thedrifter
09-06-05, 06:32 AM
Posted on Tue, Sep. 06, 2005
IRAQ
Some officers believe the war `will last for years'
BY JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
jgalloway@krwashington.com
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was out on spin patrol last week, declaring that we're going to win in Iraq no matter how long it takes. President Bush is still staying the course and predicting victory. But what do the officers who are fighting this war in the worst parts of Iraq think? Do they still believe victory is possible?
My Knight Ridder colleague Tom Lasseter recently spent three weeks embedded with Army and Marine units in Anbar province, the heart of Sunni Arab resistance to the American forces occupying Iraq. It's the stomping grounds of a homegrown insurgency targeting Americans, Shiite and Kurdish Iraqis and any Sunnis who cooperate with any of the above.
In those articles you'll hear the voices of the brave combat commanders such as Marine Col. Stephen Davis, who's leading 5,000 Marines in an endless war of attrition.
''I don't think of this in terms of winning,'' Davis said.
He sees a war that will last for years. Roadside bombs have hit vehicles Davis was riding in three different times so far this year. The insurgents essentially have fought the Americans in Anbar to a stalemate. They've proved to be very fast at adapting to new ways of killing Americans when the old ways no longer work.
$225 million for Fallujah
Two key cities in the province are Fallujah and Ramadi, twice attacked by large American forces last year, and captured only in a huge offensive after last November's elections. These battles cost hundreds of American casualties, and many more Iraqis. Fallujah was all but destroyed by American artillery and air power.
But guess what? Even as we're spending $225 million to rebuild Fallujah, the insurgents are sliding back in amid the civilians returning to their homes.
As for the little towns and small cities of Anbar, the best the Americans can do is mount quick-strike operations to target the bad guys and run them out. Then we leave. Then the insurgents and foreign terrorists return. American officers told Lasseter that they don't have enough troops to take these places and hold them, and that Iraqi forces aren't up to the job.
''It doesn't do much good to push them out of these areas only to let them go back to areas we've already cleared,'' said Lt. Col. Tim Mundy, who commands the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines.
What this tells us is that we're winning the war in the Kurdish areas to the north and the Shiite areas to the south, but we're losing the war where there is a war, in the Sunni heartland in Anbar province.
Here, American soldiers and Marines are killed and wounded daily by the ubiquitous IEDs, by rocket-propelled grenades, by homemade bombs dropped from upstairs windows and by enemy snipers. Patrolling these places is deadly work. Remember the two days this summer when the Marines lost 20 men killed from one Ohio reserve company? That was in Anbar.
Here's what it boils down to: We are not winning in Iraq, and we cannot win in Iraq by staying the course.
This is counter-insurgency warfare. This has been a counter-insurgency operation since the early summer of 2003 -- something that took our civilian leaders by surprise. They didn't plan for it, and they haven't supplied Col. Davis, Lt. Col. Mundy and all the other brave soldiers they've sent there with enough troops, the proper equipment or a strategy for victory.
The only victory in Iraq isn't ours to win. It's up to the Iraqi people, all of them, to find a political solution and build a government or have a civil war and water an ancient land with the blood of another generation.
Begin withdrawal
The president and Rumsfeld say that the United States cannot, must not, leave Iraq in haste; that this would send the wrong message to our enemies. Bull! We arrived in haste, and we can and should leave the same way. We should begin an orderly withdrawal of our forces from Iraq not later than the end of this year.
That might permit us to refocus attention and resources on Afghanistan, al Qaeda and the terrorist leadership. Remember them? They were the people who attacked our people on our soil on Sept. 11, 2001, and they came at us out of Afghanistan, not out of Iraq. They were Job One for the Bush administration for about three months.
So please tell us again, Mr. Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld, why must we stay in Iraq when we can't win there?
Joseph L. Galloway is the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers.
Ellie
IRAQ
Some officers believe the war `will last for years'
BY JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
jgalloway@krwashington.com
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was out on spin patrol last week, declaring that we're going to win in Iraq no matter how long it takes. President Bush is still staying the course and predicting victory. But what do the officers who are fighting this war in the worst parts of Iraq think? Do they still believe victory is possible?
My Knight Ridder colleague Tom Lasseter recently spent three weeks embedded with Army and Marine units in Anbar province, the heart of Sunni Arab resistance to the American forces occupying Iraq. It's the stomping grounds of a homegrown insurgency targeting Americans, Shiite and Kurdish Iraqis and any Sunnis who cooperate with any of the above.
In those articles you'll hear the voices of the brave combat commanders such as Marine Col. Stephen Davis, who's leading 5,000 Marines in an endless war of attrition.
''I don't think of this in terms of winning,'' Davis said.
He sees a war that will last for years. Roadside bombs have hit vehicles Davis was riding in three different times so far this year. The insurgents essentially have fought the Americans in Anbar to a stalemate. They've proved to be very fast at adapting to new ways of killing Americans when the old ways no longer work.
$225 million for Fallujah
Two key cities in the province are Fallujah and Ramadi, twice attacked by large American forces last year, and captured only in a huge offensive after last November's elections. These battles cost hundreds of American casualties, and many more Iraqis. Fallujah was all but destroyed by American artillery and air power.
But guess what? Even as we're spending $225 million to rebuild Fallujah, the insurgents are sliding back in amid the civilians returning to their homes.
As for the little towns and small cities of Anbar, the best the Americans can do is mount quick-strike operations to target the bad guys and run them out. Then we leave. Then the insurgents and foreign terrorists return. American officers told Lasseter that they don't have enough troops to take these places and hold them, and that Iraqi forces aren't up to the job.
''It doesn't do much good to push them out of these areas only to let them go back to areas we've already cleared,'' said Lt. Col. Tim Mundy, who commands the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines.
What this tells us is that we're winning the war in the Kurdish areas to the north and the Shiite areas to the south, but we're losing the war where there is a war, in the Sunni heartland in Anbar province.
Here, American soldiers and Marines are killed and wounded daily by the ubiquitous IEDs, by rocket-propelled grenades, by homemade bombs dropped from upstairs windows and by enemy snipers. Patrolling these places is deadly work. Remember the two days this summer when the Marines lost 20 men killed from one Ohio reserve company? That was in Anbar.
Here's what it boils down to: We are not winning in Iraq, and we cannot win in Iraq by staying the course.
This is counter-insurgency warfare. This has been a counter-insurgency operation since the early summer of 2003 -- something that took our civilian leaders by surprise. They didn't plan for it, and they haven't supplied Col. Davis, Lt. Col. Mundy and all the other brave soldiers they've sent there with enough troops, the proper equipment or a strategy for victory.
The only victory in Iraq isn't ours to win. It's up to the Iraqi people, all of them, to find a political solution and build a government or have a civil war and water an ancient land with the blood of another generation.
Begin withdrawal
The president and Rumsfeld say that the United States cannot, must not, leave Iraq in haste; that this would send the wrong message to our enemies. Bull! We arrived in haste, and we can and should leave the same way. We should begin an orderly withdrawal of our forces from Iraq not later than the end of this year.
That might permit us to refocus attention and resources on Afghanistan, al Qaeda and the terrorist leadership. Remember them? They were the people who attacked our people on our soil on Sept. 11, 2001, and they came at us out of Afghanistan, not out of Iraq. They were Job One for the Bush administration for about three months.
So please tell us again, Mr. Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld, why must we stay in Iraq when we can't win there?
Joseph L. Galloway is the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers.
Ellie