The present-day U.S. military qualifies by any measure as highly professional, much more so than its Cold War predecessor. Yet the purpose of today’s professionals is not to preserve peace but to fight unending wars in distant places. Intoxicated by a post-Cold War belief in its own omnipotence, the United States allowed itself to be drawn into a long series of armed conflicts, almost all of them yielding unintended consequences and imposing greater than anticipated costs. Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. forces have destroyed many targets and killed many people. Only rarely, however, have they succeeded in accomplishing their assigned political purposes. . . . [F]rom our present vantage point, it becomes apparent that the “Revolution of ‘89” did not initiate a new era of history. At most, the events of that year fostered various unhelpful illusions that impeded our capacity to recognize and respond to the forces of change that actually matter.

Andrew Bacevich


Sunday, December 23, 2007

News of the Day for Sunday, December 23, 2007

An Iraqi member of the Amariyah Volunteers, former insurgents who have joined forces with the U.S. and Iraqi troops to fight al-Qaida, adjusts his ammunition belt in front of their newly established headquarters in the Amariyah neighborhood of west Baghdad, Iraq, in this Aug. 14, 2007 file photo. Iraq's Shiite-led government declared that after restive areas are calmed it will disband Sunni groups battling Islamic extremists because it does not want them to become a separate military force.
(AP Photo/Petr David Josek, File)

Reported Security Incidents

Baghdad

Roadside bomb kills two civilians, wounds two in Zaafaraniya district of southern Baghdad.

Police find two bodies dumped in different places.

Roadside bomb targets joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol. No casualties reported.

Iraqi security forces announce the arrest of 20 men in the ongoing security crackdown.

Mahmoudiya (I think)

Two officers and four soldiers of the Sahwa tribal forces were killed in a car bomb attack. This minor detail is buried in the above story about security forces making arrests in Baghdad, and describes the location as "the district of al-Mahmoudiya, Southern Baghdad." I assume this refers to the town of Mahmoudiya, which is not part of the municipality of Baghdad but is in the city's environs. -- C

Body found with gunshot wounds.

Ramadi

Police find two bodies dumped near a service station, riddled with bullets.

al-Hai, Wassit province

Bomb attack near the home of Abdul-Reda al-Badri, head of the provincial Human Rights Department, severely damages his house and injures six members of his family. Not clear whether Badri himself was injured.

Mosul

Abdul Attackers blow up the home of Maawjoud Jar Allah, head of the municipal council in the Sinjar district. Sinjar is part of the disputed territory between Kurdistan and Arab Iraq. VoI does not say whether Allah was Arab or Kurdish.

Car bomb targeting a police patrol kills one civilian and injures five police officers. McClatchy, reporting what appears to be the same incident, gives the exact location as Al Mashriq neighborhood, and says the car bomb was parked.

A Lt. Colonel in the Iraqi army is assassinated.

Kut

U.S. says its forces captured a militant leader and seven other suspects.

Latifya

Roadside bomb kills one civilian, injures two.

Unspecified locations in northern Kurdistan

Turkey says it bombed PKK targets using warplanes and artillery on Saturday, claims to have killed "hundreds," but spokesmen for both Kurdish security forces and the Iraqi central government say there were no casualties. Kurdish security forces say the aerial assault occurred around Darkar and Barwari Balla, villages near the border in Dohuk Province, but hit only deserted areas.

Note: All we hear about in the U.S. corporate media is how the level of violence is down in Iraq, and the overall impression we're given is that everything is just fine now. Imagine if this much political violence -- including assassinations and attempted assassinations of numerous police, military officers and public officials -- occurred in every day in, say, Texas, which is about the size of Iraq. What has calmed down is the daily grotesque sectarian violence against civilians, but the underlying political conflicts are still intractable. They are manifested in more targeted violence, but I see no evidence of progress toward resolution. The U.S. has also made a separate peace with elements of the Sunni insurgency, reducing attacks on occupation forces, but if anything this compounds the political problem. See political news, below. -- C

Other News of the Day

Iraq Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi says the Shiite-led government will not tolerate the long-term existence of the Sunni Awakening Councils. However, there is little indication of progress toward integrating their members into national forces. Excerpt:

By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer

Iraq's Shiite-led government said that American-backed Sunni groups key to battling Islamic extremists must eventually disband because it does not want them to become a separate military force. The groups have helped reduce the carnage in the country, but violence remains a threat. . . .

Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi's statement Saturday regarding the Sunni groups was the government's most explicit declaration yet of its intent to eventually dismantle the organizations, which are funded by the United States as a vital tool for reducing violence. The militias, more than 70,000 strong and often made up of former insurgents, are known as Awakening Councils, or Concerned Local Citizens.

``We completely, absolutely reject the Awakening becoming a third military organization,'' al-Obaidi said at a news conference. He added that the groups would also not be allowed to have any infrastructure, such as a headquarters building, that would give them long-term legitimacy. ``We absolutely reject that,'' al-Obaidi said.

The government has pledged to absorb about a quarter of the men into the predominantly Shiite-controlled security services and military, and provide vocational training so that the rest can find jobs. Integration would also allow Sunnis to regain lost influence in the key defense and interior ministries.

``We've kicked al-Qaida out and we don't want chaos to take their place,'' said Sheik Hatem Ali, a tribal leader who helped form one of the groups in the western province of Anbar. He added that the government should not ``brazenly exploit the sacrifices of these Iraqi'' fighters and ``should absorb these people, not reject them and send them away.''

The government has been vague about its plans and the interior ministry has agreed to hire about 7,000 men so far on temporary contracts, and plans to hire an additional 3,000. But the ministry has neither specified the length of the contracts nor the positions the men would fill.


Al Qaeda in Iraq confirms the death of Abu Maysara, a Syrian who was a propagandist for the group, in a raid by U.S. forces Nov. 17.

Newly elected Australian PM Kevin Rudd confirms that he will withdraw the last of Australia's combat troops from Iraq by the end of June.

State Dept. official David Satterfield attributes reduced attacks by Shiite militias in Iraq to a policy decision by top Iranian leaders. Iran continues to deny it ever armed or trained Iraqi militants in the first place.

0 comments: