Operation: Iraqi Freedom

[Ryan Ruck]

Thread for the discussion of Operation: Iraqi Freedom.

Original threads found here:

• Iraq War: Operation Iraqi Freedom
• Iraq War: Operation Iraqi Freedom - PART II

[Ryan Ruck]

'Shooter' Delves Into Sniper's Mind

Twenty years ago, "Marine Sniper" - the biography of Carlos Hathcock, the top gunner for the Marines in Vietnam - became one of those seminal military bestsellers that stays in print continuously. In fact, its tale of the sniper shooting a bullet through an enemy's rifle scope has not only become the stuff of legend, but it also has been copied in countless.

Hathcock's book, however, was more than just fodder for buffs, as Gunnery Sgt. Jack Coughlin recounts in his new memoir, "Shooter." As Coughlin tells it, "Students (at Marine sniper school) can pick up an extra ten bonus points on an exam by answering a bonus question that almost always comes from "Marine Sniper."

Look for Coughlin's "Shooter" to have the same impact on future generations of Marines and military buffs. This is an important book about sniper doctrine, as well as a highly readable, personal account of combat that is fascinating throughout.

The book opens with Coughlin supporting a Marine mission in Somalia, using the tactics pioneered by Hathcock in Vietnam. Hathcock rewrote sniper doctrine by changing it from a shooter sitting in a fixed position all day to "hunters and shooters," who would stalk their prey and set up their position closer to the enemy.

During the 10 years between Somalia and Iraq, Coughlin was rethinking sniper doctrine while on missions apparently too secret to recount in this book. Finally, frustrated by the lack of attention to his theories, he and his team threw a "Dirty Dozen"-style monkey wrench into a major war game.

Coughlin was given the thumbs up to develop his Mobile Sniper Strike Teams, but before much progress was made, the Iraq War began. Like Hathcock, Coughlin had to perfect his approach on the battlefield - although his shooting war lasted only three weeks.

He also had another seeming obstacle: Lt. Cmdr. Brian McCoy had been his toughest critic and was now his commanding officer. The critic who spurred Coughlin to prove himself soon became his advocate, however, as Coughlin and his spotter, Casey Kuhlman, rewrote the rule book in devastating fashion.

Eighty years ago, Gen. Billy Mitchell was court-martialed for too aggressively challenging entrenched military doctrine. In today's military, a Marine gunnery sergeant not only can propose changes to long-held procedure, but he also is given the flexibility to change it on the fly in a combat situation. And the force adapts along with him.

That's the genius of the modern American fighting force. Knowing the maxim that "no battle plan survives contact with the enemy," American commanders on the ground have always had more flexibility than their counterparts, but the adaptability of the current fighting force is without parallel in history.

While two set pieces - the battle for Diyala Bridge, and the initial thrust into Baghdad - are as intense a recounting of modern urban warfare as I have read since "Black Hawk Down," this is hardly a book of unrelenting bravado.

Coughlin relates that while a sniper operates from a distance, to the detriment of his head and heart, he is far more likely to see the face of his enemy than the average infantryman.

A devastating chapter tells the story of how civilians stormed the Diyala Bridge in a mad dash for freedom at the same time as fedayeen and suicide bombers were making their final stand. Despite the Marines' best efforts, they could not always tell who was who, and Coughlin nearly broke down when that stress piled on his exhaustion.

Coughlin also is honest about the effect his job has on his family, which is the ultimate factor in his retirement as he realizes others can carry on his work but only he can be "Dad."

"Shooter" is mostly free of politics aside from a delicious episode near the fall of the Hussein statue. As Kuhlman was saving the day by replacing an American flag over the falling monument with a vintage Iraqi flag, Iraqis greeted the Marines as liberators, complete with offerings of flowers.

The only sour note of the day came from the so-called "human shields," leftists who had gone to Iraq supposedly to protect the people from the U.S. military and leave them safe in the arms of Saddam Hussein's secret police. They stormed out of their shelters and began cursing the Marines as "baby killers."

A group of "surly" Iraqi men approached Coughlin and offered to beat the liberal protesters to death for their insults. In the ultimate act of irony, he explained to the gathered Iraqis that democracy would mean having to let such people blather from now on as he physically imposed himself between the leftist activists and their supposed beneficiaries.

Coughlin lets the story stand as an analogy for the whole situation and a fitting end to his service in Iraq.

[Ryan Ruck]

Marxists Join Muslims In Opposing U.S. In Iraq

Some activists promoting support of terrorists killing American GIs

Bringing together anarchists, Marxists and radical Muslims, new coalitions of Americans and Brits are joining forces not only to express opposition to the U.S. presence in Iraq but in some cases to urge outright support for the insurgents there killing GIs on a nearly daily basis.

Writing in a recent edition of the International Socialist Review, Paul D'Amato argues, "If the war is one of imperialist conquest, and the resistance opposes that conquest, then by definition the Iraqi resistance is a legitimate war of national liberation."

D'Amato says that to deny support for the resistance is synonymous with rejecting national independence for Iraq.

The anarchist site anarkismo.net, while teasing the possibility of support for the insurgents, ultimately urges against it, partly because the terrorists in Iraq allegedly are "pro-capitalist."

"Probably most of the fighters in the resistance (also called insurgents) are motivated by a just desire to get rid of foreign occupiers," writes Wayne Price on the group's site. "The movement is heterogeneous. But their leadership seems to be mostly Islamicist authoritarians, who want to establish a theocratic dictatorship and are explicitly pro-capitalist."

Despite the action of the "resistance" to route out the Americans, the characteristics cited by the anarchists, such as the fact their "tendencies have much in common with fascism" appear to disqualify them for support.

Meanwhile, the extreme leftist group CodePink is teaming up with radical Muslims to push opposition to American presence in Iraq.

CodePink is joining hands with the Muslim Public Affairs Council to sponsor an event next month in Culver City, Calif., to help unveil a new book, "Why They Don't Hate Us: Unveiling the Axis of Evil" by Mark LeVine, a leftist activist who says an "Axis of Empathy" is the only strategy that can bring about a long-term solution to the war between radical Islam and the West.

The executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council is Baghdad-born Salam Al-Marayati, known for his extreme anti-Israel, anti-American statements dating back to 9-11 and before.

In response to the September 11 attacks, Al-Marayati stated, "If we're going to look at suspects we should look to the groups that benefit the most from these kinds of incidents, and I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list because I think this diverts attention from what's happening in the Palestinian territories so that they can go on with their aggression and occupation and apartheid policies."

In the United Kingdom, according to the London Spectator, a steering committee has been organized to coordinate activities of a cooperative effort joining Marxists and other leftists with radical Islamists. The committee consists of 18 from myriad hard-left groups, three from the radical wing of Britain's Labour Party, eight from the ranks of the radical Islamists and four leftist ecologists.

Writes Christopher Chantrill in the American Thinker: "The formal coalition between the hard left and the Islamists is a shock. It is difficult to believe that the secular left could really find common cause with religious fundamentalists of any stripe. But we should remember our history. In World War I, progressive souls sympathized with the German effort to humble the capitalist nation of shopkeepers. In World War II, progressives were indifferent to the fate of the European democracies until Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. In World War III, they actively cheered for the Soviets although they denied the right of anyone to complain about it.

"It makes complete sense that the left’s first act in the 21st century should be to form a coalition with a new anti-Western force. The war against democratic capitalism continues."

[Ryan Ruck]

Aid Agency Said to Hide Iraq Insurgents

ROME (AP) - Italy's Red Cross treated four Iraqi insurgents and hid them from U.S. forces in exchange for the freedom of two Italian aid workers kidnapped last year in Baghdad, an official said in an interview published Thursday.

Maurizio Scelli, the outgoing chief of the Italian Red Cross, told La Stampa newspaper that he kept the deal secret from U.S. officials, complying with "a nonnegotiable condition" imposed by Iraqi mediators who helped him secure the release of Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, who were abducted on Sept. 7 and freed Sept. 28.

"The mediators asked us to save the lives of four alleged terrorists wanted by the Americans who were wounded in combat," Scelli was quoted as saying. "We hid them and brought them to Red Cross doctors, who operated on them."

They took the wounded insurgents to a Baghdad hospital in a jeep and in an ambulance, smuggling them through two U.S. checkpoints by hiding them under blankets and boxes of medicine, Scelli reportedly said.

Also as part of the deal, four Iraqi children suffering from leukemia were brought to Italy for treatment, he said.

Scelli told the newspaper he informed the Italian government of the deal and of the decision to hide it from the U.S. through Gianni Letta, an undersecretary in Premier Silvio Berlusconi's government who has been in charge of Italy's hostage crises in Iraq.

"Keeping quiet with the Americans about our efforts to free the hostages was an irrevocable condition to guarantee the safety of the hostages and ourselves," he told La Stampa. He said Letta agreed.

Officials at the Italian Red Cross headquarters in Rome said Scelli was out of the office and could not be immediately reached.

In a statement Thursday, the Italian government stopped short of denying it knew about the deal but said Scelli acted independently and that the government "never conditioned or oriented his action, which ... was developed in complete autonomy."

The statement also did not directly address whether or not Italy had kept the U.S. in the dark about Scelli's efforts, but reiterated that Italy has always maintained a "full and reciprocal" cooperation with its American allies in Iraq.

Scelli told Italian TV news TG2 that Italian authorities had no direct role in the deal and that he informed the government of his efforts "only informally."

"We have always claimed this operation as our own. The contacts were held by us, contacts with Iraqi personnel, contacts with the mediators," Scelli said, adding that Red Cross officials had not conducted direct negotiations with the kidnappers.

At least eight Italians have been kidnapped in Iraq, and two were killed. An intelligence officer who was escorting a hostage to freedom mistakenly was killed by U.S. fire in Baghdad in March.

Rome's handling of its hostage situations has come under scrutiny, with many at home and abroad contending that Italy paid ransoms for their release.

Berlusconi's government has denied that ransom were paid, but some lawmakers have indicated money might have changed hands.

[Ryan Ruck]

Projects Quench Iraqi Thirst For Improved Drinking Water

Mosul, Iraq – For many desert dwellers in Iraq, toting water home was just an initial step; next was treating the water so it was suitable for drinking. Now, the water carried home is so pure many do not bother to treat it prior to use. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is providing oversight for a number of water projects for 34 villages surrounding northern Iraq’s largest city, Mosul.

“We have 44 wells either done or near completion in the greater Mosul area,” said Lee Kenderdine, USACE Resident Engineer at the Mosul Resident Office.

“These are mostly village wells, about 230 meters deep, that will provide water to villages that did not have an adequate water supply before,” he said.

The work also includes providing a pump and generator enclosed in a well room surrounding the well. The water is pumped from there to a raised water storage tank and then to the village. The capacity of each water storage tank is 35 cubic meters. Villagers still have to come to a community outlet to receive water, but it is the best water they or their ancestors have had for hundreds of years.

“Maybe some future reconstruction project will pipe the water throughout the city and directly into the homes,” said Antoine Jackson, the Project Engineer, Mosul Resident Office. “For now we have to be content that we are providing them with good water the likes of which they have not seen in their lifetime,” he said.

By the end of Nov., when the last 10 wells are complete, 88,000 people will have access to these improved water systems that will go a long way to a better and healthier quality of life. The USACE Gulf Region North manages oversight of construction and renovation contracts in seven northern Iraq provinces. From Aug. to Oct. 2005, GRN employees oversaw the completion of 102 schools, five police stations, 17 border forts, seven fire stations, 13 water projects, five electrical projects, six transportation projects, and one hospital renovation. The value of these 156 projects is more than $52.5 million. The immediate result of these projects is a more secure Iraq and better living conditions for its citizens.

[Ryan Ruck]

Despite Bombs, Baghdad Stock Exchange Thinks Big

BAGHDAD, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Bomb blasts around Baghdad routinely shake the trading room and it takes 10 days for an investor to receive proof of a stock order, but Iraq's fledgling stock exchange is thinking big.

Operating out of a heavily protected building in a residential sidestreet, the Iraqi Stock Exchange's 50 brokers write up their prices on white boards but there are plans to introduce electronic trading by next summer.

Despite the technological challenge of running a virtual exchange in a country ravaged by daily bombs, officials want floor trading eliminated partly because of the risks of attack.

"If I had all my brokers on one floor, I could take out an entire market with one incident," said a U.S. official advising the exchange.

After shuttling around Baghdad looking for a home, the exchange moved from a hotel to a permanent base this month, across the street from a church in a Christian neighbourhood.

The constant threat of attacks from insurgents hangs over the exchange, which is protected by concrete blast walls and security guards toting guns.

"I keep checking on the building even when I'm at home, I'm always in touch with security by phone and I sometimes even go back to the exchange at midnight," says exchange CEO Taha Ahmed Abdul Salam.

Expansion Plans

However, compared to the problems that have dogged the country's oil production -- its main hope for reviving a faltering economy -- the stock exchange appears to be a relative success story.

Trading is limited to two-hour sessions twice a week, but there are plans for five hours of trading five days a week once it is fully automated.

About 85 companies are listed -- including names like Mesopotamia Investment and Baghdad Soft Drinks -- a figure Salam hopes will climb to at least 100 by the end of the year.

An average of 700 million shares change hands each day, adding up to a daily volume of about 2 to 3 billion Iraqi dinars. That equates to $1.4 million to $2 million -- compared to about $70 billion a day on the New York Stock Exchange -- making Iraq's bourse among the world's smallest.

As for where the index has gone since they began properly registering activity in November last year, Salam isn't sure, but he reckons it's gone up by about 70 percent.

Electronic trading would connect the market to Iraq's central bank and clearing banks through a wireless area network.

Once the market is automated, Salam also hopes many of Iraq's state-owned companies will be privatised and allowed to float, greatly boosting the market's capitalisation.

U.S. and Iraqi officials are hoping a law barring foreigners from trading will be revoked once a new government is elected in December, a move that could help draw in foreign investment.

The success of such a move depends on whether any foreigners are willing to stomach the risk of investing in a country with a raging insurgency and little political stability.

Exchange head Salam remains defiant.

"We know there are some dangers, but we don't have any alternatives," said Salam. "The Iraqis have to do business."

[Ryan Ruck]

Citizens Turn Over 'Butcher of Ramadi' to Iraqi, U.S. Troops

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2005 – The terrorist known as "the Butcher of Ramadi" was detained today, turned in by local citizens in the provincial capital of Iraq's Anbar province, U.S. military officials in Iraq reported. Amir Khalaf Fanus -- listed third on a "high-value individuals" list of terrorists wanted by the 28th Infantry Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team -- was wanted for criminal activities including murder and kidnapping. Ramadi citizens brought him to an Iraqi and U.S. forces military base in Ramadi, where he was taken into custody.

Fanus was well known for his crimes against the local populace. He is the highest-ranking al Qaeda in Iraq member to be turned in to Iraqi and U.S. officials by local citizens.

His capture is another indication that the local citizens tire of the terrorists' presence within their community, Multinational Force Iraq officials said, adding that Iraqi and U.S. forces have witnessed increasing signs of citizens fighting the terrorists in Ramadi as the Dec. 15 national elections draw near.

Officials said 1,200 more Iraqi soldiers recently have been posted in Ramadi. About 1,100 Iraqi special police commandos and a mechanized Iraqi army company completed their planned movement into the city. This plan has Iraqi security forces assuming more of the security responsibilities from the U.S. forces, officials said. As in other locations, as security improves, Iraqi police also will be introduced gradually

[Sean Osborne]

The 100% Truth about the overall Operation Iraqi Freedom as culled from the CENTCOM Plan delivered to the pentagon months prior to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. This is from Bill gertz and rowanscarborough's "INSIDE THE RING" column of December 16, 2005.

This message needs to get out. The media certainly will never do so. Now that Iraq has held its third democratic election with outstanding success the full details of General Abazaid's remarks and the CENTCOM OPlan can be told. However, Bill Gertz does not not specifically comment on General Abizaid’s astonishment with the majority of Congress’s lack of knowledge and comprehension of the situation in Iraq.

quote:

---

Inside the Ring
By Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough
December 16, 2005



Abizaid on war
Gen. John Abizaid spoke recently at the U.S. Naval War College and said the war on terrorism will continue for the foreseeable future, and that the real enemy is not insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan but the Islamist ideology of al Qaeda.
The remarks were made to an audience of officers Nov. 10 that included combat veterans from Iraq.
The comments were supposed to be off the record. However, one student made notes, and they have been circulating on the Internet, most recently in an e-mail to the entire U.S. Army from Gen. Pete Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff.
"This is as clear as it can be stated," Gen. Schoomaker said. "Please get these words out to all of the men and women in your organizations. I encourage you to personally carry this message to the American people. As soldiers, we have the most credible voices in America. We need to lead the way."
Gen. Abizaid, U.S. Central Command chief, said he is surprised at how little is known about what is really going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that there is a widespread misperception that U.S. forces are about to be pushed out.
Gen. Abizaid predicted that the insurgencies in four Sunni-dominated provinces in north and central Iraq and in southwestern Afghanistan will continue for the foreseeable future, but will be stabilized and eventually be controlled by moderate governments.
The coming year will be a transition year that will see Iraqi forces taking more of the mission from U.S. forces, which need to be fewer in number and less visible to the Iraqi people for the moderate government to succeed.
The main enemy is the "al Qaeda ideology," which must not be allowed to take hold in any country, he said.
Preventing al Qaeda ideology from spreading will require a long-term commitment, he said.
One of the problems is that there is too much focus on what the United States and its allies have done wrong and not enough discussion of al Qaeda, a global enemy that seeks to rule the world, Gen. Abizaid said.
"The battle against al Qaeda will not be primarily military," he is quoted as saying in the notes. "It will be political, economic and ideological. It will require the international community to fight, too. We must not let al Qaeda get hold in any country. It will result in our worst nightmare." A Naval War College spokeswoman said the notes accurately reflect Gen. Abizaid's remarks.


Letter home
A retired Army officer shared with us a letter he recently received from a commander whose unit patrols the Tarmiya suburb of Baghdad, a hotbed of Sunni Muslim insurgents. The neighborhood houses some of the most loyal political and military followers of Saddam Hussein.
The letter tells of a political shift in this Ba'athist stronghold: Sunnis eagerly set up polling places and expressed a desire to vote in yesterday's election, in contrast to the boycott of the January elections to select a temporary government.
"By April of this year, these Sunni leaders admitted that they made a mistake by abdicating their right to vote," the Army officer writes. "By May they were strongly vowing to participate in the next election ... by 15 Oct., they put in place an election plan that resulted in nearly 90 percent participation throughout the area."
All the preparations came, he said, despite continued attacks mostly from foreign terrorists led by Jordanian Abu Musab Zarqawi. He told of one bomber, a woman, who blew herself up trying to kill schoolchildren. Luckily, she did not get close enough.
"We are making progress," he writes. "My 'Sunni friends' are running in this next election. They frankly are also still trying to kill me and my soldiers as they have not completely changed their entire culture nor those that would finance evil. But we are making progress."

War document
The Washington Times acquired a copy of U.S. Central Command's secret plan for postwar Iraq. It was sent to the Pentagon from Centcom headquarters in Tampa, Fla., a few months before the March 2003 invasion.
The Times reported on the document, but we thought it was a good time to look again at the plan, in light of the Pentagon's announcement this week that postwar stability operations, or nation-building, are now a core military mission, comparable to major combat.
A military officer told us that in all honesty, what was then called "Phase IV" planning got relatively little attention compared with the invasion plan.
A look at the secret document, called "Phase IV OPLan: Reconstruction of Iraq," shows the military had nine major objectives for post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. One read, "Reform Iraqi military and security institutions capable of performing legitimate defense and public security missions."
The goal seemed in line with a Pentagon directive issued this week on nation-building. But there was never a thorough follow-up plan on how to meet the objective. Iraq's military was disbanded, rather than immediately reformed, and the country's police forces were so corrupt that they had to be rebuilt from the ground up.
But the document shows that Centcom did realize the stakes. "Phase IV is the strategically decisive phase," the plan states. "Working with the Iraqis to develop their country will determine success."
The briefing predicted an Iraqi "end state" within four years of the invasion. After all the bad planning for postwar Iraq, it just may come true that by March 2007, Iraq has a functioning democratic government.

---

In my particular circle of endeavor, what Gertz reports as being "Phase IV OPLan: Reconstruction of Iraq," was known as simply "OIF IV". It is a success. American troops will depart the Iraqi street in the coming months and then depart Iraqi territory in the coming year absent the overt military adventures from foreign military forces.

[Brian Baldwin]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn...t-steyn18.html
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20051...3825-8851r.htm
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=hotnews&alt...51210&hn=27372

Some quick news links on the situation in Iraq.

Brian

[Brian Baldwin]

Cheney makes surprise visit to Iraq.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,179046,00.html

Brian

[Ryan Ruck]

Soldier Breathes Life Into Iraqi Child

MOSUL, IRAQ - Security forces from Task Force Freedom conducted a miraculous act on a young Iraqi boy in Mosul December 15. Soldiers were patrolling a neighborhood near a home where an Iraqi man was seen holding a lifeless baby who had drowned in the flooded basement of their home. The child had a blue tone to his body as a medic, SPC Lucas Crowe, from 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment administered aid to the 3-year old boy. The child became responsive, released water from his mouth and screamed a cry that Soldiers were elated to hear. After resuscitating the young boy, the combat medic from 2-1 Infantry turned the child on his side and monitored his breathing until an ambulance arrived.

Multi-National Forces of Task Force Freedom continue efforts to aid Iraqi citizens and assist them in providing security.

[Ryan Ruck]

Bush's Efforts in Iraq Succeeding, Israeli Analysts Say

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - 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 the GLORIA Center at the Interdisciplinary Center near Tel Aviv.

"The turnout is good because [it means] people think they're going to win. Intimidation isn't working. It shows that people want [democracy]," said Rubin.

President Bush, who referred to Thursday's election as a "watershed," has given a series of speeches this month, defending his Iraq war strategy against criticism from Democrats, who say he has no plan for victory and complain that he "misled" the country into war.

"The problem is the debate in the U.S. has very little to do with Iraq," said Rubin.

Terrorists Quiet

Prior to the election, five militant groups decried the election as a "satanic project" that violated "the legitimate policy approved by God." But given greater Sunni participation this time around, the insurgents did not threaten to attack voting stations as they have done in previous polls.

"The success is that the terrorist organizations failed to torpedo the elections," said Dr. Michael Eppel from Haifa University.

Some of the most extremist Shiites agreed to "play the political game," said Eppel. The most important achievement is the participation of the Sunni Arabs - the mainstay of the insurgency, he said.

The Sunni community, which enjoyed a special position under Saddam Hussein, boycotted parliamentary elections in January, a move that left them out of discussions on drafting a constitution.

This time they understood that they had to participate in the elections to retain their power in the country, said Eppel.

Washington hopes that high voter turnout among the Sunni population will create Sunni confidence in the new government and lead to a decrease in the insurgency. That would make it easier for U.S. and other foreign troops to withdraw from Iraq.

The high Sunni participation is a sign that most Sunnis are against the terrorist organizations, said Eppel. Terrorists like Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who leads al Qaeda in Iraq, are isolated now, he said. "They will continue to kill and murder but at the moment they are marginalized."

Iraqis Happy

"The election is important not just because Iraqis defied the terrorist threat [but] because they want to make a difference," said Prof. Amatzia Baram, professor of Middle East History at Haifa University.

There violence will continue, but if Iraqis make the right decisions and put together a government within the next four or five months, it will be possible to see "the light at the end of the tunnel," said Baram.

Even with suicide bombings and a death toll that President Bush estimated at 30,000 Iraqis over the last three years, some 80 percent of Iraqis believe that it has been worthwhile to them, said Baram.

Some 90 to 100 percent of Iraqis may say that they are angry with the Americans; 80 percent say they want the Americans to leave, but if they were asked if they wanted the Americans to leave right now, today, only about 30 percent would say yes, Baram said.

According to Baram, the question that no one is asking the Iraqis is this: If they could cancel the last three years and return to the days of Saddam Hussein, what would they choose to do?

"My guess is that 70-80 percent would say... they don't want to go back to Saddam Hussein," he said.

In a recent poll commissioned by media organizations, 69 percent of Iraqis said they expected Iraq to improve, while 11 percent they expected things to worsen.

Asked to rank the priorities of a new government, 57 percent said that restoring public security was most important. The second priority was the departure of American troops at 10 percent and the third priority was rebuilding the country's infrastructure, BBC reported.

Long Road Ahead

The next few months will be critical in deciding the future of Iraq, said Baram.

Once the ballots are tallied -- which could take two weeks -- the newly elected parliament must choose a president and two vice-presidents from among its members. They will then choose a prime minister and other ministers from the council.

After they form a government they will have to start to re-negotiate the constitution, which purposely was left with "very large holes," said Baram. There are about 50 different items in the constitution that need definition, including how to distribute the country's oil revenues. Another issue is how closely Iraq will be connected to the Arab world, he said.

The question now is how much the majority Shiite population is willing to cooperate with the other groups, said Eppel.

About 60 percent of the 27 million Iraqis is Shiite, while 20 percent is Sunni and less than 20 percent Kurds.

U.S. Debate

President Bush said this week that Iraq was the "central front in the war on terrorism." He said the U.S. was hunting terrorists and would fight the war and prevail. "That is why we will not leave until the war is won," he said.

Baram said that many Americans now feel that the war in Iraq was a mistake. But they are now looking at the war with 20/20 hindsight, he said. They need to consider that they were looking toward Iraq "through the prism of 2002" and the belief that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, he said.

Some experts still believe that Saddam Hussein succeeded in hiding or smuggling his WMDs into Syria before the U.S. led invasion, he added.

[Ryan Ruck]

Marine Uses First Aid Skills, Saves Children

CAMP AL QA'IM, Iraq - Cpl. Fabricio D. Drummond, antitank assault man with 1st Mobile Assault Platoon, Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, provided immediate medical attention when he came upon a group of Iraqi children injured by an insurgent IED. Drummond is a Leominster, Mass., native.

CAMP AL QA’IM, Iraq -- The improvised explosive devices are unbiased in their targets. It can kill and maim anyone who sets it off, regardless of nationality, religious preference, age or sex.

Cpl. Fabricio D. Drummond, an antitank assault man with 1st Mobile Assault Platoon, Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, witnessed such disregard.

“We were escorting (Combat Engineers) with dump trucks filled with gravel being taken to (Battle Position) Iwo Jima,” said Drummond, a native of Leominster, Mass. “After about an hour, my gunner heard an explosion nearby.”

Not soon after the explosion, which occurred in the Iraqi town of Sa’dah where 1st MAP was operating, Drummond gets word from his superiors to check it out.

“We started moving down and as soon as we took a right, an Iraqi woman comes out in the street crying,” Drummond said.

Drummond stepped out of the vehicle and began to talk to the woman, using skills he learned in a crash course on speaking Arabic before deploying.

“She told me a bomb blew up,” he said.

Right thereafter Drummond was faced with what some might consider a living nightmare. Iraqi men, fathers, carried out their children who had allegedly been injured by an insurgent buried IED.

“They told me the kids had been out playing soccer when it happened,” Drummond said.

According to Drummond, the children had laceration and puncture wounds to their lower extremities. The scene was a chaotic mess of wounded children and screaming and crying parents and concerned local Iraqi’s.

“I immediately got my combat lifesaver bag and started going through the larger wounds," said Drummond. "Some had arteries broken."

"There was a lot of blood,” he said.

Drummond, a 23-year-old 2000 graduate of Maynard High School, started patching up the kids as fellow members of his platoon arrived.

“We called in a (medical evacuation) helicopter for them. All the while, I kept pressure on their wounds to stop the bleeding,” he said.

While the MEDEVAC helicopter made it’s way to them, Drummond, along with the Marines of 1st MAP, took the kids to the nearest major road to await the flight. According to Drummond, when the helicopter arrived the children were loaded up, along with a parent, and flown to a nearby hospital for further treatment.

“The biggest thing I tried to do was to keep them smiling. I can’t imagine how much it must have hurt,” he said. “They were just little kids, seven or eight years old. They were innocent, never did anything to anyone. They just wanted to play.”

Drummond accredits his ability to effectively use basic first aid to the classes he received before deploying.

“We got a lot of first aid classes over and over again and sometimes it got boring,” he said. “But, I listened to the corpsmen teaching ‘cause I had a feeling I might have to use it. Every Marine is a rifleman, and every Marine should know first aid.”

[Ryan Ruck]

Saddam-Era Mass Grave Found in Karbala

Iraq — Municipal employees working on a sewage project in the Shiite holy city of Karbala found skeletal remains believed to be from a mass grave dating to 1991.

Officials said the grave may contain over 100 victims, including women and children, of a brutal crackdown by Saddam Hussein's regime following a Shiite uprising in the south after Desert Storm.

The remains were discovered Monday and were sent for testing Tuesday in an effort to identify the bodies, said Rahman Mashawy, a Karbala police spokesman.

Human rights organizations estimate that more than 300,000 people, mainly Kurds and Shiite Muslims, were killed and buried in mass graves during Saddam's 23-year rule, which ended when U.S.-led forces toppled his regime in 2003. Saddam and seven co-defendants are now on trial for the deaths of more than 140 Shiites after a 1982 attempt on Saddam's life in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad.

[Backstop]

Yahoo News

Female US journalist kidnapped in Baghdad: police

Sat Jan 7, 5:25 AM ET
Reuters

Unknown gunmen kidnapped a female U.S. journalist in Baghdad on
Saturday after shooting dead her driver, police said.

They said she had been on her way to a meeting with a Sunni Arab leader when she was kidnapped in the Adel district near Malik bin Anas mosque in west Baghdad.

Immediately after the incident, American and Iraqi troops sealed off the area, witnesses said.

Thousands of civilians have been kidnapped since the fall of Saddam Hussein, including more than 200 foreigners seized by gangs seeking ransom or insurgents trying to force their governments to withdraw from Iraq. Many hostages have been released, but around 50 have been killed.

There has been a spate of kidnappings of Westerners over the past few months after a lull during most of 2005. Four Christian peace activists and a French engineer are among those still being held captive.

The wife of the British captive, 74-year-old Norman Kember, called on his abductors to free him in a televised appeal on Friday, saying he was "a man of peace."

Kember, American Tom Fox and Canadians James Loney and Harmeet Sooden were kidnapped on November 26 in Baghdad, where they were working with a Christian peace organization, by a group calling itself the Swords of Truth.

.

[ExplodedMind]

Isn't it odd that we don't get her name? I have seen no other reports about this incident, written or on TV. How could you know that an American journalist had been kidnapped, and not know her name, or what news agency she works for?

This should be a bigger story, her news outlet should be all over it, something smells...even if she is a free-lance stringer, she sells to somebody.

EM

[ExplodedMind]

Finally, some more info, Jill Carroll from the Christian Science Moniter.


http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/01/09/D8F1CABG1.html

EM

[catfish]

Isn't it odd that we don't get her name? I have seen no other reports about this incident, written or on TV. How could you know that an American journalist had been kidnapped, and not know her name, or what news agency she works for?

This should be a bigger story, her news outlet should be all over it, something smells...even if she is a free-lance stringer, she sells to somebody.

EM

Watch Fox News, Greta is all over this.

[Backstop]

REMEMBER THIS FACE!



On Tuesday, her captors said the U.S. had 72 hours to free female prisoners held in Iraq or she would be killed.

If she is executed, that is the last straw.

REMOVE ALL U.S. TROOPS FROM IRAQ!

NUKE THE WHOLE GODFORSAKEN PLACE!!

www.csmonitor.com/2006/0119/p01s01-woiq.html?s=t5

Hostage video ignites wide call to free Carroll

Wednesday, the umbrella group for a number of leading Sunni clerics condemned the Jan. 7 kidnapping

By Peter Grier and Gregory Lamb | Staff writers of The Christian Science Monitor


WASHINGTON – Calls for the release of kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll poured in from around the world on Wednesday following the broadcast of a brief video showing her in captivity.

Those calling upon her abductors in Iraq to show mercy included senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, and some of Iraq's most influential Sunni Arab leaders, including Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Iraqi Accordance Front.

Ms. Carroll was abducted in Baghdad on Jan. 7, about 300 yards from Dr. Dulaimi's office. She had intended to meet with him that morning.

Kidnapping is un-Islamic, Dr. Dulaimi said Wednesday. "Publish this statement on my behalf condemning this act, although it's going to expose me to danger," he said by telephone from Kuwait, where he was attending the funeral of Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al- Sabah, the country's late leader.

"We reject this act. It is absolutely condemned. We will do as much as possible to release Jill," said Dr. Dulaimi.

In a video delivered to Al Jazeera and broadcast on Tuesday, Ms. Carroll's kidnappers said that they would kill her on Friday unless US military authorities released all Iraqi women in their custody.

Al Jazeera declined to say how the tape came into its custody. However, the network did issue a statement calling for Carroll's release.

The tape showed Ms. Carroll speaking, although Al Jazeera did not broadcast the sound of her voice. She looked tired, but otherwise healthy.

Though no group has explicitly claimed responsibility for Carroll's abduction, a still photograph taken from the broadcast video showed the words "Brigade of Revenge."

Carroll was working as a freelancer for the Monitor when she was abducted by gunmen in Baghdad on the morning of Jan. 7. Her driver escaped, but her interpreter, Allan Enwiyah, was killed.

Over the last three years some 400 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq. Of these, 35 were media workers, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Five kidnapped journalists - four Iraqis, and one Italian - were killed by their abductors, according to the press freedom group. The others were released.

Only one Western woman is thought to have been murdered by captors. Margaret Hassan, an Irish aid worker and longtime resident of Iraq (who held Iraqi citizenship), was killed following her abduction in late 2004.

A call for the release of female prisoners in US military custody is a common demand made by Iraqi kidnappers. On Wednesday, US officials in Iraq said that coalition forces were holding eight women among some 14,000 detainees.

In Cairo the Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement saying that Carroll - as well as other journalists - should not be targeted by insurgents.

"We call upon the brothers in the Iraqi resistance not to target media workers," said the statement. "This contradicts the principles of our religion and doesn't help the cause of liberating the country".

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is the most powerful Islamist opposition group in the Arab world, and it has affiliations with Islamic political parties and organizations throughout the region.

The Al Zamman newspaper in Iraq is condemning the kidnapping in Thursday's edition, as did some other Middle East papers.

Also condemning the kidnapping and threats against Jill was Muthana Harith al-Dari, a leader of Iraq's Muslim Scholars Association, an umbrella group for a number of leading Sunni clerics, or Ulama.

Mr. Dari said kidnapping is always wrong and called for Jill's immediate release.

"All kidnappings and assassinations are completely rejected... especially when kidnapping a journalist. Journalists are here to tell the world about the occupation so kidnapping a journalist is going to hide the truth," Dari, who acts as the association's spokesman, told Al Sharqiya television in Iraq.

In the United States, her family appealed for mercy. Her father, Jim Carroll, issued a statement in which he called his daughter "an innocent journalist."

Jill Carroll moved to the Middle East to bear witness to an extraordinary time in the region's history.

She has learned the language, cultivated friends, and immersed herself in the culture to a degree perhaps unusual in the transient world of foreign correspondents.

Friends and former colleagues say she has been doing a great service to Iraqis and the world at large by trying to convey complicated reality - and that her kidnapping thus does not really serve any group's interest.

"She's extremely interested in getting the facts about the Arab world. She did a tremendous job in her reporting portraying a true picture of what was going on in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East," says Ayman Safadi, Ms. Carroll's former editor at the Jordan Times, and currently editor of Al Ghad newspaper in Amman.

Rana Husseini, a Jordan Times reporter and friend of Carroll's, says that she was shocked by the kidnapping, and hopes Carroll will return safely.

Carroll used to come to her house for meals, and came and sat with her in the hospital when she was ill, says Ms. Husseini.

"What these people did does not serve the Iraqi cause," says Husseini.

Staff writer Dan Murphy contributed from Baghdad.

[Ryan Ruck]

And we are supposed to win a war against the TAA with this bullshit?!?!

Inside the Ring

The JAG, we are told, mistakenly thought the open-tip round was the same as hollow-point ammunition, which is banned. The original open-tip was known as Sierra MatchKing and broke all records for accuracy in the past 30 years.

The difference between the open-tip and the hollow point is that the open tip is a design feature that improves accuracy while the hollow point is designed for increasing damage when it hits a target.

About 10 days ago, the Army JAG in Iraq ordered all snipers to stop using the open-tip 175-grain M118LR bullet, claiming, falsely, it was prohibited. Instead of the open-tip, snipers were forced to take M-60 machine gun rounds out of belts and use them instead.

The order upset quite a few people here and in Iraq who said the JAG ignored the basic principle of every military lawyer that there is a presumption of legality for all issued weapons or ammunition that are made at the military service level at the time they are acquired.

"She forced snipers to use less accurate ammunition, thereby placing U.S. forces and Iraqi civilians at greater risk," a Pentagon official said of the JAG, who was not identified by name. "And she incorrectly issued an order. JAGs may advise a commander, but they cannot issue orders."

After Army lawyers were finally alerted to the JAG's action, the order was lifted and the JAG was notified that the open tip was perfectly legal for use by snipers. However, the reversal was followed by the Army officials' taking retaliation against a sniper who blew the whistle on the bogus order. The sniper lost his job over a security infraction in reporting the JAG.

You have no idea how much it infuriates me that we have lawyers meddling in how we fight a war!!!

Does it somehow hurt more to be shot with a HP round than a FMJ round? Or that getting hit with a HP bullet is worse than getting hit with HE fragments? Let's see if we can find some of these JAGoffs (the PC types talked about in this piece, not the real hard working ones) to see if they can determine if a HP or FMJ hurts more!