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Lt. Gen. Graeme Lamb, senior British Military Representative in Iraq and deputy commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq, explains how the new plan for Baghdad is showing results. Photo By U.S. Army Pfc. Lajuan Hickman, Combined Press Information Center. BAGHDAD -- Iraqi progress was discussed during a press conference with the Pentagon Press Corps Friday. The event was conducted via satellite at the Combined Press Information Center in the International Zone.Lt. Gen. Graeme Lamb, senior British Military Representative in Iraq and deputy commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq, discussed the status of the Iraqi government and security forces. “We are judged by our actions...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 16, 2007 – The Afghan National Army is making tremendous progress and is a factor on the battlefield, officials here said today. Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the commander of Combined Forces Command Afghanistan, said that the progress of the army is truly impressive, particularly given the status of Afghanistan when officials began forming this force in 2002. Afghanistan had a 20 percent literacy rate, and the country had limited infrastructure and no political structures or army. “I was here in 2002-2003 when we began this process,” Eikenberry said. “I used the expression in 2003 that...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2007 – Sending additional U.S. troops to Iraq will not only improve the security situation there, it will further the country’s democratic and economic progress, Vice President Dick Cheney said today during an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “We’ve made the decision and came to the conclusion that until we got a handle on the security situation in Baghdad, the Iraqis were not going to be able to make the progress they need to make on the economic front, on the political front and so forth,” Cheney said. President Bush laid out a new strategy last...

Senator Tim Johnson's recovery from a brain hemorrhage and emergency surgery is expected to take several months, the South Dakota Democrat's office said yesterday. A test showed that Johnson no longer has the tangle of arteries and veins in his brain that caused bleeding that sent him to the hospital last month. He underwent the angiogram yesterday at George Washington University Hospital, where he has been in critical condition since Dec. 13....

CAMP FALLUJAH — Marines with Regimental Combat Team 5 spent 2006 making significant progress, with the help of the Iraqi Army, in eastern Al Anbar Province. Fallujah, once the site of a pitched battle between Marines and al Qaida insurgents, is now considered a Sunni safe haven. It’s a marked progression that’s led to Marines turning over increasing responsibility to the Iraqi Security Force, a functioning city government and Iraqis seeking safety within the city’s limits. It’s been a year of tough days, spectacular battlefield performances, hope, faith and steadfast discipline. “We have aggressively worked to make Fallujah a model...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2006 -- The U.S. military can’t lose in Iraq or Afghanistan, but the situation won’t improve beyond a certain point without significant political progress, outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said last night. “We're in that unusual situation where the Department of Defense is looked at for the situations in those countries, when the reality is that we can't lose a single military battle in either country at all, not possible,” Rumsfeld said in an interview with Brit Hume on Fox News Channel. “But we can't win without help from others.” The U.S. State Department and...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 13, 2006 -- The military is doing all it can to calm Iraq, but the country needs political and economic solutions to function, the outgoing commander of Multinational Corps Iraq said yesterday. In an interview with Baghdad-based journalists, Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who gives up command tomorrow, said military, economic, reconstruction and political efforts in Iraq must move forward at the same time. Iraq cannot succeed with one line working and the others treading water or reverting, he said. If Iraqis get back to work, the sectarian strife would lessen, Chiarelli said. Polls in Baghdad show...

When news came this week that a leading Chinese language search engine, Baidu, was set to enter the Japanese search market next year, it only affirmed one of the emerging ironies of this internet age. Though backward in terms of traditional media, China is leaping ahead in internet development, so much so as to become, in effect, an exporter of its knowhow. To Japan yet. Indeed, as a new study points out, at least among its affluent classes, China's internet culture has already leapt ahead of those of many developed counties with far more advanced traditional media infrastructures. “It is...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 22, 2006 -- The Iraqi military is making progress in assuming the security mission in the country, but whether U.S. public opinion will allow the U.S. military to complete the training mission in Iraq is the real question, the Marine Corps commandant said here today. Gen. James T. Conway held a roundtable discussion with the Pentagon press corps. Training Iraqi security forces “is a long, slow process,” Conway said. “Unfortunately, I think the timeline it would take to build a fully capable, competent force – and for us to feel comfortable in stepping away – is longer...

WASHINGTON — Two years ago, much of the Iraqi city of Fallujah had suffered severe damage after some of the hardest fighting seen since the country was liberated by U.S. and Coalition Forces in the spring of 2003. Today, construction across Fallujah is booming, and the city’s 400,000-resident population is growing, Marine Col. Larry D. Nicholson, commander of Regimental Combat Team 5, told Pentagon reporters today from Fallujah during a satellite-televised news conference. Nicholson has commanded RCT-5’s Marines, Soldiers and Sailors since February. The unit’s primary mission, he said, is to train and develop Iraqi Soldiers and police within his...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2006 -- Two years ago, much of the Iraqi city of Fallujah had suffered severe damage after some of the hardest fighting seen since the country was liberated by U.S. and coalition forces in the spring of 2003. Today, construction across Fallujah is booming, and the city’s 400,000-resident population is growing, Marine Col. Larry D. Nicholson, commander of Regimental Combat Team 5, told Pentagon reporters today from Fallujah during a satellite-televised news conference. Nicholson has commanded RCT-5’s nearly 5,000 U.S. Marines, soldiers and sailors since February. The unit’s primary mission, he said, is to train and...

BRUSSELS, Belgium, Nov. 16, 2006 -- The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other NATO defense chiefs reaffirmed their commitment yesterday to the alliance’s security mission in Afghanistan as they evaluated successes made, new approaches under way and challenges ahead. Marine Gen. Peter Pace met at NATO headquarters here with members of NATO’s Military Committee for talks that will lead up to the NATO Summit in Riga, Latvia, later this month. The discussions, led by Canadian Air Force Gen. Raymond Henault, Military Committee chairman, focused heavily on NATO’s historic role in the International Security Assistance Force in...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2, 2006 -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s recent plan to beef up Iraq’s security forces is a positive step toward creating a force able to operate independently with minimal coalition support, a senior U.S. official in Baghdad told reporters today. Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, praised Maliki’s leadership in building more capability and flexibility within “an ever-growing and increasingly capable Iraqi security force.” Caldwell called these forces “an integral part of the coordinated coalition and Iraqi force effort to build Iraq into a country governed by the rule of law, with...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2006 – The idea that progress and violence co-exist in Iraq is fast becoming a mantra for officials both in Baghdad and here. Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of Multinational Force Iraq, made this statement earlier this month during a visit here, and he stressed it again today in a Baghdad news conference. The idea is that people should not obsess on the violence to the exclusion of the progress the Iraqis are making. The security forces are a case in point, according to State Department and Multinational Force Iraq officials in Baghdad. The Iraqi...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2006 – Iraq continues to make meaningful progress despite a recent spike of violence in Baghdad and some other parts of the country, the senior U.S. troop commander in Iraq said today. “The Baghdad security plan continues to have a dampening effect on sectarian violence,” Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr. told reporters at a Baghdad news conference. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad accompanied Casey at the briefing. U.S., coalition and Iraqi troops continue to work aggressively to further reduce violence in the capital and elsewhere in Iraq, Casey said. Extra U.S. troops dispatched to Baghdad...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 23, 2006 – The United States has awarded $94 million to seven Afghan firms to build or improve road and water distribution systems in six Afghan provinces. The funds, awarded Oct. 19, will help build more than 390 kilometers of roads in Kandahar, Uruzgan, Nuristan, Kunar, Paktika and Ghazni provinces and establish water distribution systems in Bamyan and Kunar provinces. The new construction funds were awarded under the Commander's Emergency Response Program, a U.S. program to fund projects of urgent need. "Overall, roads are what provide the foundation for continued growth and prosperity in Afghanistan," Army Lt....

Iraqi volunteers offload generators from a truck in the Shamoor district of Baghdad. The generators, school supplies and other humanitarian aid were handed out to teachers and residents. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class David Hoffman. WASHINGTON -- Despite ongoing violence in Iraq, the country’s new government continues to make progress toward national reconciliation and building the democratic institutions essential to long-term success, coalition officials say.“Iraq’s young government, though still in its infancy, is facing extremely complex ... issues that would cripple many mature nations,” Army Major General William Caldwell, coalition spokesman, told journalists at an October...

BAGHDAD — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Baghdad Oct. 5 to discuss progress being made and challenges ahead and to reaffirm that the United States remains “a committed friend for Iraq.” Rice praised Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for his “excellent leadership” during a critical period in his country’s history. “This is an important time and a challenge for the Iraqi people, but they are a strong people, they are a committed people and we know that they will overcome these challenges,” Rice said. Maliki said he looks forward to discussions about issues important to both the United States...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 27, 2006 – As coalition and Iraqi forces continue security operations in Baghdad, the Iraqi government and security forces are making significant progress and moving closer to an independent future, a U.S. military spokesman in Iraq said today. More than 60,000 Iraqi and coalition forces are in Baghdad as part of Operation Together Forward, which is designed to reduce sectarian violence in the city, Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, said in a news conference. Iraqi security forces outnumber coalition forces three to one inside the city and are leading most of the operations, Caldwell...

BAGHDAD — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is working hard to quell sectarian violence and pave the way for the reconciliation of his country’s people, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said this week. “We have been impressed with Prime Minister Maliki. He has opposed militias. He has favored reconciliation. He was determined in resisting the appointment of people to the key security ministries who were more political than substantive,” Rumsfeld said after meeting with the Senate Armed Services Committee. In the relatively short time the prime minister has been in office, Rumsfeld said, Maliki has moved his government in the...