Excerpts From the Senate Hearing on Iraq

[mr_gyptian]

Not to interrupt the Jacob's Ladder Redux. but back to the topic at hand, the situation in Iraq is getting better contrary to the Washington Post's and New York Times' miserably biased bylines.



Let Me Tell You About Those Humvees


Saturday, June 18, 2005; Page A17

Having read countless articles on the Iraq war and having just been an embedded reporter in Anbar province, I can say with some authority that the June 10 front-page article "Building Iraq's Army: Mission Improbable" is the most miserably biased piece I've seen on the conflict.

A recurrent theme was that the Iraqis get inferior and even downright dangerous equipment. For example: "The Americans drove fully enclosed armored Humvees, the Iraqis open-backed Humvees with benches, the sides of which were protected by plating the equivalent of a flak jacket." It continued, "As an American reporter climbed in with the Iraqis, the U.S. soldiers watched in bemused horror. 'You might be riding home alone,' one soldier said to the other reporter. 'Is he riding in the back of that?' asked another. 'I'll be over here praying.' "


Sorry, but when I rode through the improving but still hostile city of Fallujah, I also chose an open-backed Humvee -- horrifying nobody. Both types of Humvee provide protection against AK-47 rounds but are readily penetrated by rocket-propelled grenades and can be demolished by a decent-sized, improvised explosive device. The advantage of the open-backed Humvee is that if fired on you can instantly just pop up and fire back, without the need for the vehicle to stop (dangerous in an ambush) and without clambering out and exposing your whole body instead of exposing just enough to peer out and fire.



-- Michael Fumento

Washington


The writer is a senior fellow at the

Hudson Institute.

[mr_gyptian]

Note: Also available at "The Opinion Journal" and Winds of Change. Many thanks to James Taranto and Joe Katzman, and all of you for your continuing support. Please also note that because of the change in publishing schedule brought about by last week's Memorial Day weekend, this issue contains good news and positive developments from the past three week, and not two, as is usually the case.

"You can't fix in six months what it took 35 years to destroy." These words, spoken by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Iraq's first democratically elected Prime Minister in half a century, should be inscribed in three-foot tall characters as a preface to all the reporting from Iraq. Sadly, the underlying reality all too often seems to escape many reporters caught in the excitement of "now".

In an opinion piece in "Christian Science Monitor", A. Heather Coyne concurs with the gradualist view:

Having spent the past two years in Iraq, first as an Army officer and now as the head of the Iraq office of the Washington-based US Institute of Peace, I am struck by the determination and steadiness of Iraqis as they struggle to build a stable, democratic country, and by the continuing, firm commitment of Iraqis to participate in - and manage - that process.

In spite of a constant threat from the various insurgencies over the past year, Iraqi government agencies, political parties, and civil society organizations have gradually expanded their capabilities and activities. They will tell you how much more they could have done had they not been constrained by security threats or - almost as important - the lack of reliable infrastructure, but what they have accomplished already is admirable, as is their unflagging determination in the face of these threats and constraints.

There is a phrase I hear in almost every conversation with Iraqis that captures the mood of this process: hutwa bi hutwa, or "step by step."
Below, some of those often overlooked or under-reported steps that people of Iraq and their foreign friends have been taking over the past five weeks.

SOCIETY: Samir al-Saboon, the Sunni head of Iraq's National Security Agency, has recently shared the results of latest opinion research in Iraq, taken in May:

Recent polling data shows that fully two-thirds of Iraqis believe their country is headed in the right direction, Saboon said. While a poll in January showed only 11 percent of Sunni Muslims in Iraq shared that view, that percentage has since grown to 40, he said...

Recent polling data shows that fully two-thirds of Iraqis believe their country is headed in the right direction, Saboon said. While a poll in January showed only 11 percent of Sunni Muslims in Iraq shared that view, that percentage has since grown to 40, he said.
Politically, the biggest task on the calendar is preparing Iraq's new democratic constitution by August this year. The committee to draft the document will be composed of 69 members: 55 members of the assembly, 13 Sunni representatives, and a member of a small Mandean sect. "Around half the Sunni representatives will be members of political parties and the others representatives from Sunnis regions, mainly in the centre and the west of the country." The 13 will be chosen by the Sunni community, not the Assembly or the committee. The committee's head is Shi'ite cleric Hummam Hammoudi, and his deputies a Kurdish legislator, Fouad Massoum, and a Sunni Arab lawmaker, Adnan al-Janabi.

Among the foreign offers of help, Indian government has volunteered its expertise to help draft the constitution.

Speaking of constitution drafting, there is already some good news:

Shiite legislators have decided not to push for a greater role for Islam in the new Iraqi constitution out of concern that the contentious issue will inflame religious sentiments and deepen sectarian tensions.

Instead, the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite coalition that won the most seats in January’s elections, will advocate retaining the moderate language of Iraq’s temporary constitution that was drawn up under the auspices of the American occupation authority.

Humam Hamoudi, the Shiite cleric who heads the 55-member constitutional committee that will draft the new document, said that any attempt to debate the issue of Islamic law could ignite a firestorm of competing sectarian demands and that the brief references to Islam in three paragraphs of the temporary constitution should be left untouched.

"These paragraphs represent the middle ground between the secularists and those who want Islamic government, and I think the wisest course of action is to keep them as they are," he said in an interview at his Baghdad home. "Opening up the subject for discussion would provoke religious sentiments in the street."
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Jaffari has restated to the Assembly his government's vision - most importantly, "the political programme of the interim government set up following elections has the objective of building a federal, pluralist Iraq while respecting human rights and public freedoms."

In northern Iraq, after some initial delays, the local Kurdish assembly opens for business:

Parliament in the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq has held its first session in the northern city of Irbil.

After recitations from the Koran, all 111 deputies took oaths of office under Kurdish national flags.

Iraq's President, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, attended the session, as well as the newly-elected President of the autonomous region, Massoud Barzani.

The two men who lead rival parties have effectively ruled the Kurdish region since the end of the Gulf War in 1991.
Down south, the minority Sunnis are finally organizing themselves politically, thus ending their boycott of Iraq's democratic politics:

The newly created Sunni alliance, which has not adopted a name, will open its first office in Baghdad, with branches later in other cities.

"The decisions taken by this body will be shared by all Sunnis parties and movements, Islamists, independents, merchants, military officers, heads of tribes and workers," said Adnan al-Duleimi, the head of the Sunni Endowment.

The charitable organization was one of three main Sunni groups to back the formation of the new organization. The others were the influential Association of Muslim Scholars and the Iraqi Islamic Party.

"We decided to establish this Sunni political and religious organization to speak on behalf the Arab Sunnis. We all have to work for the sake of Iraq to get this country out of this hard situation," said Sheik Lawrence Abid Ibrahim al-Hardan, 47, who is from restive Anbar province west of Baghdad.

[Woodsy]

Not to interrupt the Jacob's Ladder Redux. but back to the topic at hand, the situation in Iraq is getting better

sure seems like it
Yesterday a bomb attack that killed six Americans of six killed when the attacker drove into a Marine truck loaded with troops, four were women, military officials said, as were 11 of the 13 wounded.
Ususally dont mention the wonded, total wounded numbers are hard to find ( dont even attempt to get Iraqui numbers, we no talk about that)
Today
Insurgents stormed a police station in western
Iraq on Saturday and fought a three-hour battle with U.S. and Iraqi forces in the north. Police said about 20 gunmen stormed the station at Ramadi, capital of rebellious Anbar province, the second such raid in a week. Residents and officials at Tal Afar, an insurgent bastion near Mosul where U.S. troops have cracked down this month, said three bomb attacks were followed by a battle involving U.S. tanks and helicopters that lasted about three hours.
AND
In Mosul itself, a suicide car bomb attack on the motorcade of the provincial police chief killed at least four policemen, police and U.S. military officials said. The senior officer was not traveling in the convoy at the time.

AND

Further south in Samarra, police said at least five people were killed and 10 wounded by a car bomb that went off near the home of a senior police officer.
getting better all the time, yep.

and lets not even get into the fact theat Iraq has become a bigger terrorist breeding ground & training place than Afganistan was in the 80's.

"you reap what you sow"

[Benny Profane]

Oh yeah, it's getting better, yeah, right. Sez an upper middle class privileged white boy from the air conditioned comfort of his computer room. Let's draft you and plop you into the middle of that stinking desert and see what you have to say.

Rep. Walter Jones is the yahoo from North Carolina who started that whole "freedom fries" thing when the French became an easy target pre war. Now this dork is calling for a declaration of victory and withdrawal by October, 2006. Jeez, could that be because mid term elections are just a month after that? Self serving asshole.

[Stu Gotz]

-- Michael Fumento
Washington
The writer is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Seeing how the Hudson Institute is one of the centers for Neo-con thinking and supports a foreign policy of coercive force, did you expect the author to write anything other than Iraq is all peaches and cream.

[mr_gyptian]

Seeing how the Hudson Institute is one of the centers for Neo-con thinking and supports a foreign policy of coercive force, did you expect the author to write anything other than Iraq is all peaches and cream.

here I thought you'd refute the content of his letter.

[Stu Gotz]

Sorry, but when I rode through the improving but still hostile city of Fallujah, I also chose an open-backed Humvee -- horrifying nobody. Both types of Humvee provide protection against AK-47 rounds but are readily penetrated by rocket-propelled grenades and can be demolished by a decent-sized, improvised explosive device. The advantage of the open-backed Humvee is that if fired on you can instantly just pop up and fire back, without the need for the vehicle to stop (dangerous in an ambush) and without clambering out and exposing your whole body instead of exposing just enough to peer out and fire.

Seeing as how American forces, with three years of in-country experience prefer to ride in fully armored Hummers, I call BS on his observations, other than to make a political point. I would like to see the response of the American servicemen when Fumento corners them at dinner and tells them to ride in open carriage vehicles because it is better to "pop-up and shoot back."

[Woodsy]

here I thought you'd refute the content of his letter.

I thought I would do that,
care to retort?

[mr_gyptian]

what? deny what you linked to be true. I know those things are happening. they are not happening with the frequency they were a year ago.

there weren't police stations to storm.

there weren't stand alone Iraqi units to attack.

no city is under control as Falluja was.

there is still a long, very long way to go. I never said it wasn't.

I was just pointing out that there is a lot of good happening over there too.

[splat]

So, Woodsy, what do you think individual Americans will get for the one trillion dollar investment we will have made by the time it's all over.
You know, guys like you and me?

[mr_gyptian]

So, Woodsy, what do you think individual Americans will get for the one trillion dollar investment we will have made by the time it's all over.
You know, guys like you and me?

a new market to sell bros?

[natty dread]

Not to interrupt the Jacob's Ladder Redux. but back to the topic at hand, the situation in Iraq is getting better.

Better? Better than what, when the "mission was accomplished." Better for whom? Certainly not our troops. Think it will be better still when 3,000 soldiers are dead, not just over 1700? If things are better, I advise you to go over there and help our troops make things even better still. Or you could continue to support the carnage of our troops from the comfort of your showroom floor, home, or wherever you are.

[mr_gyptian]

Better? Better than what, when the "mission was accomplished." Better for whom? Certainly not our troops. Think it will be better still when 3,000 soldiers are dead, not just over 1700? If things are better, I advise you to go over there and help our troops make things even better still. Or you could continue to support the carnage of our troops from the comfort of your showroom floor, home, or wherever you are.

falling back on that same old saw.

oddly re-enlistment rates are up over the last three years. You could either take that to mean that the soldiers believe in the cause they are fighting for regardless of what you think about the legitimacy of what they are fighting and dying for every day.

[mr_gyptian]

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 23, 2005

Filed at 6:51 p.m. ET

Excerpts from Thursday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Iraq war:

--------

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld: ''There have been a series of gross errors and mistakes. Those were on your watch. ... Isn't it time for you to resign?''

Rumsfeld: ''Senator, I've offered my resignation to the president twice, and he's decided that he would prefer that he not accept it, and that's his call.''

--------



Rumsfeld didn't respond to those remarks.

Mary Jo Kopechne didn't either.

[Woodsy]

what's "stop-loss?"
is it included in your figures ( 107% from what I have read?)
why are soldiers suing the military to get out?
Why is my best friend worried his 10 + years to the Air Force may not be ending in 4 months like it should?
Why are we kidnapping citizens of foreign countries to take them elsewhere to be tortured?
When will the war be over?

[Jumper Bones]

Why is my best friend worried his 10 + years to the Air Force may not be ending in 4 months like it should?

This is a good question...as there is no stop-loss in effect in the Air Force now, nor is it likely there is going to be one anytime soon. In fact, they're looking to lose people - 24,000 were trimmed out of the service in the last year alone. I had to separate and join the Reserves, just to continue a career in the service. So I've been struggling to keep a full-time check. Meanwhile, there are talks of another 20,000-50,000 being trimmed out over the next decade.

And even the zipper-suited sun gods themselves, the service's vaunted fighter pilots, may be looking for jobs soon - with the cost of new fighter planes passing the 100-million-a-copy figure, and with reduced threats (and more effective planes), they're seeking to buy roughly half of what they have in the fighter fleet nowadays - and that may be cut even before the new fighters are brought on line, in order to reduce expenses across the board. And this doesn't even factor in the advent of unmanned combat aircraft - which are in-development now.

Anyway, suffice to say, the Air Force doesn't look to be needing or holding on to too many people these days (except for about a dozen career fields), and I don't think your bud is in any danger of being kept in. Even the "snake eaters" in our special ops community are being allowed to leave at the end of their tours, if they so desire (I know of several who have followed the six-digit salary figures to go work for Blackwater Security in Iraq).

Very different story in the Army or Marines though...in fact, there are several programs to expedite the transfer of Air Force people to the Army (called Blue to Green programs). I may even consider it to get my commission...but only if I could secure an Aviation slot, without being lied to. Part of the Army's troubles are its ethics and how it does business from the Personnell/Admin area.

[Woodsy]

He was a C-130 pilot and very active leading up to the war, he trains pilots now.
I hear what you are saying but they just wont give him an answer definately on his notice he gave them a few months back.

So tonight we get more "stay the Course" from GWB.
Think he has a plan or an answer?

Iraq Vets To President: We Need Honest Answers, Not Pep Rallies
In an early response to the President's speech this evening, Operation Truth (www.optruth.org) the nation's first and largest organization for Troops and Veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom, released the following statement from Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff. Operation Truth is comprised of hundreds of Veterans and Troops from Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, from all branches of the military, across all fifty states, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

Tonight at Fort Bragg, in front of a backdrop of American service members,
President Bush will tell the nation that victory is at hand, as long as we stay the course. Add a banner praising a job well-done and an aircraft carrier, and this all begins to seem eerily familiar.

But the men and women of the American military have had enough of what’s familiar from this administration. For us there is no alternative but to serve when called, as we have in
Iraq for the past two years.

Mr. President, this is a time for hard truths, and now that the opinion polls on the war have started to turn, you are going to Fort Bragg to make your case. Will it continue to be one version of progress from our Commander in Chief, but a very different measure from our commanders in the field? Why does your view of Iraq look so different from ours?

We agree there is no choice but to succeed in Iraq. But, Mr. President, what is the plan to get there? We still don’t know. To quote Senator Chuck Hagel, a great patriot, it seems to those of us who served in Iraq that your administration is “making it up as they go along.”

What is success? Tonight you will tell us Iraq is on the path to freedom and stability, but what does right look like? The
CIA tells us Iraq is now a top breeding ground for terrorists. Are we killing more enemies than we’re making?

Last week, Vice President Cheney said the insurgency is in its last throes, but this week we’re told to dig in for a 12-year battle. Have you asked your Secretary of Defense and Vice President to offer the Troops a straight answer?

We don’t need to be told about the political successes in Iraq, because we were there to safeguard an election one-year ago that you will certainly cite as progress. And we know that now is not a time for cheerleading.

Mr. President, we don’t need to be told that the insurgents intend to shake our will, because we’ve sifted through the havoc wreaked by even the crudest weapons, then watched our friends sent home, changed forever. We don’t need to be told that your administration is committed to taking care of the Troops, because we’ve already gotten the bill you sent us for the meals we ate while recovering at Walter Reed.

We don’t need to be told that flak jackets and safer Humvees are on the way, because we’ve already learned that a phone-call home and a few hundred bucks is probably the quickest way to get body armor. Hundreds of Troops have been wounded or killed because of faulty vehicles or missing armor, but who has been held accountable?

Each day we fulfill our commitment to this country, but we are still waiting for a Veteran’s Administration that is properly funded and prepared to handle the consequences of this war. This past week it was revealed the VA was one billion dollars short of its health care need. Whose fault is that, and have you punished them for their failure to serve America’s heroes?

We have come a long way since the early days of tough talk and “Mission Accomplished” banners. The body count has increased exponentially, and the rumbling of an awakening public can now be heard. But for American Troops on the ground in Iraq, little has changed. For their families back home, the sleepless nights continue. The members of the military have long agreed that the strength of our force in Iraq cannot be sustained with an all-volunteer Army and dwindling recruitment numbers. Are you prepared to tell America’s parents that their children will be needed to finish the job?

Mr. President, we need honest answers, not pep rallies.

[splat]

He has a plan to make you think he answered.

[Bender]

Hey douchebags, this is a SKI FORUM!!!!! Quit posting your FUCKIN' political bullshit on this forum!

[Benny Profane]

lame avatar, jong "douchbag"

[Grange]

Hey douchebags, this is a SKI FORUM!!!!! Quit posting your FUCKIN' political bullshit on this forum!

This comin from a guy or gal I suppose who did his or her best to cunt up a "SKI FORUM!!!" in Blurred's birthday thread.

[This End Up]

[interloper]

Army Sgt. Adam Replogle prepares to hit the slopes in Vail, Colo., during an "America Supports You" event sponsored by Vail Resorts. Replogle was wounded in the war on terror. Defense Dept. photo by Brian Natwick.

[Woodsy]

nice speech GWB.
too sum up:

Numbers correspond to paragraph in speech.

1. Thanks for having me over to chat.

2. September 11, 2001 allows us to attack anybody we feel like.

3. I will use September 11, 2001 as the excuse to attack anyone I feel like.

4. Iraqi terrorists = Al Qaeda.

5. Therefore we're actually hunting Al Qaeda.

6. Is it worth it?

7. Iraqi terrorists = Al Qaeda.

8. And in case you didn't get that, Iraqi terrorists = Al Qaeda.

9. They will kill us all, if given the chance.

10. Terrorists are bad.

11. But we are winning.

12. The lesson is clear: the terrorists can only win if you don't remember that September 11, 2001 serves as an adequate excuse for anything I choose to do.

13. A year ago, I told you I wanted to build a foreign nation.

14. That's what we're doing.

15. We're building a nation.

16. This tough job is made tougher by the fact that we bombed the shit out of the country after a decade of sanctions, but we're gettin' 'er done.

17. I'm getting a bunch of countries in line to promise to donate less than 1/7th of what we've spent so far on Iraq, in an attempt to delude you into thinking this is an international effort.

18. We're helping the chickenshit Iraqis learn how to shoot guns at terrorists.

19. If we stop now, Iraq = Al Qaeda.

20. So we are using both brass knuckles and bullshit to get what we want.

21. We'd like to get the Iraqis to finish the job I started.

22. But our Iraqi counter-insurgency forces are largely untrained-- warm bodies, really.

23. We're trying to get other countries involved in training them.

24. To help them prepare to take over for us, I'm initiating three steps:

25. A) the buddy system.

26. B) the buddy system.

27. C) the buddy system.

28. The Iraqis appreciate the buddy system, and have shown that they are willing to be shot in place of us.

29. I know you want me to quit spending a ton of money in Iraq, but it's necessary until the Iraqis are prepared to be shot themselves, instead of having us shot for them.

30. Many people ask "why not send enough troops to do the job?", but my generals haven't specifically asked me for more troops, so my hands are tied.

31. There's a lot of internal squabbling taking place among the Iraqis because they've taken advantage of each other in the past.

32. It's going to be tough work getting them to want a country just like America used to be.

33. If we can get them working together, they may build a country just like we once were.

34. As that happens, more Iraqis will want to take part.

35. My crazy-ass antics have scared the shit out of the other non-free regions of the area.

36. These nutjobs may want to take a swing at America, but I know that you will be willing to swing back, if necessary.

37. Just remember: Iraq = Al Qaeda.

38. I know I can count on you to be lulled into accepting anything, provided I throw in the proper "Golden Age of America" buzzwords.

39. Make sure you pat a soldier on the back, so he won't be pissed off that I'm sending him to be killed while contemplating cutting benefits to his widow.

40. And thanks to the troops, who realize that now that we've gone this far, there's no turning back.

41. Remember: after September 11, 2001, we can kick the shit out of whoever we feel like.

42. And screw you liberals and atheists.