Posted on 09/12/2006 7:30:30 PM PDT by SandRat
WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2006 – Different parts of Iraq have different security environments, and that is important to recognize as Americans assess stories coming out of the country, Pentagon officials said today.
Recent stories about the insurgency in Anbar province paint a very bleak picture of the security situation in western Iraq.
The stories reference a classified Marine assessment of the state of the insurgency in the province. The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., commands the Multinational Force West, headquartered at Camp Fallujah.
In a written response to the articles, Marine Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer, commander of Multinational Force West, said the reports “fail to accurately capture the entirety and complexity of the current situation.”
“The classified assessment, which has been referred to in these reports, was intended to focus on the causes of the insurgency,” he said. “It was not intended to address the positive effects coalition and Iraqi forces have achieved on the security environment over the past years.”
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman called the security situation in Iraq uneven. “There are places where it is relative stability, where the military and police working side by side have created conditions that are stable,” he said. “There are some places in Iraq that are much more of a challenge.”
Security is just one part of the equation, Whitman said. Governance, economic conditions, infrastructure reconstruction and the political situation are important factors in Iraq’s progress. “All these factors are interrelated to create an environment in which Iraqis feel they have hope and look towards a brighter future,” he said.
Anbar province, a Sunni-dominated area that runs just east of Fallujah to the Jordanian and Syrian borders, is Iraq’s largest in terms of size but is sparsely populated.
Building up the Iraqi security forces in the province has not worked as well as it has in other parts of Iraq, Marine officials said. This is because the province is so dominated by Sunnis, and tribal leaders wield real power in many areas of the province.
Similarly, building a provincial government also has been tough in the region. “The Iraqi government is working very hard to improve not only the national government, but to make local governments strong and able to meet the needs of the population,” Whitman said.
Zilmer said much security progress has been made in Anbar province, but “for lasting progress to take place, comparably effective advances must be made in the development of governmental and economic institutions at the local, provincial and national levels.
“Only then,” he said, “will the people of Anbar be able to realize their goal of long-term security, prosperity and confidence in their government.”
USMC Gen. Zilmer said much security progress has been made in Anbar province, but “for lasting progress to take place, comparably effective advances must be made in the development of governmental and economic institutions at the local, provincial and national levels.
Good article here:
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htterr/articles/20060912.aspx
I have a friend that worked civic affairs in that region last year. He said that many of the problems we were facing were because the governments, both U.S. and Iraqi had mistakenly placed Iraqi police of the wrong ethnic groups in the wrong areas. Shiite police in Sunni areas and vice versa is just not going to work. That is being corrected, but improvement will take time.
Al Anbar, the place where my Marines are dying daily, is proof that making nicey-nice with throat slitters won't work. Level it with B-52's and quit the political correctness and nation building ka-ka.
Al Anbar, the place where my Marines are dying daily, is proof that making nicey-nice with throat slitters won't work. Level it with B-52's and quit the political correctness and nation building ka-ka.
If people wish to put this in perspective, I believe many police and Shiite.
This is a substantive change from Saddam's era. And many of the Republican Guard escaped conflict in the recent war.
They became "civilians" in Anbar province.
So now we have a Shiite policeman (lots of them) and they capture Sunnis age (20-35 in 1990, today) 35-50.
They ask "where were you in 1990?"
Isn't the explanation for the ongoing slaughter the direct result of PAYBACK from 1990?
No Flame when the focus is on Facts
There was a front page (naturally) story in the New York Times today. The headline read, "Marine Report Sees Grim Outlook in West Iraq". It made me wonder who leaked the report and why.
For the curious, it can be found at...
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/world/middleeast/12anbar.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
Bump.
WE MUST CONTROL THE BORDER WITH SYRIA!
What in the world are we doing in Iraq and the USA? It sure doesn't involve much thinking, for sure!
that wasn't directed at you, but some people here will flame on anything that isn't sugar coated.
Knew that, just giving you backing. There's strength in numbers.
You say that and yet that strategy of layering the staff so that Shia policed Sunni areas works to limit the corruption of the police forces--a major problem in Iraq. For too long the Sunni minority were in all the positions of power in the country. Of course, it is not going to be easy for them to stomach. But I wouldn't categorize it as the wrong strategy--maybe it's just difficult to swallow.
The population of Anbar is about 500,000 in a country of 26 million. That's about 4 percent. Saddam ignored Anbar or paid off various tribes to not cause trouble. Central Iraq is the center of power in Iraq not a giant desert with no oil. In the short term you buy those Sunni tribes off or you isolate them from the rest of Iraq and let the Shiite dominated military deal with them in their own good time. Let's not take our eyes off the ball.
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