Baghdad offensive set to begin

[Shaffer]

A U.S.-Iraqi campaign to stabilize Baghdad will begin soon and the offensive against militants will be on a scale never seen during four years of war, American officers said on Sunday.

Briefing a small group of foreign reporters, three American colonels who are senior advisers to the Iraqi army and police in Baghdad said a command center overseeing the crackdown would be activated on Monday.

"The expectation is the plan will be implemented soon thereafter," Colonel Doug Heckman, senior adviser to the 9th Iraqi Army division, said at a U.S. military base in Baghdad.

"It's going to be an operation unlike anything this city has seen. It's a multiple order magnitude of difference, not just a 30 percent, I mean a couple hundred percent," he added, referring to previous offensives that failed to stem bloodshed.

The plan will involve U.S. and Iraqi forces sweeping the capital's neighborhoods for militants and illegal weapons and then holding cleared areas. But some analysts fear that as in previous crackdowns, militants will simply melt away and wait them out, or strike in areas where they are not deployed.

All three officers sought to talk up the ability of Iraq's forces to perform better than in previous crackdowns.

Their comments came a day after a suicide truck bomb killed 135 people in a mainly Shi'ite area of Baghdad, the single biggest bombing since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

The joint offensive is seen as a last-ditch effort to halt all-out civil war between minority Sunni Arabs and politically dominant majority Shi'ites.

President Bush is sending 21,500 reinforcements, most earmarked for the Baghdad offensive.

Critics of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki say an offensive last summer failed because the Iraqi army committed too few troops and because he was reluctant to confront the Mehdi Army of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The firebrand cleric is a key political ally of Maliki.


Asked if the Mehdi Army's stronghold in Sadr City would be cleaned out, Heckman acknowledged the political sensitivity but said all options were open.

"If we feel we need to clear Sadr City to bring stability, we will do that. Are there restrictions that will not allow us to do that? Right now there are not," Heckman said.

Maliki has vowed the crackdown will tackle militants across the sectarian divide. The Pentagon has said the Mehdi Army poses a greater threat to peace in Iraq than Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda.

The Baghdad command center that will begin operations on Monday will be headed by an Iraqi general. However, U.S. troops will not take orders from Iraqi officers.

Colonel Chip Lewis, senior adviser to a national police division in Baghdad, said the Iraqi security forces were more confident than they were before the last offensive. At that time, some Iraqi units did not show up.

Heckman said the offensive would gradually build up.

There was anecdotal evidence some militias had sought to melt away ahead of the campaign, the officers added.

"The end of the summer is when we should see some concrete results and be able to say is this working or not," Heckman said. That would be around September.

One problem that bedeviled last summer's offensive was the reluctance of Iraqi soldiers in the regionally recruited army to be deployed in the capital, far from their homes and families.

This time soldiers will get pay bonuses to come to Baghdad and will be given a finite tour of duty, so they know their deployment will not be open-ended, the American officers said.

Another difference would be the establishment of what the officers called joint security stations, which will be set up in nine Baghdad districts and where Iraqi and American troops will live and patrol side-by-side.

[p1sg14]

Support of the war, don't think so.
Support of the troops, dammed straight

[mrbsox]

Support for the war, no way it will gain support.
Too many treehuggingpaintywaistedtofueatngleftleaning liberals to show enough BACKBONE to support offering somebody else the freedoms and rights that THEY take for granted.

Support for the troops.... Wasn't the question.

The harder question would be "WILL IT WORK" ?? Will it clear out the rabble that is causing the problem.

Fk NO !!

Because they already know the 'whippin' is coming, so they are shrinking into the shadows, just like on the drive to Baghdad in 2003.

Disappear, only to fight from the back side.
They are learning that if it LOOKS like we won, we'll leave. And they hope we leave an ill prepared military and police force behind.

MAYBE that's what needs to happen. And let the WORLD scream about the violence and chaos.

And then we'll see if Washington has the balls to say TOO BAD.... you had your chance to help (said the little red hen).

[FistFu68]

WHY, WARN THE BASTARD'S????? S/F 10/4~20/20

[SilverEagle]

It seems like we should pull all our troops out of Iraq then Let the Air Force Bomb the crap out of Iraq. After they are defeated we send in the troops to clean up things. One other point to make is we as Americans should demand an Audit of all our money sent to the Iraq area. WE need to know why so much is being wasted and why.

[OLE SARG]

FIST,
Remember we have to be so ****ing PC. Hell, let em know when we are going to do it, what time we are going to do it, and what we'll be in when we do it. Don't ya know that is the democrats way, remember the demos heros, i.e., fatass murtha, toothpick pelosi, dirty harry, dickhead durbin, jane fonda kerry, swimmer kennedy, etc., ----- YOU KNOW the ones that advocate defeat for the USA, THE TRAITOR MOTHER****ERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still don't see how these pieces of **** keep getting put back on our payroll - They all would make good poster turds for term limitations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SEMPER FI,

[SilverEagle]

The way your talking maybe we should fire Bush and his gang first.

[OLE SARG]

Silver,
I would have thought you would have gotten that I was bashing congress for their insane antics they are going through now with the non-binding bull****!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I would hope you would advocate WINNING for our military unlike our democrats with their cut and run attitude!!

SEMPER FI,

[YLDNDN6]

War is like sex...never leave 'em askin' "Is that all you got???" If we honestly can't get the job done with the force we currently have over there, under the rules that we are playing by, then by God send more, change the rules and get it done...just let them do the job they are going there for.

[DWG]

Shut the press out of Iraq, jam any signals, non military, from getting out of the country, and unleash the ROEs for the duration. When it's over, let the press back in. Al Jazeera should be off the air by then. Just like Grenada, let the news flow when it's over. They'll scream and whine, but hell, they do that anyway.

All out to win, or all out of the country!

[greensideout]

I'm still back at step number one, trying to understand why we are in Iraq.
What did Iraq do to America?
What is considered a win?
What is our goal?
Are we there to change a culture? How long would that take? Why would we want to?

I see the biggest problem being the fact that Bush has never really defined to the American people exactly why we are there. It went from WMDs to terrorist ties to a bruttal dictator to calamity to training Iraqi forces to staying the course to a war on terrorism to bringing peace to rebuilding their country to etc, etc, etc.

I think we are there for the long haul but I just don't understand "the why".

Whatever we do there and however long we do it will not change a hair on the camel's a$$.

The middle east was, is and will remain to be.

[FistFu68]

I SEE WHERE THAT AL-SADR~PIECE OF CHIT,DI-DI~'ED TO FRIGGING IRAN!!!THAT BASTARD SHOULD HAVE BEEN,SHOT TO DEATH; ALONG TIME AGO!!!WHAT A FUC'EN COWARD.WE HAVE SOME POLITICIAN'S,WHO ARE ACTUALLY AIDING AND ABBETING THE ENEMY!I'M GONNA HAVE A BEER,FUC-IT!!!

[USMC-FO]

Greenside had hit this camel dead on, and now we're stuck in the middle of a religious civil war among a collection of rancid tribal emotions. This Humpty Dumpty is broken and we ain't gonna fix it no matter what we do. Ask yourself if you would want your sons, or daughters, dieing for this **** hole in the sand.

[DWG]

Partition up the country; sunnys, chittys and Kurds. Submit a bill for services rendered and pull back to Kuwait and watch the civil war that is going to happen whenever we leave! At the most we should seal their borders while they kill each other off. This would give our troops good practice for patrolling our own borders when they get home!

[10thzodiac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by D W George Partition up the country; sunnys, chittys and Kurds. Submit a bill for services rendered and pull back to Kuwait and watch the civil war that is going to happen whenever we leave! At the most we should seal their borders while they kill each other off. This would give our troops good practice for patrolling our own borders when they get home!

This Smedley stuff is catchy

SF
10thz