FR WAR NEWS!WAR News at Home and Abroad You'll Hear Nowhere Else!
All the News the MSM refuses to use!
Or if they do report it, without the anti-War Agenda Spin!
Posted on 07/09/2007 5:19:43 PM PDT by SandRat
WASHINGTON, July 9, 2007 – Iraqi security forces are not yet ready to secure their country, and if U.S. troops were withdrawn too soon, violence would escalate, a top U.S. commander in the region said yesterday. “It would be a mess,” Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of coalition forces operating in the region south of Baghdad, said in an interview on CNN’s “Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer” yesterday.
“(If) those surge forces go away, that capability goes away, and the Iraqi security forces aren't ready yet to do that. If you did that, … you'd find the enemy regaining ground, reestablishing sanctuary, building more (improvised explosive devices), carrying those IEDs in Baghdad, and the violence would escalate,” Lynch said.
Despite the recent spike in violence in the region, the troop surge is having an effect in his region, Lynch said.
“We have killed 50 of the enemy. We have captured over 250 more. We have taken away 50 weapons caches. And we are having an effect. So it's going to take time for these surge units to have the effect that we want,” Lynch said. “It can't happen overnight.”
Lynch avoided putting a timeline on combat operations in the area, saying there are too many factors outside of U.S. control. He said it would take through September to clear just his battle space.
After the area is cleared, though, additional troops are required to hold the area to prevent re-entry by insurgents. How long U.S. troops are there is dependent on how fast the Iraqis can build and train their force.
“The holding piece is going to take a lot of time. We have got to have a sustained security presence so that the enemy can't just come back,” Lynch said. “People keep wanting to put a timeframe on this. It's just not possible. There are too many conditions that we don't control. “
The commander called the Iraqi security forces in his region “quite capable (and) very confident” with great leadership. But, Lynch said, he needs as many as two more brigades’ worth of Iraqi forces.
The additional troops in his region also are needed to help stop the flow of Iranian-manufactured munitions into Iraq. Nine U.S. soldiers in Lynch’s region have been killed and 45 others have been wounded by Iranian-made explosively formed projectiles, Lynch said.
“I'm not sure who it is in Iran, but I know Iran is causing problems in my battle space,” Lynch said. “I've had 32 EFP strikes. We can trace those back to Iran, no doubt. And we've got weapons caches we're finding with brand-new Iranian munitions -- rockets, hand grenades -- just yesterday.”
The 3rd Infantry Division commander called the insurgency an evil, vicious enemy who doesn’t care who it kills in the path of striking at U.S. troops. He called for patience as the U.S. military strategy takes time to work.
“We're trying to take away his munitions. We're trying to take away his leaders. We're trying to take away his training opportunities. And in time, that will have effect on his ability to take truck bombs into Baghdad or anywhere else in our battle space,” Lynch said.
FR WAR NEWS!I want politicians standing behind our Generals plans. I don't want Generals standing behind our politicians plans.
Lugar and Domenici need to understand that we must show resolve to our enemy. Terrorist are telling people in Iraq not to work with the Americans or they will kill their family. They are telling the Iraqi people that we won't be there forever. We must show resolve so the people can begin to trust their new government and the US over the terrorist. If you do not show resolve you are part of the problem and you are a National Security risk.
We need to put this situation into perspective:
We have been in Iraq for four years and we lost 3,500 Troops. In four years of WWII, we almost lost 500,000 Troops. During the first twenty one days on Iwo, we averaged a thousand losses a day. We have been in Iraq for four years and lost 3,500 Troops, right? Well, that is the middle of the fourth day on Iwo Jima. 52,000 fell in two years of Korea. Our bloodiest day took place in 4 hours not four years. We saw 22,000 casualties in fours hours at Antietam.
What happened to the words, 'we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival of liberty"?
I'll tell you what happened, the Demorats silenced those words and now a mess of RINOs like Lugar and Domenici are silencing those words. Along with our media, the leaders of the Demoratic Party, and the RINOs need to grow a back bone, pickup a weapon, and stand a post. We need to show our Troops and our enemy resolve.
We will leave Iraq when the Iraqi people can protect themselves from an outside threat and maintain some peace from within. Until then, we must help them fix the problems they face.
Lugar needs to watch this video of Ronald Wilson Reagan:
“Iraqi security forces are not yet ready to secure their country, “
This same crap has been going on since 2004, enough of it.
Then you need a different Constitution - and a different nation.
In THIS nation, politicians command and generals shut up and soldier.
in the Al Anbar province, al qeada told the Sunni Tribal leaders that they wanted the Sunni tribes daughter for marriage. The leaders refused the terrorist’s request. The terrorist killed a couple leaders and then one of the leaders told his people to join the police and Army. He then went to the coalition and he lead a battles that knocked al qeada out. Al ANbar was a bad place and it is changing.
We need to show resolve. We need to show patience. The people in Iraq will see that their kids will be able to play in the street if the coalition Troops are around. Their kids can’t play in the street when IED may be going off.
The enemy is telling the people that we won’t be there forever and we will leave them. We need to show a face that says we will stand with you. We know that tough times don’t last, but tough people do. I can not say it enough, we must show resolve because our enemy has more of it then our Congress does right now.
It doesn’t matter when we leave that hell hole. Unless there is some form of peacekeeping force, preferably the UN, Iraq will look like Mad Max.
Now, if you and the rest of the American people are privy to the General's information, then y'all go ahead and decide what to do.
Until then, I would suggest showing some support for those who have made decisions with Troops in harms way.
I would ask, where is the out cry to tell Congress to keep their nose out of the Executive Branch's business? Don't we have a separation of powers in the Constitution?
And your story illustrates the problem, it wasn’t the Iraqi Army that chased Al Qaeda out of Al Anbar, it was a Tribal Chief’s effort.
The same deal was offered bu the Al Anbar tribes in 2004, and it was rejected out of hand with a “There is no tribalism in the new iraq”.
And whether or not this report is accurate or not, whose resolve is it going to build that yet another thing simply isn’t working in Iraq? 4 years of this, and hundreds of billions of dollars, and 20,000 seriously wounded soldiers, and yet another bad report?
When do the good reports start showing up?
This is a good thing. All of Iraq is not in shambles. A triangle area in and around Baghdad is trouble and Al Anbar was part of that. This make take time. But if the Iraqi people learn that it is better to live with their new Government rather then the terrorist, things will change. Tough times don't last, tough people do. We will find out how tough the Iraqi people are. I hope they are tougher then the quislings in Congress.
I think Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait may be less than thrilled about having Iraq become an Al Quaida launch pad and/or Iranian satellite. Maybe they will finally belly up and share some of the weight of maintaining stability in the ME.
It took ROK more than three years to come up to speed. and at the time of the Armistice, they could NOT have taken over the whole line. And in 1950 they had a defence force AND a government.
People have forgotten that by 1959 the French Army had suppressed the FLN in Algeria. But this was five years after the independence movement started.
The hundreds of billions can be attributed to “Big Army.” This is not like money spent for combat.
don't watch the LSM, you won't find it there.
http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=1&Itemid=18
The above is a good site.
“The hundreds of billions...”
Which doesn’t help the current situation at all, to say on the one hand “”The iraqi’s just aren’t ready to defend their country” then on the other to waste all of that money doesn’t advance the effort at all.
Ohh, but then it’s “Be patient, show resolve” really?
The Iraqi Army must either stand and deliver, or we should walk away, failure after failure, and never any widespread good news since the elections 2 years ago that really didn’t accomplish very much apparently.
I don’t watch nor read the MSM, my news comes from FR, talk radio etc.
From post 2004 until now, there has been a steady stream of mistakes, failures, blunders and just plain moronocy on the Iraqi’s part, I’ve yet to see anything that would change my the outcome, no military, no political leadership, eons old religious hatred, and fanatical terrorists who bake people’s children, and yet the Iraqi’s manage to do nothing but watch as their own sons and daughters are blown up, baked, beheaded, shot etc.
I’ve almost reached the point of 10,000 Iraqi’s aren’t worth one US soldiers time, let alone effort, if they don’t care, why should we, let them kill each other by the freakin’ bushel why should anyone give half a damn...the Iraqi’s don’t.
You have absolutely no idea of how hard it is to create an army from scratch. IAC, people in the Guard complain about their equipment, which is about 50% of what they ought to have. The IA has probably a quarter of what they need to do the same mission that we are undertaking. Moe fundamentally, they are just now creating a command structure, and have the deal with a war ministry that is less than efficient. Now, do we stop supplying them and leave them to their own resources, or do we leave them to sink or swim? In the former case, we will still be paying our billions.
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