Joe's Iraq Report: 2003-09-29

Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from Iraq that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Our "Winds of War" coverage of the global war on terror is a separate briefing today.

Top Topics:

• Even Lebanon's Daily Star is beginning to talk about the good news in Iraq: "In mid-summer, I spent over a month in Iraq. What I found there did not correspond to what was being reported...." Yes, says Dean as he offers a comprehensive collection of links on the subject - we've noticed that. Oskar van Rijswijk explains why it happens. Or is it self-inflicted by the CPA? Or both?

• In resonse, Frank of IMAO has become serious for a change - and unveiled one of the best ideas of the war. We've been publishing a number of those soldiers' writings and links, from Afghanistan, Operation Iraqi Freedom, the 3ACR in the Sunni Triangle post-war, and post-war reports from Tikrit. We're going to keep doing that, and also help Frank & co. while we're at it. (Hat Tip: Cold Fury)

• One of the things that's very different about Iraq is that it's a tribal/kinship society, not a civic society like the U.S.A. The difference matters.

Other Topics Include: Fallujah operation; U.S. Marines polling; WMD summary; Iraq's Shi'ites; Iraq's odious debts - a U.S. blunder; Reports on Iraq's legal system, infrastructure & industry; Doing business in Iraq; America & Europe; Baghdad Museum report; Which cards have we captured; Support the Troops. Iraq and the 2003 Tigers; And of course...

REPORTS FROM THE FIELD

• Major joint operation wrapped up in Fallujah, involving Iraqi security forces and U.S. troops. Quite a few prisoners. Fight going on in Khaldiyah too. The Ba'athists in the Sunni Triangle may wish to consider that the size of those new Iraqi forces is growing... and that most of these recruits will only be too happy to kick their doors down on the slightest pretext.

• Erik Knapp is with the Marines in Najaf. The U.S. Marines are conducting polls among the Iraqis to see how they're doing. How American is that? Nice update on the USMC Small Wars Manual.

• U.S. troops uncovered one of their biggest weapons caches to date Saturday at a farm near Tikrit.

• Iraq Watch has a very good article that summarizes the WMD situation to date.

• Shi'ite Islamists took some time to interfere with the burial rites for assassinated female Governing Council member Aqila al-Hashimi. The scumbag behind this? Iran's proxy Muqtada al-Sadr.

• If the Shi'ites of Iraq really are the key to that country's political future, this Baghdad Bulletin article that describes some of the Shi'a political factions ought to be of some interest.

RECONSTRUCTION & THE ECONOMY

• I cannot believe that the U.S.A. would be stupid enough to agree that debts run up by Saddam were valid, and that France, Russia, et. al. would be paid. Yet this article by Rep. Tom Feeney & Stephen Moore seems to indicate that it's current U.S. policy. Any readers out there who can verify this?

• CPA head Paul Bremer has signed an order constituting an independent judicial council to oversee the Iraqi legal system. It will be supervised by the interim minister of justice.

• What's up with Baghdad's water system? Looks like it's as antiquated and dilapidated as everything else Saddam ran. Except his palaces, of course.

• Iraq's cement industry is a good poster child for the adjustments required by Iraqi industry, as it transitions from a socialist command economy to a capitalist one.

• There may also be a shake-up of the farm sector in the works.

• At the lower levels of the economy, however, things are beginning to hum. My friend S., who hails from Egypt, has a lot of hope for Iraq because "they're not lazy like the Saudis" (where has has worked and lived). Treat this article as Exhibit A.

• Want to do business in Iraq? The truth is that this is a tough environment right now for foreign companies, and patience is the name of the game.

THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE

• Victor Davis Hanson: "On the Right Side of History." I particularly liked this line: "Critics talk of promoting "perpetual war," but our past conduct, not the recreation of the present deterrence, alone would have guaranteed that scary scenario." Hanson argues that other nations are more likely to gravitate to the U.S. position over time, if the USA stands firm.

• Or maybe not. Nelson Ascher of Europundits puts forward an interesting view of America and Continental Europe's respective positions - and the rationales behind them.

• We've talked about Anne Applebaum's concept of "parallel media universes" before. Dissident Frogman illustrates with a specific media anecdote from France, and cuts Ms. Amanpour to ribbons along the way.

• Meanwhile, The Guardian's Aaronovich talks about the new radical chic and the experience of being a British leftist who supported the war.

ETCETERA

• Briefing on the Investigation of Antiquity Loss from the Baghdad Museum.

• Which "cards" have we captured so far? The CENTCOM list. And the visual version of "Ba'ath Poker."

• The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops. American, British and Australian. Anyone out there with more information, incl. the Poles and Czechs? [updated August 19, 2003]

Personal thoughts: The 2003 Detroit Tigers stared catastrophe in the face, and refused to quit or back down. As a result, they pulled off a miracle. There are many Iraqis in Michigan, and quite a few went to Iraq as U.S. soldiers or Free Iraqi forces. The least we owe them is a country as steadfast as their baseball team, and as determined to take any situation handed to it and see it through to a positive result.