The U.S. mission in Iraq is a "nightmare with no end in sight" because of political misjudgments after the fall of Saddam Hussein that continue today, a former chief of U.S.-led forces said Friday.
Another mission accomplished for the Bush War in Iraq."A year ago the province was assessed 'lost' politically," Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told a congressional hearing Monday. "Today, it is a model of what happens when local leaders and citizens decide to oppose al-Qaida and reject its Taliban-like ideology."This time in Anbar province.
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SEEFind blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:His importance to the U.S. was made clear by a Sept. 3 meeting with President Bush. On a surprise visit to Anbar province, Bush posed for photos with Abu Risha, who cut the figure of an Arab prince, with an immaculate gold-rimmed robe and a meticulously groomed goatee and a heavy mustache.
Ten days later, Abu Risha _ in his late 30s _ was killed along with two bodyguards by a roadside bomb near his compound. His death may prove a setback to American success in Anbar, once a stronghold of the Sunni Arab insurgency and now cited as a model for the rest of Iraq.
9/07/2007 Coalition & NATO casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan; through August 2007, with 6-month moving average. Up significantly over the same period last year. 12 month total = 1,396 (highest so far)
Republican Sen. John Warner of Virgina -- the former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee -- offered a polite but devastating appraisal of strategy in Iraq.
"Are you able to say at this time if we continue what you've laid before the Congress here as a strategy do you feel that is making America safer?" Warner asked.
"Sir, I believe that this is indeed the best course of action to achieve our objectives in Iraq," Petraeus said.
"Does that make America safer?" Warner asked again.
"Sir," Petraeus said, "I don't know actually."
Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Iraq, did not offer a disclaimer about who wrote his testimony, but its thrust closely tracked the many speeches on the subject by President Bush
The first chinks in Gen Petraeus's optimism appeared with a seemingly innocent question: can a Sunni Arab travel safely to a Shia neighbourhood in Baghdad without getting kidnapped or killed? He could not hazard a clear answer. He said: "It depends on the neighbourhood, frankly. Travel of Sunni Arabs to a number of Shia neighbourhoods in Baghdad is still hazardous." But he did not actually dare to offer an assurance it would ever be possible for a Sunni to venture outside his enclave.
AMB. CROCKER: Thank you, Senator. I'll just touch very briefly on the key and critical points you raise here.And being a former ambassador to Pakistan he all but admitted that the War in Iraq was not the real front in the war on terror.
There is an enormous amount of dysfunctionality in Iraq; that is beyond question. The government, in many respects, is dysfunctional, and members of the government know it.
"I could say a few things based on my two and half years in Pakistan, and that is the presence of al-Qaeda in the Pakistan and Afghanistan border area is a major challenge to us," former American Ambassador to Pakistan Ryan Crocker said.
Crocker was asked for his views on whether the United States is providing sufficient resources to address the threat posed by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb.
Democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin asked Crocker "How concerned are you about al-Qaeda's safe haven in Pakistan?" to which the administration's top diplomat in Iraq replied "... we're all quite concerned."
"Which is more important to defeating al-Qaeda, the situation in Afghanistan or that situation in Iraq, Ambassador?" asked a persistent Senator Feingold.
"The challenges in confronting al-Qaeda in the Pak-Afghan border area are immense, and they're complicated. I did not feel, from my perspective as ambassador to Pakistan, that the focus, the resources, the people needed to deal with that situation, weren't available or weren't there because of Iraq," Crocker responded.
"...in my view, fighting al-Qaeda is what's important; whatever front they're on. Fighting al-Qaeda in Pakistan is critically important to us, fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq is critically important to us," Ambassador Crocker added.
AGE-BIRTH DATE — 58; June 19, 1949
EXPERIENCE — U.S. ambassador to Iraq March 2007-present; U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, 2004-07; international affairs adviser, National War College, 2003-04; director of governance, Coalition Provisional Authority, 2003; deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, 2001-03; interim envoy to Afghanistan, 2002; U.S. ambassador to Syria, 1998-01; U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, 1994-97; U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, 1990-93; political counselor, American Embassy in Cairo, 1987-90; deputy director State Department Office Israel and Arab-Israeli Affairs 1985-87; chief of political section, American Embassy in Beirut, 1981-84; chief economic/commercial officer, U.S. interests section, American Embassy in Baghdad, 1978-1981; economic/commercial officer, American Embassy in Doha, Qatar, 1974-1976; foreign service officer, US Consulate, Khorramshahr, Iran, 1972-1974.
"Those heroes have shown the real Iraq. They have done something useful for the people as opposed to the politicians and lawmakers," said Sabah Shaiyal, a 43-year-old policeman in Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City. "The players have made us proud. Once again our national team has shown that there is only one, united Iraq."Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:Spontaneous celebrations broke out in religiously mixed Baghdad as well as in Basra and the holy Shiite city of Najaf in the south and northern Kurdish towns like Arbil and Kirkuk.
Fans cried and danced in the streets, waving their shirts in the air and hugging.
Soldiers with their rifles slung over their shoulders danced with ordinary Iraqis in Baghdad while children, their faces painted in the Iraqi colours, held up pictures of their heroes.
While mainly comprised of Shiites, the team was captained by a Sunni Turkman from Kirkuk — goal-scoring hero Younis Mahmoud — and also contained Sunni Arab and Kurdish players in a broad representation of Iraqi society.
In Baghdad's Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite slum, women threw sweets to gathering fans and poured water over crowds in sweltering summer heat.
"A thousand congratulations for all Iraqis," another fan said.
Television presenters, draped in the red, white and black Iraqi flag, dissolved into tears. One Iraqiya television reporter was engulfed by a crowd in Baghdad and re-emerged on the shoulders of chanting fans.
Iraq's triumph in the Asia Cup signals a soccer program rising from the ashes, even as the country descends deeper into civil conflict. The resurgence of Iraqi soccer is one of the few untainted pieces of good news to emerge from post-invasion Iraq. A powerhouse in the 60s and 70s, the national team faded in the 1980s as Iraq's young men were killed and maimed by the hundreds of thousands in Saddam Hussein's war with Iran. Saddam's son Uday vented his sadism on soccer players and other athletes, forcing them to kick immovable stones and imprisoning them in medieval torture devices. Says Abu Ahmad: "I can't express my feelings. We are so happy, those 25 men brought happiness and hope to 25 million Iraqis, the thing our politicians couldn't do."
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A volunteer army is working class, they joined not to fight in Iraq but because prior to 9/11 they were promised jobs, and training in job skills. And like their counter parts in industrial capitalist economies, the working class who fights Capitals wars are insufficient for their purposes. Thus the privatization of war in Iraq, the hiring of mercenaries to do your dirty work. Even with the privatization of security, cleaning, cooking and other services there are still not enough troops in the regular military to conduct this neo-con war, so their shifts at work are extended.
