U.S. Is Ceding More Control to the Iraqis

TIKRIT, Iraq — Seeking to lower the visibility of U.S. troops and grant more authority to Iraqi government forces, the American military has now ceded control of 27 of the nation's 109 bases, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

Thousands of U.S. troops have been redeployed in recent months from bases in Najaf, Karbala, Tikrit and other cities, and Iraqis are now in charge of patrol areas that include four districts of Baghdad and the town of Taiji, northeast of the capital.

On Friday, American officials announced that the next major military installation expected to be transferred to Iraqi control was former President Saddam Hussein's palace complex in Tikrit. The site has been renamed Forward Operating Base Danger and currently houses more than 6,000 U.S. troops.

Iraqi and U.S. officials said they had quickened the pace of such security transfers in recent weeks and planned to formalize what had been an ad hoc, piecemeal approach.

back from Iraq
The United States continues to fight a war in Iraq. A war, that in my opinion was and is imperative to the preservation of American life. With every day it seems that the main stream media, critics and politicos, endlessly attempt to wage their own war against American efforts in Iraq.

When I talk to people about Iraq, their complete ignorance on the subject is discomforting. Watching CNN for a few minutes or listening to whack jobs like Scott Ritter isn’t an education, and certainly doesn’t give anyone the credentials to walk around repeating the anti-Bush/anti-war sound bytes and slogans. Just because some jerk on TV spits out some numbers doesn’t mean they are true or that he is an expert on the subject. But try telling that to kids my age.

This is a problem, a big one, and it needs to be addressed. American’s have a responsibility to educate themselves on the situation in Iraq. If we prematurely leave Iraq the results will be catastrophic. Not only for the people of Iraq, but for the United States of America.

With every passing day it becomes clearer and clearer that the insurgency in Iraq has realized that their biggest advantage is an American population with dwindling support for the occupation, thus providing the insurgency a light at the end of the tunnel. We need to crush that tunnel.

I had initially planned on posting my assessment of the situation in Iraq on the 31st. It however is nowhere near ready. I am going to try and get it finished and posted within the next few days. Perhaps I will just post portions at a time. We’ll see.

Read the rest:
http://bootsinbaghdad.blogspot.com/2005/10/back-from-iraq.html

Exactly the same thing happened during the NAM years. The war was ran from the L/MSM editor offices. George Bush knew quite well it would happen again, and to a larger degree. In this, I say he has more bigger balls then the last five presidents combined. He knows that stakes, and he has surrounded himself with people that have been around a long time, and also know the deal.

As our troops relocate to remote areas out of the general populations densities, and more Iraqi Brigades and Regimental level graduate to level two and one( fully self sufficient down to a boot string literally), the L/MSM, left, and anti-war crowds will have little to go. As our men and women no longer patrol areas where IED's can take their lives, there will be little to report other then the continued occasional explosions the goons manage to pull off in some six or seven main population centers.

Obviously as many of us realize, once the new government is elected this December, then they start to actively modify the existing consitution to better serve all Iraqis, and their military and internal security forces continue to gain combat experience and effeciency, there will be practically nothing the L/MSM can complain about. They in essence are grasping at straws as is. And there is no way the POTUS is going to let congress buckle under and try to pull off something cute. Sadly as I and others harp, only a small minority of Americans have a good picture of the whole situation in Iraq. And that clearly shows in the L/MSM interviews, regardless of what part of the country they go to. But there is nothing that can be done about it. And this has always been the case. One can look back in time and see the same public sentiments over our whole history concerning wars in general. No one wants to hear about our guys dying in wars. It goes against our humanity. So we should be thankful GWB is around to take the brunt of the attacks and just keep forging ahead until the job is done. This crap about a large footprint of American troops being in Iraq in 10 years for instance is just total bullshi!. Those that harbor that view simply do not have any balance on what the goals are. The goals where set forth prior to our invading.
And if they must be re-iterated, only show people have not bother paying close attention to what the goals where. The congress gave him the go ahead, with all the same intel and think tank opinions, and military opinions as the POTUS had avaiable. So there is no excuse but for staying the course.

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