Category: Middle East

Maybe, just maybe, Iraq is on the verge of finding its own footing.

The Iraqis have voted, the holdouts and terrorists have repeatedly failed in their boastful threats and the American-led coalition has adjusted tactics and training as needed. Now, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff hints that efforts may be showing some serious returns.

The military’s top general gave his most optimistic public assessment on Thursday of progress in Iraq, saying the insurgency shows signs of slipping as the U.S.-led international effort gains momentum in building Iraqi police and military forces.

During a visit to a training base for Iraqi police cadets outside of Amman, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in recalling his stop Monday in Iraq, “I came away more positive than I’ve ever been” about the prospects for overcoming the insurgency and stabilizing the country.

He also saw evidence, however, that obstacles remain, even for the Iraqis who are training in the relative safety of the Jordanian desert. Myers was told by his guide at the police training academy that some cadets have used water bottles as simulated weapons because the academy has not acquired enough rifles.

Myers said the number of attacks against U.S. forces across Iraq has fallen to between 40 and 50 a day, and about half of those cause no injuries or property damage. The number of daily attacks is about at the level of one year ago, he said — far fewer than in the weeks prior to the Jan. 30 elections.

“I think we’re getting some momentum built up against the insurgency,” he told reporters at his hotel in the Jordanian capital at the conclusion of a weeklong trip that also took him to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

Myers acknowledged that violence in Iraq continues to kill U.S. forces as well as Iraqi security forces and civilians.

I’ve never said it was over. I, just like President Bush, have never said that the mission was accomplished. The mission continues and continues to be dangerous. But there is progress. If anything, the calls of “Quagmire!” sound all the more pathetic and shrill when the news of the entire region is taken into account.

During his Amman stop, Myers also visited Jordan’s special operations command headquarters outside the capital and watched several dozen Iraqis demonstrate on a training range what they had learned in a 12-week counterterrorism course. Jordan’s special operations forces are conducting the training, along with U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers.

With Myers standing almost within arm’s reach, several Iraqis clad in black uniforms and firing live ammunition from M-16 rifles blasted their way into a mock residence, shooting the locks off doors, and tossing flash grenades that threw smoke and dust into Myers’ face as he observed from a low-slung catwalk.

Myers and some of his senior staff wore armor-plated vests.

I’ll take the only-somewhat cheap shot here: I’ll bet some of the rodents at Democratic Underground.com (I will not give a real link to these freaks) would’ve been drooling over this “revolutionary” opportunity.

Asked by a reporter to rate the Iraqis on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the competency of U.S. Special Forces, one of the U.S. trainers said they are about a five. More than half of the 99 Iraqis in the counterterrorism training had no prior military experience, officials said.

“They looked very disciplined,” Myers said later.

At the police academy, where about 3,400 Iraqi cadets are in an eight-week training course, Myers saw a demonstration of the skills they have learned for stopping suspicious vehicles, searching them for weapons and homemade bombs and arresting suspected terrorists or insurgents with minimum use of force.

Myers was told the entire curriculum for the police academy was overhauled after Lt. Gen. David Petraeus informed officials there last September that the program was not producing competent police officers. Instead of spending 75 percent of their time in classroom instruction and 25 percent in actual field training, the cadets are now getting less class time and more opportunity to practice on the training range.

The Iraqis also are getting some practical advice on survival skills, which are a high priority given the large number of police who are attacked by the insurgents. For example: At home, don’t hang your laundered uniform on an outside clothes line, making your home a target for the insurgents.

Don’t let your neighbors see your uniform. Sound bizarre? It shouldn’t. I remember protocols shifting back and forth on American military personnel wearing uniforms or civilian attire on even domestic civilian flights. And that was in the oh-so-joyous ’90s, long before President Bush could be blamed for anything.

Progress. Chipping away at the support columns holding up the Islamist bastards. Baby steps in a nation possibly becoming giant strides in a regions.

It almost hurts to hold back the hope.

Gratitude can only go so far. Actually, I’m surprised to learn this freebie even lasted this long.

The days when a U.S. Army truck could fill up for free at a gas station in this oil-rich state are coming to an end. Kuwait’s energy minister said Thursday that U.S. troops are going to have to start paying for fuel.

In a gift that must have saved the Pentagon a fortune, Kuwait has not charged the U.S. military for fuel since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Tens of thousands of American Humvees, trucks and armored vehicles have rolled through the country and across the desert border into Iraq during the past two years.

“But now after the Iraqi elections … we have to create a mechanism for payment,” the energy minister, Sheik Ahmed Fahd Al Ahmed Al Sabah, told reporters.

Kuwait and the United States have agreed in principle on the matter, but the prices and other aspects are still to be worked out, he said.

The minister did not say when the new system would start and he did not give other details.

No objections to this from me, really.

A truly historic moment.

You can spin it fairly positive. Or negative. Or positive. Or negative.

Or you can be like Chad at In The Bullpen and relish the moment in a realistic manner.

The next Iraqi government is beginning to take shape.

One day before the first meeting of Iraq’s transitional National Assembly, representatives of major parties reached an agreement “in principle” on formation of a new government, officials said Tuesday.

The agreement between Kurdish leaders and members of the United Iraqi Alliance includes the appointment of Jalal Talabani as president — the first time a Kurd would hold such the post — and of Ibrahim al-Jaafari as prime minister, according to Dawa party official Adnan Ali al-Kadhimi.

Negotiations continued into Tuesday night, and most party representatives are expected to sign the document Wednesday as the assembly holds its historic meeting Wednesday at 11 a.m. (3 a.m. ET).

In the January 30 election, the United Iraqi Alliance won 140 seats in the 275-member temporary legislative body, and the Kurds gained 75 seats. Despite its lead in assembly seats, the alliance needs partners because a two-thirds majority is required to form a government.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad sent out a warning Tuesday alerting Americans in the capital to take extra care ahead of the meeting.

Iraq is already operating under a state of emergency, which was extended by acting Prime Minister Ayad Allawi on March 3. The order restricts travel across borders and gives Allawi broad powers to detain suspected insurgents.

As I blogged before, a deal between the Shiite alliance and the Kurds would possibly hinge on the Kurds getting the presidency. That looks to be the case.

If this potential agreement comes to bear fruit, there will be two important questions as the assembly meets. First, will there be a role for interim prime minister Ayad Allawi in the government being shaped? Second, will the assembly be able to successfully conduct its business in safety? Damn, it’s got to be a juicy target.