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
- Progress towards a new Iraqi government continues to be difficult, leading Matt Yglesias to wonder if the Kurds will not continue to stall because they're better off without a new government in power. It's a plausible argument, but the representatives took another important step forward with the selection of a Sunni as Parliament Speaker. Challenges remain before the new government is ready to take the reins, but perhaps the perception by many Iraqis that their elected representatives are not getting the job done will force the issue.
- Al Qaeda in Iraq staged a large raid on the Abu Ghraib prison facility, injuring 44 American soldiers and 12 detainees but failing to free a single detainee or kill a single soldier while losing at least one of their own.
- More Iraqis are tipping off the authorities to insurgent activities, highlighting the fact that while the Coalition may not have won the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, the insurgency has done an equally poor job in that department. If the new Iraqi government can get its act together, the insurgency may find itself in dire straits indeed.
Other Topics Today Include: Marines face IEDs in Haqlaniyah; the Army's plan for defeating the insurgency; U.S. citizen captured in Iraq; reconstruction highlights; Carnival of the Liberated; mujahadeen travel alert; U.S. WMD intelligence report.
REPORTS FROM THE FIELD
- The 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment has worked their way through the towns of Hit and Haditha to the outskirts of the small village of Haqlaniyah, an area of the Anbar province even Saddam Hussein avoided. And on one morning, as the Marines began to stir, they found themselves surrounded by improvised explosive devices.
- Spencer Ackerman notes a stunning admission by U.S. Army forces in Iraq: more than two years after the defeat of Saddam Hussein's armies, the Army has yet to develop metrics to assess whether or not Iraq's security forces are ready to assume the responsibility for fighting the insurgency. The Army is in the process of assembling a new force of trainers to develop Iraq's security forces to the necessary level to defeat the insurgency, but without a clear vision of what success means, their ability to succeed will be seriously undermined.
- Phillip Carter reports on an American citizen detained and declared an unlawful combatant in Iraq. Expect the man (whose name has yet to be released by the DoD) to become a cause celebre for the antiwar types around the world as the U.S. government tries to decide what to do with the man.
- Winds of Change's own Arthur Chrenkoff examines a reporter's interview with a soldier recently returned from Iraq. Amazingly, despite the soldier's positive views on Iraq, the reporter was careful to highlight the bad news.
RECONSTRUCTION & THE ECONOMY
- Here are a few of this week's Iraq reconstruction highlights: Installation of water treatment units at four major power plants in Basrah is 83% complete. These plants have been operating for many years with untreated brackish water circulating corrosively through the boiler tubes. A Karbala sewage treatment plant is being refurbished. The plant was never entirely completed by the previous regime, and processed only about 30 percent of the sewage produced by Karbala’s 549,000 inhabitants. Iraqi officials are working to develop a transparent and modern tax and government finance system. The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) has approved a national program to identify and map areas of the country best suited to particular types of crops. USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) has so far distributed 2300 Livelihood Packages to displaced families in south and west Kirkuk. A sub-district council in northern Iraq beautified one of their secondary schools to provide a safer and more student-friendly environment. A women’s rights NGO in northern Iraq procured equipment and resources to expand its outreach and educational activities under an ITI grant. Total USAID Assistance to Iraq 2003 - March 31, 2005: $4,836,991,619.00.
IRAQI POLITICS
- The association of Muslim scholars has denied responsibility for the fatwa urging Sunnis to joing Iraq's security forces. Mohammed at Iraq the Model is concerned that the scholars responsible for the statement will face the threat of assassination from Sunnis who disagree with their stance.
- The latest Carnival of the Liberated is up at Dean's World.
THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE
- The administrator for an Islamist website has issued a travel alert to mujahideen transiting from Syria into Iraq. He warned that the Syrian government is "up to its ears in its work for the Americans" and has set up checkpoints on roads to Iraq, where anyone not from the area is arrested. (Hat Tip: Jamestown Foundation.)
ETCETERA
- The US intelligence collection and analysis engines bear the brunt of a damning report by the President's Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, which indicates a level of intelligence failure eclipsing the counter-intelligence failures which culminated in the 1990s. Significant in the reports was an indictment of an intelligence community creating long-term assessments regarding WMD in Iraq, which were based upon unconfirmed or perishable data.
- An internal Army investigation concluded that ten MPs, who set up a mud wrestling event at a military holding facility in Iraq, should be punished. No detainees witnessed the event last October at Camp Bucca.
- Arthur Chrenkoff examines a report on Al Qaeda in Iraq's Abu Musab Zarqawi's past, noting that terrorists can come from interesting circumstances indeed.
- 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.
Yeah, you missed a few things....
"indicates a level of intelligence failure eclipsing the counter-intelligence failures which culminated in the 1990s"
True, but it doesn't eclipse the intelligence failure of 9/11, and Tenet got a metal! That is two major intelligence failures under the Bush administration, with nobody fired. Expect the third one any day now....
Also, this report did not look at how the intelligence was used by, or influenced by, the Bush administration. (Remember how they treated those US Military Officers who said that
"hundreds of thousands" of US troops would be needed to control post-war Iraq? The Bush administration does not treat the people who tell them things they don't want to hear very nicely, do they?)
"Expect the man (whose name has yet to be released by the DoD) to become a cause celebre for the antiwar types"
It violates the US constitution and international law to detain someone without charges or trial.
Over 200 Iraqi police have been killed in the month of March.
Two drones went down (big $$)... did you know that those drones are controlled from Nevada by the under 21 crowd? I read a report today where they said they have to remind them that it is real people they are shooting and killing from those drones.
US troop was discharged from the military, but will serve no jail time, for his "mercy killing" of an injured Iraqi, who was supposedly an insurgent. Imagine if an Iraqi insurgent did the same to a US Marine on film..... (well, we don't need that Geneva Convention stuff, anyway, do we?)
The military is working on new high-tech weapons to use for crowd control (good chance they will be used in the USA too). No FDA clearance necessary, since the US only kills "bad guys" (without charges or trial, though).
There is a fund set up to help the orphans of Tal Afar, whose parents were killed by US troops on 1/18/05. One child was injured and is now unable to walk, the other four children are fine. Well, as fine as you can be after seeing your parents killed right in front of you.
Seeing more and more PTSD in returning troops. Lots of TBI in returning troops also.
One bit of very good news, is that casualty rates for US troops down last month. Not true for Iraqi forces or Iraqi civilians, however.
So, we caught Saddam, there are not and never were WMDs in Iraq ....(I knew that! How come I know more than the CIA/Pentagon/Congress/White House? Well, for one thing, I remember Rice and Powell saying how Saddam was contained, and not a threat, and had no nuclear weapons program in 1991. Too bad the rest of them couldn't remember! Also, I used the common sense test... If Saddam was a threat, then all his neighboring countries would have supported the idea of taking him out. They didn't, with two exceptions.) .... the Iraqis have elected their new leaders, we spent hundreds of billions of dollars, and we've managed to tarnish our reputation around the world with the gay S&M porno that our troops did.... so why are we still in Iraq?
No matter what comes out of the Bush administration's mouth,
THERE ARE NO NUCLEAR WMDS IN IRAN EITHER. IT IS A TOTAL LIE.
oh, one more thing...
the latest panel on WMDs in Iraq totally ignored the reports from the UN weapons inspectors!!
Remember them? They were there in 2002 and early 2003. They didn't find anything either.
But hey, they're selling F-16s to Pakistan and India, missles to Ukraine, and we are totally ignoring the fact that our buddy, the dictator of Uzbekistan likes to boil people alive....
so, everything is okay, right?
You are a nut Susan. Give up the "Bush cooked the intel" argument, it's as dead as Dennis Kucinich's presidential aspirations after one day.
You can reach about the obituary here:
http://63.247.134.60/~pobbs/archives/000429obituary_another_bush_conspiracy.html
I'm sorry that you get your knickers in a twist over positive developments, I truly empathize with those who can't manage to get past partisan politics in order to support what's best for this nation.
Please, go check yourself in and have an exam.
You are a nut Susan. Give up the "Bush cooked the intel" argument, it's as dead as Dennis Kucinich's presidential aspirations after one day.
You can reach about the obituary here:
http://63.247.134.60/~pobbs/archives/000429obituary_another_bush_conspiracy.html
I'm sorry that you get your knickers in a twist over positive developments, I truly empathize with those who can't manage to get past partisan politics in order to support what's best for this nation.
Please, go check yourself in and have an exam.
Susan, you seem to be an intelligent person. Please answer the following questios:
1. When President Bush referred to the fact that British Intelligence believed that Iraq was trying to purchase yellow cake in his State of the Union Address was that untrue at the time he said it?
2. If that statement were made today would it be untrue?
3. Have two independant comissions recently concluded that the belief of British intelligence was "well founded?"
4. Which major countries did not believe that Iraq had WMDs before the Second Gulf War?
5. Why isn't the mainstream media interested in the full release of Kerry's military records, even though he promised to do so on Face the Nation?
6. Who was the first U.S. President to fund stem cell research.
7. Democrats are always saying, "If 50,000 voters went the other way in Ohio, Bush would not be President. How may voters would have had to go the other way in Minnesota or Wisconsin to make the vote count in Ohio irrelevant?
"... did you know that those drones are controlled from Nevada by the under 21 crowd? I read a report today where they said they have to remind them that it is real people they are shooting and killing from those drones."
Susan, you read a report? I read a report today that said you are an idiot. Get the crap out from between your ears.
NOBODY, fires ANY weapons from Drones in Iraq, Afghanistan or in any other countries they are utilized, without an OK from the lawyers who oversee EVERY mission.
I know that personally, to be a fact. I was in Iraq as a civilian contractor working with the Predator program.
Only military operators above a specific rank were allowed to control the Predators, and they were in the theater of operation, NOT in Nevada.
There may be Predators operated by SF groups against targets of opportunities that have local authority to attack, but the only time I witnessed any weapons used against targets in Iraq were in support of troops on the ground during combat operations, and they had to have legal approval to fire.
Susan,
"You used the common sense test"
That's why you believe that drones in Iraq are controlled by children working in Nevada.
Please tell me that you don't drive or operate machinery.
Susan,
Normally, I would say that you should get your head out of the sand, but it's not stuck in the sand. It's stuck somewhere else.
Second, I strongly suspect that you're the kind of person that paid real money to go see Farenheit 9/11. In which case, Michael Moore made some money off of you.
Sucker.
Susan sez. . .
That is two major intelligence failures under the Bush administration, with nobody fired. Expect the third one any day now. . .
Ah. But, Susan, remember what your side predicted before the Iraq invasion? Tens of thousands of American casualties, a bitter street fight in Baghdad, a mass rise of 'the Arab Street,' another ten-year quagmire like Vietnam, and no chance whatsoever of anything approaching a peaceful democratic state.
And yet here we are, barely two years later. No Vietnam! Folks are being murdered in Baghdad, yes -- at maybe the same rate as in central Detroit or Compton during a hot restless summer when the crack gangs are active. Not what you'd call Chevy Chase white picket fence nice, but not Vietnam, not the utter collapse of civic order your side has been predicting every day for the last 600 odd days. Meanwhile, the jarheads keep cleaning out rats' nests, in Falluja, Mosul, Najaf, et cetera, one by one. The electricity and water are back and better than before, there's a democratically elected legislature forming a new government -- democratic bickering and smoky-room horse-trading and all -- women are voting and participating in government like nowhere else in the region, and regular citizens are starting to tag the bad guys. Not to mention, as the ripples spread, Qaddafi abandons his WMD program, Saudi Arabia initiates elections, Syrian troops are leaving Lebanon, and Egypt might allow some semblance of an opposition party.
Oh, and Mr. Osama and the dreaded al Qaeda? After eight years of your side, we got airplanes smashing into the World Trade Center and 3000 dead, people leaping to their deaths rather than burn alive. After six years of ours, we got. . .a threatening videotape. A web site that posts mean comments about America. Mmmm, quite a contrast.
Gosh, Susan. Doesn't sound the least little bit like what y'all predicted, does it? Sounds like you've all scored just about 100% wrong in predicting the consequences of anything at all, over and over again, for five years straight. And, you know, I'd say that's the gigantic gold-medal Guiness Book of World Records "intelligence" failure. And I do mean "intelligence" in both senses of the word, dear. It's no surprise you focus on the details, 'cause when it comes to the big picture, you and your fellow travelers have been as clueless a bunch of morons as any set of scowling slogan-spewing Politburo apparatchiks in babushka scarves and army boots.
Susan says "So, we caught Saddam, there are not and never were WMDs in Iraq ....(I knew that! How come I know more than the CIA/Pentagon/Congress/White House? Well, for one thing, I remember Rice and Powell saying how Saddam was contained, and not a threat, and had no nuclear weapons program in 1991".
It continues to amaze me that some people choose to live in a fantasy world where Saddam never had WMD. I believe that the Kurds and Iranians would dissagree with your delusional ramblings...so would the UN who helped disarm Saddam in the 1990's. Susan, you just cant make crap up to fit you political beliefs as you end up making a complete fool out of yourself.
Kids in Nevada controlling the drones? Makes me wonder what happened to all those people recruited by the military because of their Missile Command scores (transmitted by a secret chip in the arcade games).
And why are you talking about "nuclear WMDs"? I don't recall any claims that Saddam had nukes.
God
not the utter collapse of civic order your side has been predicting every day for the last 600 odd days.
For the last 600 odd days there has not been a civic order in Arab Iraq. I don't call that predicting but just stating facts.
The electricity and water are back and better than before
Sure
there's a democratically elected legislature forming a new government -- democratic bickering and smoky-room horse-trading and all
Most dictatorships are also run by bickering and smoky-room horse-trading.
women are voting and participating in government like nowhere else in the region
Sadly they had more rights and power under Saddam. His WMD program was run by a woman as you may remember. Doubt that will happen under Jaafari. The new WMD program will be run by a man.
and regular citizens are starting to tag the bad guys.
Not to difficult. All the bad guys are in American uniforms.
Qaddafi abandons his WMD program,
is of the lease so what for evil is he doing now?
Saudi Arabia initiates elections,
Won by fundi's
Syrian troops are leaving Lebanon,
so Hezbollah can claim power
and Egypt might allow some semblance of an opposition party.
who are Fundi's, and i fear for democratic revolutions in the Middle East (which leads to more fundi's in power)
Um, a, there are important differences between an argument and mindless contradiction.
One of those difference is, there's no need to even respond to mindless contradiction.
Toodles!
I fear democratic / Islamic revolution in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Pakinstan too. Notice the Bush Administration is quite fine with Mubarak, Musharraf, and the royal family running the show over there for now, depsite all the talk about freedom and democracy. But Iran's had its Islamic revolution and look where it got them - maybe a democratic revolution is ripening there? It will be interesting to see how Iraq plays out, but I think it's headed in the right direction. Some of the women's rights aspects have been disappointing, but I think over time in there's a chance to make some real gains there under a democratic government. I don't regard women being involved in a WMD program a progressive women's rights agenda, however.