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2007.07.16 Long War // Dhimm Perfidy Roundup
Today's absolutely must read: Superman U.S. General in Iraq Speaks Strongly Against Troop Pullout
John F. Burns
BAGHDAD, July 15 — An American general directing a major part of the offensive aimed at securing Baghdad said Sunday that it would take until next spring for the operation to succeed, and that an early American withdrawal would clear the way for “the enemy to come back” to areas now being cleared of insurgents.
Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commanding 15,000 American and about 7,000 Iraqi troops on Baghdad’s southern approaches, spoke more forcefully than any American commander to date in urging that the so-called troop surge ordered by President Bush continue into the spring of 2008. That would match the deadline of March 31 set by the Pentagon, which has said that limits on American troops available for deployment will force an end to the increase by then.
“It’s going to take us through the summer and fall to deny the enemy his sanctuaries” south of Baghdad, General Lynch said at a news briefing in the capital. “And then it’s going to take us through the first of the year and into the spring” to consolidate the gains now being made by the American offensive and to move enough Iraqi forces into the cleared areas to ensure that they remain so, he said. ...
Below the fold:
- Not a pretty story
- Hadley sees improved Iraq by September
See also:
Not a pretty story
Paul Mirengoff
For years, Rowan Scarborough has distinguished himself through his coverage of military affairs, first for the Washington Times and now for the Examiner. This week, the Examiner is publishing excerpts from Scarborough's new book Sabotage, which tells the story of the CIA's war against President Bush.
In the first installment, Scarborough describes the CIA's war with the Defense Department, which began shortly after 9/11 when DoD (through veteran analyst Michael Maloof) asked the CIA to provide intelligence reports about al Qaeda's links to other terrorist organizations and sponsors of terrorism. According to Scarborough, the CIA flatly refused to provide this material.
Only after Paul Wolfowitz intervened did the CIA disgorge its reports. When DoD used them to produce a 150-slide briefing on contacts among al Qaeda, Iraq and Iran, the CIA (in Scarborough's telling) went ballistic. Soon, Democratic lawmakers like Carl Levin began charging that Douglas Feith (Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's top civilian advisor) had set up an illegal organization. According to Scarborough, "Levin, using the friendly Washington Post and New York Times, launched a campaign against a 'rogue' intelligence cell inside the Defense Department." ...
Hadley sees improved Iraq by September
By Eric Pfeiffer
National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley yesterday said he expects the situation on the ground in Iraq to improve by September and, therefore, rejected a proposal from two Republican senators that calls for starting to draft redeployment plans for American forces before then.
Mr. Hadley was asked on CBS' "Face the Nation" by host Bob Schieffer whether "the situation in Iraq is going to look any different" when Gen. David M. Petraeus delivers his progress report on the surge to Congress in September.
"I think it will," Mr. Hadley replied. "I think we will have had two additional months of our security strategy going forward; now, since the last several weeks, with a full complement of forces.
"We think we will see progress on the security side. We hope we will see the bottom-up kind of reconciliation" among Iraqis, he said. "But the point is that Congress set a schedule, which basically said we need to do a review in September." ...
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