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BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 28, 2005 — Last week Iraqi Prime Minister al-Ja'fari, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and I announced the decision not to deploy two brigades scheduled to come to Iraq early next year. The 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, based out of Fort Riley, Kansas, was originally scheduled to deploy to central Iraq in December to replace the 29th Brigade Combat Team. Additionally, the Baumholder, Germany-based 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, was to deploy to the Iraqi province of Diyala in November to replace the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. The 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division will remain in...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 29, 2005 – The Iraqi security forces' capability has increased while insurgent capability has diminished over the past year, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman said at a news briefing in Baghdad today. "In just 12 months, we have seen the Iraqi security forces increase 77 percent to a total now that numbers more than 223,000," Air Force Brig. Gen. C.D. Alston said. More than 105,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen have been trained and equipped in Iraq's armed forces, and 118,000 Iraqis serve in the country's "highly professional police forces dedicated to defending the Iraq of today and tomorrow,"...

While off for the holidays, I took my 90-year-old, former Marine, Republican dad to his inner-city barbershop. Dad goes to the same barbershop that my brothers and I went to when we were growing up. Different people now own the shop, and I hadn't set foot in there in probably 35 years. Is it still, I asked Dad, the same "afro-centric," white-man-done-me-wrong, trash-talking joint? "Yes," sighed my father, who taught my brothers and me to overcome racism through hard work and personal responsibility. When we get there, it's packed. Two barbers, cutting hair, with about six or seven people waiting....

STREETS OF FALLUJAH — A street vendor sits with his son in Fallujah, Iraq, Dec. 15, 2005. The city's marketplace has returned since Operation Al Fajr (Phantom Fury) ended last year. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Ronna M. Weyland)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28, 2005 – Free and fair elections in Iraq and Afghanistan represent the U.S. military's most significant accomplishment in 2005, the top U.S. enlisted servicemember said. Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, began 2005 in Iraq as the senior enlisted advisor for Multinational Corps Iraq. He witnessed the Jan. 30 elections there and said the event and subsequent elections in Iraq and Afghanistan are significant on many levels. "I think elections are the key focus," Gainey said in an interview. "When you can go into...

MOSUL, Iraq - Lt. Col. John Norris drives through the southeastern corner of Mosul comfortably standing up in the turret of his Stryker armored vehicle, something he rarely did until a few months ago for fear of being hit by a bomb or a bullet. While he is proud of how much security has improved in some neighborhoods, and the fact that President Bush has noticed, he keeps his rifle ready. "This city still isn't safe," he warns. "But it's a lot better than it was." Few Iraqi cities have seen such extreme swings between peace and violence since the...

It may take weeks before Iraq’s newly elected parliament agrees on a new government. But whenever that government is formed the first item on its agenda should be the status and mission of foreign armies in Iraq and the duration of their presence. The issue is certain to feature prominently in negotiations among Iraqi political parties hoping to form a coalition government. None of the Iraqi parties contesting last week’s general election wants the US-led coalition troops to leave Iraq immediately. But they all agree that the next government in Baghdad must negotiate a timetable for withdrawal. It is, therefore,...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2005 – Iraqi security forces are growing in quality as well as quantity, a senior U.S. military officer told reporters at a Baghdad news conference today. Iraq's current 216,000 soldiers and police officers are being trained and equipped to assume the country's internal security needs and to prevent terrorists from using the country as a base for operations, Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, said. To imbue the Iraqi army with professionalism its officers, noncommissioned officers and enlisted soldiers are required to attend a number of military schools located across the country, Lynch...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2005 – As Iraqi security forces grow and develop increased combat capabilities, U.S. forces will shift from a focus on combat operations to a focus on supporting the Iraqis as they take the lead in operations, two Defense Department officials said at a Pentagon news briefing today. American units already are partnering with Iraqi units, helping them with training, logistics, and other combat support operations, said Marine Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, operations director on the Joint Staff. This partnering will continue, with an increased focus on developing the Iraqis' combat support capabilities so they eventually will...

Iraqis in former rebel stronghold now cheer American soldiers By Oliver Poole in Tal Afar (Filed: 19/12/2005) In the low-slung concrete buildings of Tal Afar, a city built on dirty sand and mud, George W Bush sees the potential for military success in Iraq. In recent weeks it has been one case study the American president has consistently cited in order to buttress the rhetoric that the insurgency, and the killing, can be ended. Tal Afar was the site of the largest military operation of 2005, when 8,000 US and Iraqi troops reclaimed it from armed groups. It has since...

After months of criticism of President Bush’s policy, gloomy press coverage that seemed to focus almost entirely on car bombs, and near panic on the part of some Congressional Democrats, we now have a useful barometer to assess the real state of affairs in Iraq - Thursday’s historic and enormously successful parliamentary elections.The third national plebiscite vote in just two years since Iraq’s liberation from Saddam Hussein was largely free of violence and saw a turnout rate higher than most western nations’. Millions of Iraqis who proudly dipped their fingers in purple ink, enjoying the democracy that our troops and...

Key Sunni Muslim leaders in Iraq's violent Anbar province have concluded that their interests lie in cooperating with the United States, and they are seeking to extend a temporary truce honored by most insurgent groups for last week's elections. But at the same time, they are demanding specific steps by the U.S. military, including a reduction in military raids and an increase in development projects for their vast desert province that stretches from the edge of Baghdad to the Syrian and Jordanian borders.

Democracy is slowly taking hold in Iraq and the insurgency is losing its Sunni support-base in Iraq, analysts here said on Friday. They spoke after some 11 million of Iraq's 15 million registered voters cast ballots on Thursday for a 275-seat parliament, a governing body called the Council of Representatives. Voter turnout on Thursday was about 70 percent, compared with 63 percent in October's referendum on a draft constitution and 58 percent in elections last January. "Basically the U.S. efforts are working and progress is being made, which doesn't mean there aren't problems," said Prof. Barry Rubin, an analyst with...

WASHINGTON -- Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, whose vocal pro-war support for President Bush has rankled fellow Democrats, emerged from a White House meeting Friday saying the president has turned the corner on Iraq in recent weeks. Lieberman cited the substantial turnout in the Iraq elections this week and Bush's four major speeches on the war as key reasons for the turnaround. "The last two weeks have been critically important and I believe may be seen as a turning point in the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism," Lieberman told reporters after he and a bipartisan group of senators...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2005 – Iraqi security forces are proving their effectiveness against the terrorists trying to topple the country's new democratic government, a senior defense official said in Baghdad today. "We have crossed some threshold with the Iraqi security forces that enables us to leave them behind to be the persistent presence in these towns along the Euphrates River Valley, particularly up in Tal Afar," said the official, speaking on background. Iraqi soldiers and police have made great strides in recent months, the official said. They've also assisted coalition troops, he said, in reducing terrorist presence and influence in...

12/13/2005 - BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFPN) -- Security forces pride themselves on making a good first impression for base visitors. Now they are instilling that same pride and professionalism in Iraqi Airmen. Three Air Force security forces members are training the Iraqi protection force that will ultimately inherit security operations at New Al Muthana Air Base here. The Airmen have been training their Iraqi counterparts for two months, said Tech. Sgt. Jared P. Skinner, NCO in charge of security operations at the base. “We have been primarily training Iraqi enlisted members to develop the mid-level NCOs to perform flight sergeant and...

BAGHDAD, Dec. 13, 2005 – Iraqi security units are taking the lead in preparing for the Dec. 15 national elections. This is the third election this year, and each time the amount of support coalition forces provide has been less, military officials said. The plan builds on experiences gained in the Jan. 30 National Assembly election and the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum. Iraqi police will provide close-in protection at the polling stations. Iraqi public order battalions and Iraqi army soldiers will provide the next level of protection. This second ring of police and soldiers will search for suicide bombers and...

Christmas greetings Freepers. Yesterday, I and my family received a set of Christmas cards and letters. They are from a group of United States Marines stationed in Iraq. I thought I would share them with folks on Free Republic who would appreciate them as I know we all appreciate what these young folks are doing for us. Last month, my family found out about a website called AnySoldier.com. It is a place where troops stationed overseas can place small bios and snippets of what they are doing, where they are stationed and what materials would be appreciated from home. We...

American Forces Press Service BAGHDAD, Dec. 12, 2005 – The highest-ranking military officer in Iraq said over the past year his country's armed forces have accomplished "almost a miracle." Speaking through a translator, Army Gen. Babakir Shawkat Zebari said only one battalion was capable of operating with coalition forces when he became the Iraqi military's chief of staff. Now dozens are taking the lead in the counterinsurgency fight, and many more are operating with coalition forces. In the west, he said, Iraqi forces now allow the coalition to hold areas. In the past, coalition forces would move into an area,...

Last night I spoke to the parents of a soldier who had just been seriously wounded by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad, where the Army battalion I command is based. They asked me about the war’s progress. (Amidst their anguish over insurgents drawing blood from their son, they were concerned about our mission, our calling as a nation!) I described the advances we’ve witnessed since arriving, and when I was done my soldier’s mother said, “We need to hear this…. We don’t get these things on the news!” Many Americans are asking, “Are we making progress?” Critics back home...