This story is archived

Commanders Say Push in Baghdad Is Short of Goal »

Posted by: TechnologyExpert 2 years, 5 months ago

Archived 112 0 drops

Three months after the start of the Baghdad security plan that has added thousands of American and Iraqi troops to the capital, they control fewer than one-third of the city's neighborhoods, far short of the initial goal for the operation, according to some commanders and an internal military assessment.

Read Full Story at nytimes.com »

Submitted By:

TechnologyExpert

I am Editor-in-Chief at Alice Hill's RealTechNews (http://www.realtechnews.com). I also have my own blog (Tech-Ex) at http://TechnologyExpert.Blogspot.com. Finally ...

Who Also Submitted:

This Story is Archived and Commenting is Closed

Comments: 233

Avg rating: (+10/-0 10)
TechnologyExpert
June 3, 2007, 10:53 p.m.
The American assessment, completed in late May, found that American and Iraqi forces were able to "to protect the population" and "maintain physical influence over" only 146 of the 457 Baghdad neighborhoods.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
el4sail
June 3, 2007, 11:01 p.m.
SAN ANTONIO, United States (AFP) - The man who commanded US-led coalition forces during the first year of the Iraq war says the United States can forget about winning the war.
ADVERTISEMENT

"I think if we do the right things politically and economically with the right Iraqi leadership we could still salvage at least a stalemate, if you will -- not a stalemate but at least stave off defeat," retired Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez said in an interview.
Sanchez, in his first interview since he retired last year, is the highest-ranking former military leader yet to suggest the Bush administration has fallen short in Iraq.
"I am absolutely convinced that America has a crisis in leadership at this time," Sanchez told AFP after a recent speech in San Antonio, Texas.
anioklyComment has been removed: User banned.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
star53
June 4, 2007, 10:41 a.m.
THE dem are for taxes, abortions, spending, cut and running and criticizing. by the way if you follow the money you will see that ALL TAXES( YES ALL 100% OF TAXES ) ARE PAID FIRST BY THE WORKERS.(JFK started the BOOM by LOWERING THE TAXES ON THE RICH)
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
dandt1612
June 4, 2007, 10:42 a.m.
As of 8 am this morning 17 of OUR soldiers lost their lives in Iraq since Friday. If things are getting better and the surge is working so well. Why is the death toll for OUR soldiers going up. May was the third highest month for dead soldiers.
I can't believe the number of people still living in denial that things are going so well. It makes me sick when I hear someone defending this atrocious war and acting like it's nothing but good for the US.
Peace
Avg rating: (+4/-0 4)
4cprocess
June 4, 2007, 10:58 a.m.
"according to the one-page assessment, which was provided to The New York Times"
"The assessment offers the first comprehensive look at the progress of the effort to stabilize Baghdad with the heavy influx of additional troops."
Someone needs to give these two dumb a s s reporters (David S. Cloud & Damien Cave) a dictionary so they can look up the meaning of "comprehensive". From a "one-page" assessment? LMAO
"The American assessment, completed in late May"
By whom? Don't they think the "source" of the assessment would be of significance?
"When planners devised the Baghdad security plan late last year, they had assumed most Baghdad neighborhoods would be under control around July, according to a senior American military officer."
So why don't they wait and see how things are in JULY!
Typical totally dufuss reporting again by none other that our beloved NY Times.
In God We Trust
Avg rating: (+2/-0 2)
lum-chate
June 4, 2007, 11 a.m.
They the Muslim right wing religious reactionaries are already here. The major worry to most rational people is the 5th column already present in our country & guess what our government is going to allow 7,000 Iraqis to relocate here, how many of the 7,000 do you think love America after the damage we did to their land without provocation. Most intend to reside in the Dearborn area which is already infested with Muslim radicals. Our soldiers are fighting a thankless fight in Arabia they should be here protecting the homeland!
Avg rating: (+7/-5 2)
zembel
June 4, 2007, 11:05 a.m.
All is not going well in Iraq or Middle East. Time and patience are running out on President George W. Bush, and he is running out of patience with Iran and Iranian proxies in Iraq. Defeat is "not an option", but going for broke is. Mr Bush knows that Iraq is beyond salvage and its civil war is beyond reversal by US. If so, why ask for more money, more troops and more sacrifice. The answer is, Iran.
Avg rating: (+2/-0 2)
doppich
June 4, 2007, 11:32 a.m.
Coincidentally, the second anniversary of Cheney's "last throes" declaration passed quietly on May 31st.
Avg rating: (+3/-2 1)
TimALoftis
June 4, 2007, 12:04 p.m.
The month of May was not good in Iraq. Over 120 U.S. Soldiers killed and another 2000 Iraqi civilians dead...the third highest tally since the AP started giving monthly totals. Another 17 GI's killed just in last four days. Things must improve by the end of August or the Republican politicians in Washington will start to jump ship on this President. Once that happens, funding for this war will include withdrawal timetables whether the President likes it or not.
Avg rating: (+2/-1 1)
DoerNotASayer
June 4, 2007, 12:17 p.m.
Wow, another Bush failure...what a surprise.
Avg rating: (+5/-2 3)
SonOfTheMask
June 4, 2007, 12:40 p.m.
From the article:
"In an interview, he said that while military planners had expected to make greater gains by now, that has not been possible in large part because Iraqi police and army units, which were expected to handle basic security tasks, like manning checkpoints and conducting patrols, have not provided all the forces promised, and in some cases have performed poorly.
That is forcing American commanders to conduct operations to remove insurgents from some areas multiple times."
And: ""We were way too optimistic," said the officer, adding that September is now the goal for establishing basic security in most neighborhoods, the same month that Bush administration officials have said they plan to review the progress of the plan."
Avg rating: (+7/-3 4)
AntiNeoCon
June 4, 2007, 1:09 p.m.
What are the goals in Baghdad, seems like the mission changes weekly. The only goal I see in Baghdad is continued wasting of American lives and resources in a no win situation. And King George wants it that way.
Avg rating: (+14/-2 12)
nikkibabe
June 4, 2007, 1:11 p.m.
The surge and the Iraq invasion and occupation will end with a new President taking office in 2009 ONLY if he has BALLS or if the person happends to be a woman, ONLY if she has MUSCLES.
Avg rating: (+4/-0 4)
aceofspades1
June 4, 2007, 1:17 p.m.

Shirtless asked-
"How do you define victory in Iraq? "
When we get this corrupt administration out & pull our troops out of the quagmire & let the Sunnis & Shiites & any other fanatic kill themselves without having us in the way.
Avg rating: (+6/-3 3)
aceofspades1
June 4, 2007, 1:19 p.m.
You don't think the Internet has anything to do with the decline of printed news do you? You seem like much more of a Post reader to me.
Bet they use the large type edition & look mostly at the pictures
anioklyComment has been removed: User banned.
Avg rating: (+1/-3 -2)
lpfan22
June 4, 2007, 3:37 p.m.
thaaank you bush :)
more on the article here:
Banned URL
Avg rating: (+7/-2 5)
Wizeone
June 4, 2007, 3:50 p.m.
What would this generation have done in WWII when the Nazi's were sinking ships faster than we could build them and Rommel was knocking at the Suez Canal and Japan had the mightiest fleet in the world and owned most of China and Hitler was ringing Stalin's bell? Bleak doesn't even describe the situation. In war you say I'm going to win come hell or high water. When the election is over he/she/it is your commander in chief if ordered to do it if it's legal you put your head down and get it done. Time is not part of the deal. 130 neighborhoods today 131 next ___ 132 next ___ so forth. This is not football with a clock.
Avg rating: (+0/-0 0)
curlin
June 4, 2007, 5:14 p.m.
How can anyone compare the war machines of Germany & Japan with Muslim extremists. Germany was the greatest war machine of the time, conquered all of mainland Europe & drove to 10 miles of the gates of Moscow.
Muslim extremists have no cavalry or Air Force & are not dominant in any country. Yes you fight to win, but if winning in Iraq is leaving the country with a Shia dominated gov't, that would only make Iran more powerful not us.
Avg rating: (+5/-5 0)
skyking2p
June 4, 2007, 5:41 p.m.
the reason this war has not been won in over 4 years is because Bushbaby and his crew screwed it up. If GWB had been president when Japan bombed Perl Harbor he would have attacked China and we would have declared war on Denmark and not Germany.
anioklyComment has been removed: User banned.
Avg rating: (+1/-0 1)
spellbreak
June 4, 2007, 6:36 p.m.
We smashed the Iraqi infrastructure. Realizing that a lot of that was unnecessary and wrong, we now say the Iraqis need to put it back.
Much of what is wrong in Iraq is wrong because we broke it. We have been unable and unwilling to make the repairs.
That so, we are looking all around for some group, any group, to rescue us.
We blame the Iraqis for not being able to do what even we, with our power, can't do.
The time for security was at the start of the war. The time to prepare for the needs was well before the war. While Bush is responsible for so many bone head blunders, many were done over a long period before. For decades we have been cutting our intelligence resources. We have been intriguing in the Arab world for decades yet have given no thought or effort to actually learning anything.
We went into Iraq prepared to invest about 200,000 troups for about 25 million population.
In Kosovo, we invested one troop for every five of population.
Avg rating: (+8/-5 3)
spellbreak
June 4, 2007, 6:51 p.m.
Another consideration, nearly always left out of the discussions, is that ...
We now have a depleated exhausted demoralized force. The troops have been kept in or sent back time after time when they were far past their tour time. We are sending injured back when they have been declared unfit for duty.
We are using middle aged and elderly and disabled. We have been accepting recruits which are well below the previously established miniumum qualificatons. We are pulling in the simple and the silly which create dangers for themselves and those who depend on them.
We don't look much different from those films of the Nazi Germany in its last desperate struggle.
We aren't and haven't been providing appropriate supplies and equipment. Our equipment is wearing out.
Replacements are woefully slow and short.
We do not have adequte level of force available anywhere and there are no adequate plans or efforts to fix that.
Avg rating: (+6/-3 3)
HateKoolAid
June 4, 2007, 6:54 p.m.
Not to get to far off topic but does anybody know what this administration is going to do when the Turkish Army heads south?? Do we back the Kurds or our NATO ally Turkey?? My guess is since the oil fields are in Kurdish territory Bush will supply The Kurds with whatever they need to hold off the Turks and throw NATO into a frenzy, which is no big deal now that the Cold War is over.