Bill Roggio is embedded with the Iraqi Army;
The Military Transition Team for 3 Company, as well as the rest of 3rd Battalion, have truly moved into an advisory role. “They advise, assist and mentor the Iraqi Army, and what they do with this is up to them,” said Major David McCombs, the executive officer of MTT for 3rd Battalion. The other two MTTs for 1 and 2 Companies have the same role as 3 Company’s MTT.
The Iraqi soldiers, or jundi, in southwestern Fallujah run multiple patrols on their own; the Marines do not accompany the jundi every time they leave the wire. They provide for their own food, ammunition, “3 Company gathers their intelligence, plan and execute their own operations,” said Lt. Cortez, the lead adviser at The ROC.
These soldiers are volunteers, and are highly motivated to kill “Ali Baba” – the name they give the insurgents. There are major shortcomings with the Iraqi Army in Fallujah: logistics, pay and the lack of heavy weapons hold the jundi back from being fully independent (this will be covered in more depth along with the police in future posts on the MTTs/PTTs). But a fighting spirit is not one of these shortcomings.
Bill is self-financed. (There’s a Paypal button at the bottom of his post) . It makes you wonder why the major media organizations choose to rely on Iraqi stringers of dubious allegiance for their “outside the wire” reporting. Or non-reporting
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Really interesting and it makes one realize the folly and horrible mistake the Americans made in dissolving the Iraqi army when Baghdad fell instead of retraining them in their individual units and keeping the members of the officer corp who were decent and honest. Certainly there were a lot of rabble and losers belonging to Sadaam’s (and his son’s) thug units but it wasn’t the entire army. Just think of how valuable a properly trained and reliable Republican Guard would be to the Coalition right now.
I guess hindsight is 20/20 but it certainly supports the suggestions that Powell was right and Rumsfeld was wrong.
Rumfield and his friends never understood the need for an army of occupation. Jerry Pournelle has been saying this from day one. If you go back on his site you’ll find the whole history and theory on armies of occupation.
w3.jerrypournelle.com
Turning Saddams brainwashed troops into a force fighting for freedom would have been harder than getting the surrender monkey dhimmi’s to admit they comitted (or faciliated) as much slaughter in Southeast Asia as Hitler did during the holocaust, and are now doing everything possible to add millions to their numbers. How a dhimmi can sleep at night is beyond me.
THIS A “LOSING” STRATEGY? — NOT!
The current “terrorist” war is best seen as a war with Muslim fascists, which started with Iraq in 1991. It now resembles the cold war, with containment as the main objective – isolating Iran, Syria, South Lebanon, Palestine, other hot spots, and fighting wars only when necessary, limiting goals, and limiting duration. Concurrently, the allies promote democratization, and political solutions, slow and painful to watch, but it is the best way to do it. The Iraq war has had 6 phases so far: 1991 Iraq invasion of Kuwait (ultimately unsuccessful for Iraq), 1991 allied counterattack on Kuwait (successful), 91-03 containment of Iraq (mainly successful, but unsustainable), 03 invasion (successful), 03-06 peacemaking, defeating insurgents attacking US and allies (successful), 06-07 peacekeeping, attenuating effects of civil war (so far at least partly successful). Next stage will be gradual withdrawal leading to full Iraqi self-sufficiency (dates unspecified, but about 08-11) successful if Iraq does not harbor terrorists which attack western allies, containment (or re-invasion) may be necessary. Remember, the US is STILL in Japan, South Korea, and Germany (why, by the way?). It is not enough to shout from some headline, “WE’RE LOSING!” I, for one, will not believe you.
Wars are magnificent punctuation marks of history, with lots of social upheaval, hate, death, genocide, and geopolitical change, all concentrated into a defined time period. Canadians know that peacekeeping bores the MSM, because it’s mainly about minimizing social upheaval, hate, death, genocide, and geopolitical change, while spreading the whole process over long, ill-defined time periods until an insufferably bored populace give up their desire for conflict. According to me, “winning” consists of boring the population into democracy.
sarge here, cripes flat iron them dhimmis as you calls em, along with a sizable quantity of folks from the state dept and cia ect ect predicted all of this would happen blood bath and all yet old scrap iron wants to blame the old dimmis for it-it was old rumsfedlt what fired all the generals who wanted 400,000 or more troops to occupy, old rummy what sent the sarges little buddy SGT maida to his death in a non up armored hummer in crap body armor- blowed up by a IED made with all that cemtex that rummie couldn’t be bothered to guard such was his desire for the oil ministry… but sarge digresses and would return to old scap paper’s weirder historic asertions, as old sarge recalls it was nixon what made the kymer rouge possible by the continued bombing and invading and generally destabilising cambodia and loas and it was old nixon what ended the viet war on the terms it was ended, so best that old scrap paper can do is go it 50/50 dem republican f@ck up. yet still old scrap is spittin mad at them dhimmies. scrap paper yer kind of a idiot nut moron f@ck up aint ya? git out of yer mom’s basement and volunteer for iraq if not the army, or as a contractor, maybe ya could blog from there. sure someone would pay ya, ask that dude what owns free republic. you could report back to us how independent and loyal the iraqi army is by goin’ on patrol with em. all by yerself
Canada has troops in Iraq? If not, why the fascination with all things American?
How many people here think Iraq is a lost cause? And how many think it can be salvaged?
sarge – substituting an @ for letters does not give you permission to post profanity laden comments. Either clean it up, or leave.
“Certainly there were a lot of rabble and losers belonging to Sadaam’s (and his son’s) thug units but it wasn’t the entire army.”
Spoken like someone who’s never worked with a middle-eastern army.
Even the re-built Iraqi and Afghan armies have problems with corruption, abuse of authority, lack of motivation, and a massive difficulty understanding concepts like modern logistics and force protection. Trying to re-educate Saddam’s army would have been like trying to teach a fish to walk. The only way to get any semblance of a modern fighting force in place was to start from scratch.
“Canada has troops in Iraq? If not, why the fascination with all things American? ”
It isn’t about all things American unless you are a moonie. This is about the war on terror and Iraq is but one front. By G*d, armchair generals anoy the hell out of me.
Texas Canuck said. . .
*This is about the war on terror and Iraq is but one front.*
If only a majority of the general public understood the widespread Islamofascist threat.
Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, several other *Stans*, Egypt, Syria, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Darfur, [400 million Muslims in Indonesia] but the minority Tamils are at work there. The list goes on.
We have a breather while the Shiia and Sunni are at each other*s throats, but sooner or later they may see how they have us by the oily shorts and decide to cooperate. Oil prices could zoom to $10.00.
That*s when the general public will be shocked into discovering the worldwide scope of the struggle we are now in. = TG
Rumsfeld kept the generals from getting too free with resources..tough job because it is too easy for anyone to say that if we only had more this or more that we would be further ahead. The reality is that when an exec sticks to the decision everyone knows what they have to deal with. No guessing no wishful thinking come into play. This generates better and more consistent results.
It also means there is going to be more criticism from everyone affected.
Witness the criticisms here and anywhere else.
Where reality exists there are no perfect solutions or strategies….the end results are what counts and as for Iraq ..the end is not here.
Show me ONE other person who would have had the guts to hold the line like Rumsfeld …name ONE.
If the current crop of power seekers in Washington have their way the outcome will be in doubt and if they play it the way they did in Vietnam or anything similar it will enable the forces of evil in this world to advance their will….at your expense. It will also severely and negatively impact the ability of the US to pursue any of its global initiatives or defense strategies. That means the we as Canadians are put at risk as well.
“This is about the war on terror and Iraq is but one front. By G*d, armchair generals anoy the hell out of me.”
We all know how Iraq was responsible for 9/11. That Saddam was an Islamofascist. Oh wait. He was a secularist. Taking apart his regime saved the world. Oh wait, it put out of commission a secular baathist regime that was doing a hell of job surpressing a lot of people, not least among them the Islamofascists.
This war on terror is a wonderfully opportunistic construct. This war didnt begin on 9/11, it began in the 7th century. Its not much different now and its not going to be different in a century. The only reason we re paying attention to it, as someone noticed above, is because theres oil there.
Osama and his boys managed to fluke a hit. And they might manage a couple more, but ultimately there movement is riding on a wave of anti-American sentiment and that sentiment will die out eventually. Its a wave and like all waves it will peter out. Odds are he d probably run out of volunteers, because well, volunteers would realise that they re achieving nothing.
Unless of course the reactionaries on both sides keep hurling insults at each other alienating more and more people on both sides and sustaining this charade. Think about what would happen if the world brushed off Osama’s attacks and didnt react with mass hysteria.
Osama was out to start the final confronation between the two religions, and thanks to you, hes almost succeeded.
Old Hack…thanks to apologists and half baked hacks like you I’d say!
This ain’t over and it ain’t going to fade away as you wishfully think. Fuzzy headed thinking has little place in this increasingly dangerous world and that means essentially that while you are entitled to your opinion you should really STFU until you get some facts straight.
For one thing the OIL comment .. If there was no oil there… there would be no money or power in the ME and the Arabs would all be concentrating on making a living from goats, olives and wool products..probably killing each other just as frequently as they do now…probably still be blaming the Jews for all their problems and Hating the entire western world for its success.
The difference is that if there were no oil there would be no money and no power to fuel their pathetic ambitions of world domination for Islam.
It matters not what label is hung on Saddam Hussein…….what he was … was a threat to world stability that was not going away. The US did what the spineless euros would not and that is take him out..you will notice that instead of helping stabilize Iraq the Euros are continuing to act as spoilers to prevent the US from achieving that stability as long as possible!
As for your stupid comments on the WOT the only fact you have in your pot of gooey half baked assertions is that the problem goes back to the 7th century! The discussion here is the immediate situation in Iraq.
“Ifs and Buts” don’t mean shit and neither does your assessment of the post 9/11 reality!
With all due respect….
Old Hack said . . .
*Its a wave and like all waves it will peter out. Odds are he*d probably run out of volunteers, because well, volunteers would realise that they re achieving nothing.*
==========
Wrong! Although I wish you were correct.
35 years of walking bomb jackets across the North Israelie border. Have you detectected any fewer *volunteers*?
Training by rote using the Koran seems to ensure an unlimited supply of *volunteers*.
That is why the Taliban destroy schools and hang teachers in Afghanistan. 80 percent of Afghanis can not read. How will they learn [realise] that they are achieving nothing?
This Osama born criminal movement has to be de-railed because mullahs and training camps are producing growing armies like Mutada Al Sadr*s *Blackshirts* who, trained by rote, see no reason not to behead people who seem to be the enemy as easily as slicing bread..
Can an ever growing population of programmed auto-killers ever become useful working taxpaying citizens?
Not bloody likely. = TG