Posted on 11/28/2006 6:07:10 AM PST by RedRover
The U.S. military is no longer able to defeat a bloody insurgency in western Iraq or counter al-Qaeda's rising popularity there, according to newly disclosed details from a classified Marine Corps intelligence report that set off debate in recent months about the military's mission in Anbar province.
The Marines recently filed an updated version of that assessment that stood by its conclusions and stated that, as of mid-November, the problems in troubled Anbar province have not improved, a senior U.S. intelligence official said yesterday. "The fundamental questions of lack of control, growth of the insurgency and criminality" remain the same, the official said.
The Marines' August memo, a copy of which was shared with The Washington Post, is far bleaker than some officials suggested when they described it in late summer. The report describes Iraq's Sunni minority as "embroiled in a daily fight for survival," fearful of "pogroms" by the Shiite majority and increasingly dependent on al-Qaeda in Iraq as its only hope against growing Iranian dominance across the capital.
True or not, the memo says, "from the Sunni perspective, their greatest fears have been realized: Iran controls Baghdad and Anbaris have been marginalized." Moreover, most Sunnis now believe it would be unwise to count on or help U.S. forces because they are seen as likely to leave the country before imposing stability.
Between al-Qaeda's violence, Iran's influence and an expected U.S. drawdown, "the social and political situation has deteriorated to a point" that U.S. and Iraqi troops "are no longer capable of militarily defeating the insurgency in al-Anbar," the assessment found. In Anbar province alone, at least 90 U.S. troops have died since Sept. 1.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
You may be right, and I hope you are. But I get twitchy about the drumbeat of defeat that's getting louder in the media. Stories like this tend to encourage an "all is lost, let's go home" attitude. So I wonder why someone would play into the media's hands knowing it will encourage calls for withdrawal.
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As in cut and run?
Clinton was acting at the behest of the Permanent Government, and no President nor his minions are allowed to go after them. People who try (like, perhaps, Curt Weldon) end up getting a summary political execution.
Okay, I give up. What's that?
Anyone seen Sandy Berger lately?
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In your zeal to condemn the messenger you have completely ignored the message. If this is from a classified USMC report then one can assume that it is accurate. If it is accurate then our failure in Anbar is a much bigger problem than the one on which you focus.
True. But the message wasn't addressed to RedRover at Free Republic. The message was addressed to the military. I'm in no position to do anything to shift military tactics in Iraq but I could join the anti-war chorus which seems to be the point of the leak.
If this is from a classified USMC report then one can assume that it is accurate.
The authors of the article added a caveat about veracity. I put it in bold for emphasis.
If it is accurate then our failure in Anbar is a much bigger problem than the one on which you focus.
If victory in Iraq was already achieved then I wouldn't have a problem at all. So, yes, you're right. But I'm just a working stiff hoping some disturbed muzzie doesn't set off a bomb in Grand Central during rush hour. It seems to me that leaks to the press are calculated to undermine support for the war and as a CYA move for Marine careerists.
As John Q. Citizen, I want our military to focus on victory. And as a news consumer, anonymous leaks place me at the mercy of the reporters. I have no way to analyze quality of the information. I also have no way of knowing the motives of the leakers. I can only assume the worst because that's the reasonable explanation. That's why I'm nettled by all this.
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You mean this: "True or not, the memo says, "from the Sunni perspective, their greatest fears have been realized: Iran controls Baghdad and Anbaris have been marginalized." Moreover, most Sunnis now believe it would be unwise to count on or help U.S. forces because they are seen as likely to leave the country before imposing stability."
I think that you misinterpreted the statement to mean that the veracity of the report is in question. My reading is that the perception of the Sunnis may or may not be true but that regardless it is their 'perpesctive".
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You mean this: "True or not, the memo says, "from the Sunni perspective, their greatest fears have been realized: Iran controls Baghdad and Anbaris have been marginalized." Moreover, most Sunnis now believe it would be unwise to count on or help U.S. forces because they are seen as likely to leave the country before imposing stability."
I think that you misinterpreted the statement to mean that the veracity of the report is in question. My reading is that the perception of the Sunnis may or may not be true but that regardless it is their 'perpesctive".
Yes, you're right. Though it does matter if something is a perception and not reality. One is easier to change. The rest of my response still goes.
Yeah and this is like the 3rd or 4th "Leaked" report on Anbar? How many of us have ever even seen ANY evidence of even the 1st one?
I suspect this is the same source who fed Newsweak the "flush the Koran at Gitmo" lie
Except what it is supposedly claiming here is utter and total BS. So since this supposed "Report" just happens to echo all the nonsense being spewed by the Dincons on Iraq, I suspect this source for this supposed "Report" is just another produce of the same feverish DC Noise machine that came up with the "Baker Commission" and the utterly absurd "Partion Iraq" plan. This is merely the latest PR blast from the Know Nothings in DC who simply refuse to sit down, shut up and actually LISTEN to What Gen Abizaid told them all 2 weeks ago. This is DC politics game playing not fact. What they are supposedly saying in about this report is pure BS. Show us the report and give us the credentials of the source and we might take it serious but for now the claims in this story are pure Made up in DC propaganda crap.
No what Bush will be remember for is for being a leader in the model of Lincoln. A Leader who like Lincoln prevailed despite the best efforts of rabid Know Nothings in both parties so mentally incompetent they could not put their own emotional based hate for the President on hold long enough to actually help save the country. It is the Bush Haters who will be scorned thru History as contemptialbe clowns and gross mental incompetents. The same way history remembers Reagan, and FDR or Washington but has nothing but the utter most contempt for their foes.
BUMP.
I agree, though I think even Lincoln would advise President Bush to find himself a Sherman.
Gotcha...agreed.
NYers can always talk through their differences. ;)
I'm sure there is some brass in need of a good knocking, but the "Pollyanna" strategy of trying to make friends, during a war, with our enemies cames right from the top.
I took so much flaming over pointing this out over the last few years, I stopped posting for quite a while...BUT DAMNIT NOW LOOK WHAT HAS HAPPENED !!
We should have leaflet bombed, town by town..."Leave your weapons at ----- collection point by 5th of never. Anyone caught with any type of weapon after this date will be considered an enemy combatant and shot on sight."
Following this, each and every door should have been kicked in to search for weapons...Every single door, every single mosque (also known as picking a fight). Anyone who so much as throws a rock in protest considered a combatant and shot.
Instead President Pollyanna thought it would be wise to allow guys like Al Sadr to have militias armed with heavy machine guns, RPGs and explosives. It doesn't really take a genius to forsee people getting shot and blown up when we start off on that foot.
Bush lost this war...Because he didn't let our troops fight it. They weren't allowed to fight it like our troops fought our very first foreign war...When we invaded Tripoli and utterly wiped out the Barbary Pirates and all who supported them. Now with congress lost we will never be allowed to finish this war. May God forgive us as a nation for denying our troops thier rightful victory...
More soldiers.
No as in let them fight it out and when they are finished we go in and smash the winner. :)
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