Target Centermass

Category: War on Terror

  • Polish Commander Urges Early Iraq Vote

    Leading up to and throughout the Iraqi campaign, the Poles have been among our staunchest and most valued of allies. Personally, I rank them with the Aussies and behind only the Brits. Today, the commander of the Polish contingent suggested shortening the Iraqi political process and moving planned elections from late January to December.

    “The sooner the better,” Maj. Gen. Andrzej Ekiert told The Associated Press in an interview from the Polish-led multinational force’s headquarters in Iraq. “With a very long political struggle you can have all sorts of unexpected situations.”

    His warning came amid signs that radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose forces have been battling U.S. troops in the holy city of Najaf, may be ready to join the political process. Al-Sadr called on his followers across Iraq on Monday to end fighting against coalition and Iraqi forces.

    I’m torn on this and will have to chew on it for a while. Unlike the success of the surprise early handover of power, this could not be handled in a stealthy manner. We can’t wake up one December morning and yell, “Hey, you Iraqis, go vote now.”

    There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to such a move. Looking at some of the obvious plusses, the first and most important one is it shortens the time until the Iraqis have a vested interest in an elected government. It also shortens the political process, cutting al-Sadr’s opportunity to cause trouble and still play a role in the political realm. A huge disadvantage is that it abbreviates the opportunity for candidates to reach the voting public, which would definately play into the hands of already known names like al-Sadr.

    Aside from his election suggestion, Ekiert tells a story that carries hope of settling down the simmering situation.

    As an alternative to military action, the general cited a meeting he had Sunday with nearly 60 sheiks from Babil province, who presented him with a white rose of peace and promised to help end attacks on coalition troops in the area. He also noted that Karbala province, which is in the Polish-led force’s area of responsibility, has not been inflamed by al-Sadr’s insurgency.

    “I hope that this meeting and the balanced situation in Karbala … will pour some cold water on the hot swords,” Ekiert said.

    Ekiert also sent messages of caution to his countrymen opposing the continuation of the Polish mission.

    He rejected the notion of an immediate pullout being pushed by some Polish opposition parties.

    “It would lead to large-scale fighting, a national revolution and blood flowing in the Euphrates and Tigris instead of water,” he said.

    Poland has said it will scale back its commitment in early 2005, when it expects the situation in Iraq to have stabilized after the elections. Still, Ekiert cautioned against pulling out too many troops before Iraqi forces have demonstrated that they can provide security for the country.

    “I know that democracy is born in pain and here, in Iraq, you have to be very, very cautious in assessing whether this democracy is indeed complete.”

    This seems to be a reasonable, rational man in charge of fine troops. This will be in the back of my mind as I give further thought to his election suggestion.

  • Italy Mourns Hostage Killed in Iraq

    The news of the killing of kidnapped journalist has hit our allies in Italy.

    Italians woke up to news of the killing of Enzo Baldoni, a 56-year old freelance journalist who had been held hostage in Iraq. His kidnappers, a militant group calling itself “The Islamic Army in Iraq,” had given Italy 48-hours to withdraw its troops from Iraq or Mr. Baldoni would be killed. The deadline expired Thursday afternoon.

    Following news of the killing, Italian head of state Carlo Azeglio Ciampi wrote a message to the family saying all Italians are in mourning over the journalist’s death.

    Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi condemned what he called the “barbaric” killing, saying there are no words to describe an act lacking any humanity.

    The prime minister expressed solidarity with the family, particularly the two children who had launched an appeal “with love and dignity”, but which, the prime minister added, “unfortunately turned out to be useless because it was directed at people who evidently had no heart to listen.”

    Mr. Berlusconi made clear Italy’s policies will not change and he says Italian forces will stay in Iraq to help restore peace and democracy in the country.

    Berlusconi’s firm stance in continuing the war stands in stark contrast to the limp-wristedness shown by Spain and the Philipines. Unfortunately, not all Italians share this strength.

    The Italian government has 3,000 troops in Iraq but anti-war sentiment runs high in Italy with many opposed to keeping Italian troops in the country. Mr. Baldoni was the second Italian hostage to be killed.

    One member of the opposition, Green’s leader Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, summed up the feelings of many people in the street after hearing of the killing.

    “We are wondering”, the Greens leader said, “how many more deaths are necessary before we recognize this war was a tragic mistake.”

    And I am wondering how many more murders, bombings and atrocities are necessary before the Greens and others like them recognize the nature of our enemy and the need for this war. Ah, well, they were also on the wrong side of history in the Cold War. Otto von Bismarck once said, “Any fool can profit from his own mistakes. The wise man profits from those of others.” Otto never met the Euro Greens or he would’ve amended “any fool” to “any but the really exceptional fools.”

  • The News from Iraq and Thoughts on Najaf

    The obvious story of the day in Iraq is the developments in Najaf, with the U.S. increasing the pressure on the thorn-in-the-side-of-the-day of the new Iraqi government, the fuzzy-faced Muqtada al-Sadr.

    Thousands of U.S. troops sealed off Najaf’s vast cemetery, its old city and a revered Shiite shrine Thursday and unleashed a tank, infantry and helicopter assault against militants loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr. They also stormed the radical cleric’s home, but he was not there.

    As billows of black smoke drifted across Najaf amid the clatter of military helicopters, gunmen in a house near the shrine shot at U.S. forces patrolling the 5-square-mile cemetery. Militants hiding in the cemetery took fire from the Apaches and from American soldiers crawling on the roofs of single-story buildings. When the gunships turned away, the insurgents in the graveyard shot back.

    As the day began, the military trumpeted the operation as the beginning of a major assault on al-Sadr’s fighters.

    “Major operations to destroy the militia have begun,” said Maj. David Holahan, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment.

    Later Thursday, a spokesman for the top Marine command in Iraq (news – web sites), Lt. Col. T.V. Johnson, said that although there was some fighting and some Najaf residents have fled the city, the combat has been “sporadic and there have been no major engagements” with the militiamen.

    The story goes on to ominously mention the dangers inherent in fighting near the holy Shiite mosque and the protests and violence elsewhere in the country resulting from the Iraqi/American push. The interim government and the U.S. have tried to counter this with a modicum of restraint.

    In Baghdad, Iraqi officials were at pains to assure the public that U.S. troops were not in the shrine compound and only Iraqi forces would enter the shrine if it became necessary.

    Damage to the building or a U.S. military presence there would set off an outcry across the country and much of the Muslim world.

    The government blamed the al-Sadr’s followers for the violence.

    “This is a conspiracy against the Iraqi people, targeting all of Iraq,” Interior Minister Falah Hassan al-Naqib said during a briefing Thursday. “Who will benefit from this? Who will benefit from targeting these holy places?”

    I wasn’t a blogger at the time, but I posted a few months back on an internet discussion forum that the primary difference between the Iraqi occupation and the post-WWII occupations of Japan and Germany was that the people of the former Axis countries absolutely knew that they had been defeated. So much of the Iraq takeover had been intended to diminish the hardship on the populace and wrap things up in a speedy manner that I don’t think this feeling of defeat was ever sent to the Iraqi people and the Arab world. We shredded a military and the world barely knew it.

    Looking back, the threatened Shock-and-Awe campaign, which was never actually unleashed, possibly should’ve been. The Arab world and Joe Iraqi needed to know the might and ruthlessness of the U.S. in the war against terror. We allowed the possible importance of an al-Sadr by not showing the willingness to destroy. Now, that card is off the table. We have established an interim government that we cannot undermine. To do so, unless absolutely needed, would be reckless beyond comprehension.

    So what does this mean in Najaf today? We are within a mile or two of the shrine, apparently on all sides. Surprisingly, my vote is for restraint. Me, the fan of carpet bombing. Yes, restraint but, more accurately, siege. Cordon off the small area. No one enters. No one leaves alive or not in custody or not in a body bag. Snipe them all, if needed. No food, water or media allowed in until al-Sadr surrenders or dies. There is no glory to an Islamic militia that slowly slips into captivity.

    We set this up by playing with kid’s gloves, and now it’s better we follow it through that way. A desperate, hungry (seriously, he could use the under-siege diet) al-Sadr looking patheticly meek would be the best result of this.

    In other equally important Iraq news, the Iraqi government will convene Sunday to determine the interim national assembly.

    The conference, considered a crucial step in the country’s move toward democracy, was to have been held in late July, but was delayed to allow more time for preparations; a postponement encouraged by the United Nations.

    Some areas of the country complained last month that they hadn’t been given enough time to agree on delegates, and officials expressed worries the gathering would be a target for terror attacks. The postponement was announced the day after a car bombing killed 70 people in Baqouba, underscoring the continuing wave of violence across the country.

    In addition, key political groups had threatened to boycott the conference. U.N. officials wanted more time in hopes of persuading those factions to attend, but it wasn’t immediately clear Thursday if they had changed any minds.

    “We invite everyone to take part in the political process,” Dawoud told reporters.

    The conference, made up of 1,000 delegates from Iraq’s 18 provinces as well as tribal, religious and political leaders, is intended to help choose a 100-member national assembly that will counterbalance the interim government.

    The assembly will have the power to approve the national budget, veto executive orders with a two-thirds majority and appoint replacements to the Cabinet in the event a minister dies or resigns.

    This is key in bringing the new government one step closer to the Iraqi people. The closer the interim government is to the populace, the more they are intertwined in determining a democratic future for the nation. While not getting the attention that al-Sadr’s latest cat-and-should-be-already-dead-mouse game is drawing, this could have a greater effect in the long term hopes of bringing democratic stability to the region.

  • Kerry Chooses Raising Taxes Over Funding War

    In his latest spinning of his vote against the $87 billion in funding for the troops and the Iraqi campaign, John Kerry said today that his nay vote was really against Bush’s tax cuts.

    President Bush says you can not negotiate with terrorists; they must be brought to justice. The president again criticized Senator Kerry for opposing an $87 billion supplemental appropriation for the U.S. military last year, saying American troops sent into battle must have the best equipment.

    Senator Kerry says he voted against that money because he wanted it to come from the president’s record tax cuts instead of adding to the federal deficit.

    This is stupid on so many levels. Does this mean that he actually voted for the tax cuts before he voted against them? A presidential candidate should never say he played politics while trying to withhold support from the troops and the war effort. This statement just begs to be publicized to the voters and those in uniform.

  • U.S. Demands Najaf Militants End Fighting

    While it is a somewhat interesting twist in an ongoing story, I felt driven to post this just because I love the quote I’ve put in bold.

    U.S. forces adopted a new tactic Tuesday in their sixth day of battles in this city south of the capital, sending patrols armed with loudspeakers into the streets to demand that militants loyal to a radical cleric drop their arms and leave Najaf immediately or face death.

    The call, broadcast in Arabic from American vehicles, added a psychological component to the U.S. offensive. It came as U.S. helicopter gunships pummeled a multistoried building 400 yards from the gold-domed Imam Ali Shrine with rockets, missiles and 30 mm cannons — one of the closest strikes yet to what is one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam.

    Plumes of thick, black smoke rose from the building, which serves as a hotel for visitors to the shrine. Witnesses said insurgents were firing from inside it and that U.S. forces returned fire.

    “We’ve pretty much just been patrolling and flying helicopters all over the place, and when we see something bad, we blow it up,” said U.S. Marine Maj. David Holahan, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines Regiment.

    Nearby, Bradley fighting vehicles swept through a huge cemetery, pursuing small pockets of militants hiding in elaborate concrete tombs. Choppers provided support, firing rockets from above, witnesses said.

    I’m thinking Maj. David Holahan would’ve made a good tanker.

  • Grab a Drink and Read This

    Doffing the CVC to the greatness that is Vodkapundit for his look at strategies going forward in the war against radical Islam based on lessons learned from the Cold War.

    By now, you probably know where I’m going with this little history lesson: How do we define victory in the Terror War, and what will the peace look like.

    Let’s get the second part out of the way first.

    What will the peace look like? I don’t have a damn clue. And neither do you. And if you meet anyone who claims to know, feel free to laugh at them really hard. So hard, you get a little spit on their face. Sometimes, justice can be small and spiteful – ask a meter maid. Anyway.

    When peace comes, it could look like whatever Mecca, Tehran, Damascus, Riyadh, Pyongyang, Khartoum, Kabul, Cairo, etc., look like after being hit by big city-busting nuclear warheads. Or it could end with the entire Arab and Muslim world looking like the really well-manicured bits of Connecticut. My best guess is, somewhere in-between. But that’s only a guess.

    NOTE: It’s a sad state of affairs (their affairs, not ours) that the first scenario, no matter how repugnant and unlikely, still seems more likely than the second scenario, no matter how virtuous.

    Now that we know that we don’t know how we’ll win, that leaves the question (and the oxymoron): How do we win?

    Go. Read. Learn why Stephen Green is one of my favorite bloggers.

  • Iraqi Minister Singles Out Iran for Supporting Insurgents

    The Iraqi defense minister has identified an old and expected enemy as being a supporter of insurgents.

    The charges leveled by Iraqi Defense Minister Hazim al-Shalaan and the kidnapping of Iran’s consul to Kerbala highlighted growing mistrust between the two neighbors which fought each other to a standstill in a bitter 1980-1988 war.

    Political analysts said the mounting tensions reflected the desire of Iraqi officials to assert their independence from Shi’ite Muslim Iran which, in turn, is divided over how best to exert influence in its western neighbor.

    Shalaan, who has previously branded Iran as Iraq’s “first enemy,” said Shi’ite Muslim rebels were using arms obtained from Iran to wage a bloody uprising in Najaf where U.S. forces say at least 360 rebels have been killed since Thursday.

    Of course the Iranians have a huge hand in the insurgency, as do the Syrians. These are two regimes with a great deal on the line in Iraq. However, I am somewhat surprised by how boldly Shalaan called out Iran. He may feel a little freer to do so after this little tidbit came to light:

    Ramazanzadeh said kidnapped diplomat Fereidoun Jahani was a long-serving Foreign Ministry official despite footage provided by his captors showing credentials in his name bearing the logo of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

    Security experts say the Revolutionary Guards — an ideologically driven branch of the armed forces — has sent scores of agents into Iraq.

    It looks like the Iranians have gotten caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Will this stop their support of the insurgency? The answer to that is no, because the fundamentalist rulers of Iran simply cannot allow a successful democratic state next door when so many of their own citizenry chafe and yearn for democracy.

    Can this still have an effect on the insurgency itself? Oh yes, as it is demonstrated how much of the insurgency is foreign-driven and opposed to the success and combined will of the Iraqi populace, any remaining native support should wither. At that point, cooperation with and support for the Iraqi government will greatly increase.

  • Experts: Beware al-Qaida’s ‘Offspring’

    The Associated Press has put out an analysis on splinter groups of al_Queda and their growing threat.

    The groups are small, little known and highly militant, with ideologies like al-Qaida’s. They have struck around the world, carrying out suicide bombings in Morocco, kidnapping civilians in Iraq and attacking Western residential compounds in Saudi Arabia.

    The emergence of these groups is making the fight against terrorism more challenging. Instead of targeting one enemy — just al-Qaida — the West and its allies now face many “al-Qaidas,” splinter groups that are mostly unrelated to each other but are bound by the same hatred of the West — especially the United States and its allies, including Israel.

    “It’s like McDonald’s giving out franchises,” said Dia’a Rashwan, an Egyptian expert on militant groups. “All they have to do is follow the company’s manual. They don’t consult with headquarters every time they want to produce a meal.”

    A key conclusion in last month’s Sept. 11 commission report said that even though Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida has been weakened, its imitators pose a “catastrophic threat” to the United States.

    “The enemy is not just ‘terrorism,’ some generic evil,” said the report. “The catastrophic threat at this moment in history is more specific. It is the threat posed by Islamist terrorism — especially the al-Qaida network, its affiliates and its ideology.”

    “The second enemy is gathering, and will menace Americans and American interests long after … Bin Laden and his cohorts are killed or captured,” the report said.

    It’s good to see the AP is catching up with President Bush, who had this much figured out on September 20, 2001.

    Americans are asking: Who attacked our country? The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as al Qaeda. They are the same murderers indicted for bombing American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and responsible for bombing the USS Cole.

    Al Qaeda is to terror what the mafia is to crime. But its goal is not making money; its goal is remaking the world — and imposing its radical beliefs on people everywhere.

    The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics — a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam. The terrorists’ directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans, and make no distinction among military and civilians, including women and children.

    This group and its leader — a person named Osama bin Laden — are linked to many other organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries. They are recruited from their own nations and neighborhoods and brought to camps in places like Afghanistan, where they are trained in the tactics of terror. They are sent back to their homes or sent to hide in countries around the world to plot evil and destruction.

  • Flag torched at Marine’s home

    Okay, this is simply disgusting.

    The parents of a young Marine serving in Iraq were horrified when the American flag they flew to honor their daughter was set ablaze this week outside their Brooklyn home.

    Cops were hunting yesterday for the mystery woman whose image was captured on surveillance tape as she torched Old Glory and threw it on a garbage can, a police source said.

    “I can’t imagine why anyone would do something like this,” said Eileen Cespuglio, 44, whose husband, Tom, hung the 4-by-2-foot flag outside their first-floor apartment in Park Slope.

    “But that doesn’t really matter. It’s the flag, so it’s a violation, a sign of disrespect, for whatever reason.”

    The Cespuglios’ don’t plan to tell their daughter, Natalie Marie, 22, who’s serving as a communications specialist with the Marines, what happened.

    Fine, I am not against flag-burning as a sign of dissent. Appalled by it, but not in favor of trying to constitutionally ban it. However, it should at least be your own flag, damn it! This was dangerous, illegal and, once again, disgusting.

    Also, thanks to Natalie Marie Cespuglio for her service.

  • Interesting Developments in Iraq

    The day was filled with developments in Iraq, not all good from my perspective.

    First, Iraq has hung a one-month closed sign on the door of Al-Jazeera’s Baghdad office.

    “This decision was taken to protect the people of Iraq and the interests of Iraq,” Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s told a news conference Saturday.

    Allawi said the order to close Al-Jazeera, which was to take effect immediately, came after an independent commission monitored the network’s reports.

    The findings of the commission were “compelling,” he said.

    “They came up with a concise report on the issues of incitement and the problems Al-Jazeera has been causing.”

    Al-Jazeera also reported the closing.

    Jihad Ballout, the network’s spokesman, told The Associated Press that Al-Jazeera was not given a reason for the closure.

    “It is a regrettable decision, but Al-Jazeera will endeavor to cover the situation in Iraq as best as we can within the constraints,” he said.

    Two things to note in this story. First, the name Jihad Ballout makes me chuckle. He should change his name to something more intimidating, like Jihad Ballstothewall. Second, this closing will have no immediate impact on what Al-Jazeera reports and how they spin it to the Arab world, but it may have more of a local effect. I generally have to come down against this, instead supporting the promotion of respected rival news sources. The one-month technical difficulties will probably end up a non-issue.

    Jihad Ballout. Chuckling.

    The next story is of a limited offer of amnesty by the Iraqi government to minor criminals in the insurgency.

    Iraqi interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi signed an amnesty Saturday intended to persuade militants fighting a 15-month-old insurgency to put down their weapons and join government efforts to rebuild the country.

    But the law pardons only minor criminals, not killers or terrorists, and appeared unlikely to dampen the violence, as some insurgent leaders called it “insignificant.”

    ….

    The long-delayed amnesty, coupled with a tough emergency law passed last month, was supposed to help end the violence by coaxing nationalist guerrillas to the government’s side.

    The amnesty applies to minor crimes such as weapons possession, hiding intelligence about terror attacks or harboring terrorists and appears intended to persuade people with information on attacks to share it with police.

    The amnesty forgives those who committed minor crimes between May 1, 2003, just after Saddam Hussein’s regime fell, and Saturday, Allawi said.

    “This amnesty is not for people … who have killed. Those people will be brought to justice, starting from Zarqawi down to the person in the street,” Allawi said, referring to Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, whose followers have claimed responsibility for deadly suicide bombings.

    Rape, kidnapping, looting and terror attacks also are excluded.

    This peaked my interest because of the manner in which it meshes with the Al-Jazeera shutdown. The Iraqi government is moving to relieve its people from the insurrection by chipping away at its propaganda and low-level support. At the same time, these moves may work to establish the validity of the new government in the minds of the Iraqi citizenry. I’ll have to check if Iraq the Model commented on either of these.

    The third development seems to have gone under the radar but NATO has started to officially arrive in Iraq.

    NATO sent a group of officers to Iraq on Saturday to begin its training mission for Iraqi forces.

    The first four officers left Saturday from a command center in the southern Italian city of Naples, NATO said in a statement from Naples, calling it the official start of the mission in Iraq.

    The main part of the NATO training mission group, initially consisting of 45 members, will deploy next week, said the statement.

    The NATO trainers are due to report back by early September so that a decision can be made on the scope and content of any NATO training mission.

    The 26-nation alliance agreed on July 30 to send the team after sidestepping a dispute between the US and France over command of the alliance operation.

    The mission’s tasks include liaising with the Iraqi interim government and US-led coalition forces, helping Iraq establish defense and military headquarters and identifying Iraqi personnel for training outside the country.

    Al-Lafayette, we are here.