Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET 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. This briefing is brought to you by Joel Gaines of No Pundit Intended and Andrew Olmsted of Andrew Olmsted dot com.
TOP TOPICS
- The U.S. and UK are planning to pull out the majority of their armed forces out of Iraq by early 2006, according to a memo penned by the UK's defense secretary. If the report is true, it will be interesting to observe the effect it has on both the activities of the insurgents and the antiwar movement. The UK is already in negotiations with the Australian government to allow the UK to shift troops from Iraq to Afghanistan.
- Wretchard takes a look at what effect the Iraq war is having on terrorists' ability to strike other targets such as London.
- Suicide bombers struck three different targets in Baghdad over the weekend, killing at least 33. The attacks broke up a recent string of calm in the city, providing a painful reminder of how easily terrorists can disrupt daily life.
Other Topics Today Include: building Iraq's army; recruiting arrest; Americans held in Iraq; the books of Salah al Din; Carnival of the Liberated; Zarqawi admits murdering ambassador; American Soldier comes home.
REPORTS FROM THE FIELD
- Defence Talk has an progress update on the effort to enhance the military capabilities of the Iraqi forces. Iraqi forces will also receive some training from the Iranian army, touted as the largest in the region. This news comes during a week in which both the Iraqi Prime Minister and the Iraqi Foreign Minister met with Iranian counterparts.
- An importer of suicide bombers to Iraq has been captured in Mosul.
- In separate incidents over a three month period, five American citizens have been apprehended in Iraq for possible insurgent activities. An Iranian-American, three Iraqi-Americans, and a Jordanian-American. Each was found with either components of IEDs, knowledge of planned insurgent operations, or "suspicious activity" of some sort. The military does not feel the men are connected to each other in any way. The military released one of the five over the weekend after two months.
- THe USA has purchased more Israeli reactive armor to protect its M2/M3 Bradley light armored vehicles in Iraq.
RECONSTRUCTION & THE ECONOMY
- Michael Yon reports on the Books of Salah al Din.
- At a recent round table in Sofia, Iraqi envoy Hayder al-Barrak asked the Bulgarian government to waive $1.7 billion in dept, saying the present Iraqi government was not to blame for the faults and crimes committed by Saddam Hussein.
- Reconstruction highlights were not available this week.
IRAQI POLITICS
- The latest Carnival of the Liberated is up at Dean's World.
THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE
- Zarqawi has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and murder of the Egyptian Ambassador to Iraq. Egypt has recalled its delegation to Cairo for security reasons. Zarqawi also reports that "The enemy is experiencing its worst days on the earth of Mesopotamia, at a time when a member of the US Congress has said that the United States are losing the war in Iraq."
ETCETERA
- Murdoc talks about one of the recent improvements to the Stryker - Vehicle Commander Shield!
- Capt. Josie Hobbs, 39, a member of the Georgia Army National Guard's 48th Brigade Combat Team, has fond memories of running in the 1998 Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta - he's running in this year's race as well, except it's in Baghdad.
- American Soldier is home - and little by little - getting back into the groove of civilian life.
- Do you have your GI Bracelet? Many military families fall into financial hardship when the breadwinner is injured or killed. The entire $5 purchase price of the GI Bracelet is donated to support our troops and their families! Please join us to give back to these brave people in their time of need.
- The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops: American, Australian, British, Canadian & Polish. Anyone out there with more information, contact us!
- Don't forget Chief Wiggles' Toys for Iraq drive!
Thanks for reading! If you found something here you want to blog about yourself (and we hope you do), all we ask is that you do as we do and offer a Hat Tip hyperlink to today's "Winds of War". If you think we missed something important, use the Comments section to let us know. And if you have a tip for a future Iraq Report, email us at MondayIraqReport(at)windsofchange.net.
You may have covered this in an earlier update, but "Back to Iraq" is - err... - back, version 3.
He relates both good news and bad news in the following post - good news, the agreement to have Sunnis on the constitutional committee, and bad news, the push for a new Sumer (scroll down a bit), as well as discussing what we have yet to see, and hopefully we will NEVER see - just how dangerous the tribalism in Iraq has the potential to be.
Canadian troops in Iraq? are you sure about that.
The U.S. and UK are planning to pull out the majority of their armed forces out of Iraq by early 2006
Admit defeat by 2006, hopefully it will end up in a civil war.
Also Jafari goes this week to Tehran. This is obvious completely unimportant news.
"a", back to rooting for the terrorists?
"Admit defeat by 2006, hopefully it will end up in a civil war.
Also Jafari goes this week to Tehran. This is obvious completely unimportant news."
When do we stop fighting the Sunnis and start arming them to fight the Shiia? 2007? And when do the mighty Shiia nations somehow march on Saudi Arabia? 2008?
As far as the leaked memo on troop withdrawal, once again the MSM has managed to show its continued ignorance of military practice. There are contingency plans for anthing you can imagine. Nobody leaked the memo outlining our troop withdrawal in 2008, but it was probably right next to the one that hit the front page.
The truth is, there is a good chance we can start drawing down troops in about 1.5 years. This possibility shouldnt be hidden by the adminstration, that is a mistake. It should be told to the Iraqi people to show them our good faith efforts to get out of their country when they can handle their own security. Bush is right not to assign arbitrary dates, but he should assign metrics whereby we pull troops.
In 18 months there will be in all likelyhood civil war so we don't have to worry about Iraq and its potential (big trained army, big military industry, they still have the people for it. Lost the tools but that isn't important)
Mybe we could import the Boers to settle it, a. - after all, they won their war and all...
What, Joe? And spoil "a" anticipation of a civil war?
It is civil war or Iran II but with nukes. I prefer Iran II but i'm not the US goverment so my guess is that they will do everything to stop Iran II so that means creating civil war in Iraq. IMHO they are succeeding fine.
That didn't make any sense, "a".
Iran to train Iraqi armed forces.
Someone want to explain this to me?
One word, Defeat. That is why it is so important that civil war will break out
And here I thought someone would be embarrassed that they were rooting for terrorists.
My mistake.
Killing people is always wrong so i'm not rooting for terrorists. But the world doesn't look well when Iran is training Iraqi troops. I believe that most here would rather see mayhem in Iraq than the formation of the B(ahrain) I(ran) S(yria) I(raq) L(ebanon) arch.
This possibility shouldnt be hidden by the adminstration, that is a mistake. It should be told to the Iraqi people to show them our good faith efforts to get out of their country when they can handle their own security.
Like building enormous bases will do that? Or privating everything into foreign hands for knock down prices. Or planning an army of 40,000. Or the flytrap theory in which terrorists can blow up Iraqi's so they don't blow up Americans. Or the US backing of the 91 revolt.
This administration has never shown good faith towards Iraq so why would the Iraqi people believe you.
ps. The Iraqi parlement is a few votes away from booting you out