Transition to Iraqi Control
By streiff Posted in Military Roundtable — Comments (31) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
In a little heralded development Multi-National Corps-Iraq announced:
The Iraqi government will officially take control of its major air, sea and land-based military commands beginning early next month by standing up the Iraqi Joint Headquarters, a major step toward putting Iraqis in the lead for securing the country, a senior Coalition spokesman here said Aug. 28.
After more than three years of training and assistance for the Iraqi military, the government of Iraq has created the conditions for the Iraqi military to begin reporting directly to its government for orders, rather than relying on Coalition command structures, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, the Multi-National Force – Iraq senior spokesman, said.
Read on.
Yesterday General George Casey elaborated further:
The Coalition sees improvements in the Iraqi security forces everyday, said Gen. George W. Casey, Jr.
“I don’t have a definite date, but I can see, 12 to 18 months, the Iraqi security forces progressing to where they can take on security responsibilities with very little Coalition support,” Casey said.
The general also said within that time frame it will be Iraqis who will make the choice.
“In 12 to 18 months Coalition presence will be decided by the Iraqi government,” he said.
The MNF-I commander also outlined the three-step process that continues to put Iraqis in the lead.
The first is to equip them, the second to put them in the lead with Coalition support, and the third to get them to the state where they can support themselves independently of Coalition support, Casey explained.
The numbers and capabilities of the Iraqi army have increased markedly over the two years and under the tutelage of LTG Dave Petraeus and now LTG Martin Dempsey as head of our training mission.
Is the 12 to 18 month timeframe reasonable? Or will it take much longer? What should our final force posture in Iraq look like? Low profile and small numbers? Or a West German type force?
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Any reasonable observer would say we're losing...
As for what will remain in Iraq, I think our own best interests would be in something like a West German deployment. Iran and Syria aren't going away.
I doubt the Iraqi politicians will be able to tolerate that, though. Not that I profess to be an expert on the trends of that new body politic, but we've been playing Bad Cop for years now.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
Don't we, and haven't we, had some troops in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait basically since Desert Storm?
Why would it be that different to give the U.S. a base for a while? I mean, if anything did happen with Iran and/or Syria and we needed troops in the area, wouldn't we expect Iraq to allow us to use their territory and air space even if we had no formal station there?
As I understand it, yes, we were in Saudi Arabia and are in Kuwait. But those countries let us in because Saddam Hussein had already invaded Kuwait, and without us there would have been nothing to prevent him from going into Saudi Arabia. The Iraqi/Saudi border not being so precise and all, that was a serious threat.
The Iraqis, however, may not see Iran as the kind of threat that Iraq's neighbors saw. As I understand it, it was Saddam Hussein, not the Iranians, who started the Iran/Iraq war, invading when he thought the revolution would leave Iran weak. Plus, the Iraqi majority, now ascendant, shares a religion with the Iranians.
We'll see, though.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
I saw this report first at blackfive.net, and haven't had a chance to go through it yet.
Thanks for front paging this...EVERYONE needs to sit and muddle throught the minutae...the devil is ALWAYS in the details.
Thank you!
Proud to be: politically incorrect, straight, white, pro-life Christian, and of the opinion the spotted owl tastes just like chicken.
Our side should be citing this every day from now until the elections to rebut the pro-terrorist liberals' and media's mantra that Iraq is a failure.
Hopefully, it will draw further attention to the fact that so much of the current insurgent terror is killing other Iraqis, not Americans, and if the insurgents continue to resist the new government, they will only kill more and more of their own people. The locals need to admit that regardless of what the American troops did or did not do wrong, right now the insurgents are killing Iraqis, not the occupiers.
Like five times? Or five hundred? I've saved it to my computer and plan on showing it to many people. Can you keep the pic on the front page for awhile, or at least a link to it?
When will people (and the MSM and lefty cut-and-runner/joggers) realize that we are being spoonfed distortions of Iraq? We are winning and will win there.
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There is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this one says "We're Winning" 500 times.
"The Road To Freedom Is Seldom Traveled By The Multitude" Madhouse Thought
are bogged down and the grey is the quagmire where we are bogged down? No wonder our troops are going to have to redeploy to Okinawa, there won't be any quagmire left for them in which to bog.
Envisioning when all that is Left is the Right.
Perhaps the acid test of the Iraqi government's readiness for controlling their own destiny is whether they can be trusted by the US with a nuclear weapon or two, should Iran successfully go nuclear. They would then become the only Arab nuclear power.
Conundrum Master
with nuclear weapons, so why would that be an acid test?
Envisioning when all that is Left is the Right.
... to snatch defeat from the clutches of victory in Iraq.
Well done, streiff - as always.
Brigade-plus, Armor heavy (well, as "heavy) as we get, largely in Kurdistan. One fighter wing - same. The Navy won't be far away (Okinawa? Sorry, couldn't resist.).
I'd love to have a division there, but I think that's problematic for two reasons:
1) too big a footprint - I doubt the host nation would love that
2) where do we get the division from - and how do we fund it (on the assumption that we'd have to stand-up a new unit)
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"I don't know." -- Helen Thomas, when asked by White House spokesman Scott McClellan, "Are we at war, Helen?"
... but isn't that something like 25% of our current active force?
I've not had me Diet Coke yet this morning and thus my brain isn't fully engaged - so please correct me if I'm being stupid.
If you're saying we need to grow the active force by 9 BCTs and a Cav Squadron - I'm probably with you. If you're suggesting that at least one of the BCTs be set-aside to the NG and rotated through, I might have to say Uuuuuuuuuuhhhhh to that, but could be persuaded.
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"I don't know." -- Helen Thomas, when asked by White House spokesman Scott McClellan, "Are we at war, Helen?"
is 42 Active and 28 National Guard BCTs. I'm ambivalent about activating NG brigades for a full deployment but we maintained 4 2/3 divisions in Europe for a long time so I don't have an issue with 20-25% of the active component being stationed in Iraq. In my mind it's kind of hard to imagine a better place to put them.
And neither can I think of a better place to put them.
Honestly, I'd prefer to see about half the NG BTCs moved to the active component - but because of politics that just ain't gonna happen.
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"I don't know." -- Helen Thomas, when asked by White House spokesman Scott McClellan, "Are we at war, Helen?"
Do you think we'd have a problem with the host nation with a footprint large enough to support a Corps HQ and 9 BCTs?
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"I don't know." -- Helen Thomas, when asked by White House spokesman Scott McClellan, "Are we at war, Helen?"
I can't imagine a Germany situation with large American kasernes in Baghdad, Basrah, etc. Maybe a Korean (minus Yongsan, Toko-ri and Dongduchon) with battalion border camps on the Syrian and Iranian frontier.
But the footprint would be an issue.
I was thinking precisely that. The Diet Coke must be kicking in.
Cheers.
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"I don't know." -- Helen Thomas, when asked by White House spokesman Scott McClellan, "Are we at war, Helen?"
...I have to wonder whether that'll be dependent on whether GIs stationed in Iraq will have the same spending habits that they have in, say, Germany.
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC.
We'd want some money going into the local economy but you certainly would not want to recreate the effect we had in Vietnam where the dollar reduced the piaster to colorful toilet paper.
Could you get what you needed if you combined what we have in South Korea and Germany?
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
there is only one combat brigade in Korea and we are moving in the direction of a single combat brigade in Germany.
I think this is good progress, and hopefully more is to come.
But who besides the President gets to say "Victory", time to move on, reduce forces to support levels? What are those levels of "Victory", or rather were is the metric, where is the exit strategy. By the way, exit strategies are something that candidate for President Bush was all in favor of for any foreign war. It's not the same thing in my mind to hold the Iraqi government or for that matter our government to quantifiable measures of effectiveness in a very public way.
He's the decider. He decides.
Don't like it? Vote for a different decider.
Good luck,
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
It has been hammered into our heads for three years that this is "Bush's War". It's his end game, too.
President Bush has set the rough conditions for our exit: As the Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down.
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
large USAF base in Kurdistan, brigade combat teams to the north of Baghdad, Mosul and Ramadi.
United States Air Force
Cross Into the Blue
The cut-and-run chickendoves will respond to this either with silence or by taking credit. So far it's the former;.
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More brilliance such as that can be found at the Academy. And yes, I know how pretentious I sound.