no shadowy John Galt of the Iraqi resistance. Several months ago, Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, then-U.S. commander in northern Iraq, said of him, "Right now, if we could get one guy off the street in northern Iraq, he would be the guy."
So how did they get him? U.S. officials describe it as the result of a patient and steady campaign of seizing lower-ranking terrorists and using intelligence they revealed to follow the next lead. The capture several weeks ago of a Zarqawi network subordinate named Mehdi Moussa, who also operated in Mosul, reportedly enabled the coalition to get even closer.
But here's the kicker, as the Times cited a U.S. military official: "A Mosul resident provided information hours before the raid, by American and Iraqi troops, that helped identify Sharkawa's whereabouts .... "
History is full of decisive battles that were unplanned by either side at the onset. Neither Robert E. Lee nor George Meade intended to fight the pivotal battle of the American Civil War at Gettysburg. Neither Imperial Japan nor the United States thought that the island of Guadalcanal would suddenly become pivotal as the two Pacific powers maneuvered toward one another in the summer of 1942.
Never mind the relatively small size of the opposing forces in northwest Iraq: We see the outlines of a "meeting engagement" that is simply too important to ignore. For better or worse, the crazed jidhadists who would plunge the Middle East back into the 7th Century have decided that this will be the crucial battlefield not only for Iraq but their global war against the West.
Following months of activity elsewhere (dictated by our biggest failure, to field a large enough occupation force), the U.S. military and Iraqi National Guard have stormed into the region. Not only have they routed the insurgents, but our soldiers and their Iraqi counterparts have also found that they have the clear support of the very Iraqis on whom a military victory and political settlement in that country depend: the Sunni minority.
Quit the squalling in Washington, D.C., and read the dispatches from Mosul and Tal Afar: Something big is happening here.
Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com. © 2005 Ed Offley.
I can see by the number of times you posted this that you are not gunshy....... ;-)
First time I'd seen these numbers. Stunning.
Interesting and upbeat reading I thought you might like to read.
ping
Yes it is closer .. that is one of many reasons we are seeing the Libs having a complete melt down
The Good Guys are winning
Bump.
As usual, dying for the cause is for the peons and not the leaders.
Clearly something is afoot; perhaps the deal with the Sunnis or some piece of intelligence which presages the turn of the tide.
Thanks Coop.
So how did they get him? U.S. officials describe it as the result of a patient and steady campaign of seizing lower-ranking terrorists and using intelligence they revealed to follow the next lead. The capture several weeks ago of a Zarqawi network subordinate named Mehdi Moussa, who also operated in Mosul, reportedly enabled the coalition to get even closer.
So much for the freepers who say:
a) we should kill them all not capture them
b) we can't roll up the network this way
c) none of it matters until we get AMZ.
:-)
Of course the MSM are in overdrive trying to spin this fact as not the case (as are the Democrats) -
Who is failing is the RNC and the WH (to some extent) in that they are not championing the success of our soldiers enough!! - The RNC and the WH need to start fighting the war we have here at home Vs the MSM & Democrats! - Our soldiers are busting their as$ 24/7.....We should be able to expect the same from the WH and RNC back here!
I have to respectfully disagree with you there. Yes, the RNC and White House could talk about it 24/7, but I do see them (especially the Administration) talking up the successes. And CENTCOM puts out the daily newsletters. The media just refuses to cover it.
Guess we will disagree on this one then - Because when your as$ is out there putting it on the line 24/7 - you expect that you are being defended back home by those who are putting your as$ there to begin with! And defended robustly against those who are talking down your efforts.
To suggest that if the MSM won't cover it there is nothing more the WH (and or RNC) can do is hogwash (IMO). They sure found time to campaign 24/7 for reelection! They sure asked every soldier they could to turn out and vote. They sure are taking for funds 24/7 (I get about 1 call every two weeks or less asking for money from the RNC alone - And that is just when I am around to get the call).
The only way we lose in the GWOT (and especially within Iraq) is if our will here at home among the public turns! -
Bottom line is the WH and RNC have done a piss-poor job in the past 6 months at promoting all the success that is happening. While the reelection might have given the WH and RNC time for a breather....it has not done a damn thing in lessening what we are asking from our soldiers!
I expect the WH to be giving credit daily (loudly) to the success of our fighting men and women! Every brave person we have lost deserves nothing less then for the public back here to know the success that is coming from their sacrifices.
My point just being the WH and RNC have not done enough to combat the daily negative spin put out by the MSM and DEM's -
The intensity I see by the DEM's and the MSM to spin negatively on our efforts...I do not see this same intensity on the part of the WH or RNC to report our successes! (and that is a damn shame to our fighting men and women).
My point just being the WH and RNC have not done enough to combat the daily negative spin put out by the MSM and DEM's -
The intensity I see by the DEM's and the MSM to spin negatively on our efforts...I do not see this same intensity on the part of the WH or RNC to report our successes! (and that is a damn shame to our fighting men and women).
No. We are losing. Just ask Hagel.
I have seen some of the same intensity, but unfortunately it's only through GOP E-mails or Rush & Hannity. It's really sad that you our troops have to pay for this nonsense and now, even treason.
I was thinking the same thing. Cheney seemed optimistic about this. He has been optimistic in general about the fact that we will eventually prevail, but never this specific about the insurgency itself and about its current state.
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