Infographic: U.S. ends Iraq war chapter

Visa program for Iraqis mired in red tape

The Iraq War Ends

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb...

Obama affirms US commitment to Iraq: President says US troops will leave behind a self-reliant Iraq, but warns neighbours not to meddle in country's affairs.

As I've said before - New Shiite Alliance Excludes Iraqi Prime Minister - I think the Iraqi Shiite link to Iran has been overblown. We will soon find out who is correct and whether or not Iran truly does want a major role in Iraq and not just an ally in the region.

Rep. Frank: Keeping troops in Iraq past withdrawal date ‘totally unacceptable’

I can't do much more than to quote from what Rep. Frank said. I think he hit the nail on the head:

“The biggest single chunk of deficit reduction must come from scaling back our enormous military expenditures from where they now are to where our legitimate needs are,” Frank said.


“There is no way at all to do a socially responsible deficit-reduction plan — no way to do a long-term deficit reduction [plan] which preserves our ability to protect the quality of life here in this country, and elsewhere in the world — without very substantial reductions in military spending.”


Frank was quick to note the importance of maintaining a powerful military to protect U.S. interests, weaker allies and the homeland — but with limitations.


“I do want the U.S. Air Force to be the largest air force in the world,” he said. “But I don’t think the U.S. Navy has to be the second largest air force in the world for us to be safe. I’d be happy if … the Navy was tied for fourth.”


The threat of terrorism, he argued, is nothing like that posed by Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union during the Cold War.


“It is not an existential threat to the United States,” he said. “You don’t defeat terrorism with nuclear submarines. I wish you did, because we have them and they don’t. It would be over.”


The outspoken Massachusetts liberal also urged the elimination of substantial U.S. forces in Europe, arguing that the political climate requiring those troops is long gone.


“Harry Truman, I think, did a great thing in 1949 when he went to the aid of a beleaguered, poor, war-broken Western and Central Europe threatened by Stalin,” Frank said. “Europe’s no longer weak and poor; Stalin is fortunately long dead and his successors crumbled; the only thing that hasn’t changed is America continues to subsidize heavily the defense of the wealthy nations of Western Europe against non-existent threats.”

U.S. to drop troop levels to 3,000 in Iraq

It is about time. If we limit our mission there to training only, then I believe they will get the picture: that they are in charge of their own destiny.

In Iraq, a new breed of returning exile

What are we going to do? Turkey is in NATO and hates the Kurds, yet the Kurds have been our most consistent ally in Iraq.

After the U.S. invasion in 2003, Kurds who had been expelled by Hussein and replaced by Arab families returned by the thousands, hoping to reclaim their lost homes. Disputes over land rights are common, and many are still homeless. Soldiers from all three ethnic groups help keep the peace — and sometimes end up in tense standoffs themselves.


Over it all hangs the central question: Should Kirkuk remain part of Iraq proper or be governed by the semiautonomous region of Kurdistan to its north? Plans for a census to determine who lives in Kirkuk and a referendum to decide its governance, promised by the Iraqi constitution, have stalled.

See previous posts:

Support the Kurds

Tensions stoked between Iraqi Kurds and Sunnis

A Turning Point?

Suicide Bomb Kills Dozens In Baghdad's Largest Sunni Mosque

Hopefully, we aren't going to be in Iraq for this edition of the Sunni-Shiite Civil War...


See previous posts:

Violence highlights fears of Iraqi security forces taking over after U.S. leaves

Shiites in Iraq Show Restraint as Sunnis Keep Attacking

Shiite Control Raises Tensions with Sunni Groups

For U.S. and Sunni Allies, a Turning Point

Iraq's Chalabi, who sought invasion, now wants U.S. out

Thank you, McClatchy, for continuing to cover Iraq. Remember, since combat operations in Iraq have been declared over there have been 36 U.S. servicemembers killed.

Also, thanks for nothing, Mr. Chalabi, for lying to us in 2002-2003 and helping us decide to invade Iraq in 2003.

Here is a quote from the article:

Still, there is, if nothing else, an irony in Chalabi's avowed opposition to asking the Americans to stay longer. It was Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress that provided much of the false information, including allegations that Saddam was developing weapons of mass destruction and had ties to al Qaida, that the Bush administration used to justify the 2003 invasion. Nearly all of the information the INC provided turned out to be untrue.

Division in Iraqi Kurdistan

But Kurdistanis between the ages of 15 and 30 -- approximately 40% of the population -- grew up in an already semi-autonomous Kurdistan. Most of them only heard about the struggle against the former regime from their parents and grandparents.

They did, however, witness the armed struggle for power between the KDP and the PUK from 1994 to 1997, and have lived under two-party rule that dominates political representation, resource management and access to employment. They have little or no contact with the rest of Iraq, attend Kurdish universities, speak Kurdish better than Arabic -- and hold Irbil politically accountable before Baghdad.

In the eyes of this youth, the KDP and PUK have spent the past 20 years prioritizing parochial interests over the national good.

Until the protests started, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) ministries remained split between the two parties -- with no access for others -- and little collaboration has existed between them. Peshmerga forces, long the symbol of national resistance to Hussein's regime, are also divided into two uncooperative branches, one loyal to the KDP and the other to the PUK.

Furthermore, although Kurdistan enjoys better security than the rest of Iraq and has seen investments pour in since 2003, between 35% and 45% of Kurdish youth remain unemployed or underemployed. Political affiliation often regulates advancement.

"Combat in Iraq is not over," says memo from the AP's standards editor

To begin with, combat in Iraq is not over, and we should not uncritically repeat suggestions that it is, even if they come from senior officials. The situation on the ground in Iraq is no different today than it has been for some months. Iraqi security forces are still fighting Sunni and al-Qaida insurgents. Many Iraqis remain very concerned for their country's future despite a dramatic improvement in security, the economy and living conditions in many areas.

As for U.S. involvement, it also goes too far to say that the U.S. part in the conflict in Iraq is over. President Obama said Monday night that "the American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country."

However, 50,000 American troops remain in country. Our own reporting on the ground confirms that some of these troops, especially some 4,500 special operations forces, continue to be directly engaged in military operations. These troops are accompanying Iraqi soldiers into battle with militant groups and may well fire and be fired on...

A new dawn for State

State’s new missions require it to perform an array of tasks the military conducted prior to now. The two causing the most concern: State’s ability to train the Iraqi police and to keep its own people safe.

U.S. Foreign Service officers worry aloud about the security issue, fearing that without proper security they will be unable to do their jobs in the field. They could become the new “FOBbits” — military parlance for “hobbits” who rarely leave the forward operating bases on which they live...

Violence highlights fears of Iraqi security forces taking over after U.S. leaves

Not that long ago...

Al-Askari Mosque
[February 2006]

Odierno: I did great, mission accomplished, and all that jazz...make me Army Chief of Staff!!!

"Also, did I mention that, unlike GEN Casey, I think DADT should be repealed. Did I mention that?," Odierno said.
BLUF: Ray wants is to be named Army Chief of Staff after he leaves Iraq...

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Specializing in ad hominem attacks on GEN Odierno since 2008, this masthead maintains that flag officers who royally screw up once while in combat command shouldn't be give a second chance. GEN Odierno's career should have ended after his command of 4th Infantry Division. Instead, he will most likely be named Army Vice Chief or CSA.

Let me be clear: I'm really happy Iraq is shakily moving forward. My problem is that GEN Odierno should have been forced into retirement already. My fellow Georgetown Army ROTC alumnus, current Army CSA GEN George Casey, should have been relieved of command in Iraq after his first screw-up. I care about leadership failures because lives are at stake. Generals should be ready to command and produce immediately - without learning on the job and spilling the blood of our nation's best.

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of Odierno posts:

Nomination of LTG Odierno as MNF-I Commander (June 3, 2008)


Is Odierno ready? (September 16, 2008)


Odierno takes charge (September 16, 2008)


Odierno delivers… already! (September 16, 2008)


Everybody Loves Raymond (September 17, 2008)


For U.S. and Sunni Allies, a Turning Point (September 30, 2008)


Odierno believes troops will be out of Iraq by 2011 (April 13, 2009)


Why We Should Get Rid of West Point (April 20, 2009)



Odierno speaks in a full sentence… (February 26, 2010)

The Situation

Sorry, Mike Sorrentino, but this is a "situation" that more Americans should care about:

Shiites in Iraq Show Restraint as Sunnis Keep Attacking

It is a far cry from 2006, when a bomb set off at the sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra killed no one, but ignited a fury at the sacrilege that set off two years of sectarian warfare.

This year the equally important shrine of Kadhimiya in Baghdad, the tomb of two revered Shiite imams, was attacked by suicide bombers twice, in January and April. More than a hundred people were killed, but there was no retaliation.

Bombing Shiite mosques has become so common that Sunni extremists have been forced to look elsewhere to provoke outrage — much as they did in 2005, when Shiites similarly showed patience when attacked. They have attacked groups of Shiite refugees waiting for food rations, children gathering for handouts of candy, lines of unemployed men hoping for a day’s work, school buses, religious pilgrimages, weddings, marketplaces and hospitals in Shiite areas and even the funerals of their victims from the day before.

Iraq’s Shiites, counseled by their political and religious leaders and habituated to suffering by centuries as the region’s underclass, have refused to rise to the bait — for now. Instead, they have made a virtue of forbearance and have convinced their followers that they win by not responding with violence.

Then and Now

It is about time the Green Zone is closed for business. The day after the Samarra bombing, my Soldiers and I were in Baghdad. Given that Route Irish was closed to Iraqi traffic because of the Samarra bombing, I decided we should go see the Green Zone, since I had heard rumors about its opulence. Thank God for my Spanish speaking driver who convinced a security guard at the palace gate in the Green Zone that we were special security for a general; the guard let us in.

It was probably the best field trip I could have given my Soldiers... they talked about it for the rest of the deployment - the best day of the deployment. We were the only Soldiers inside the Green Zone in fatigues. We entered the palace covered in dust, with rifles (not handguns), and we were greeting with looks of utmost disgust. Every third person or so asked us if we needed directions or why we were there; we were special security, of course. We saw a library in a gigantic domed marble room with a mural of Scud missiles being launched into the heavens and decided to get coffee from the co-located Starbucks (not Green Bean Coffee, but Starbucks in the Green Zone...of course). We drank high-calorie, sugared up lattes in said library looking at the murals, enjoying 50 degree air conditioning, and we were all amazed that the barista knew our ranks and addressed us formally as our "RANK, LAST NAME."

We smelled females before we saw them despite drinking coffee; coffee beans are supposed to neutralize the smells of perfume, but failed this time. We hadn't seen many females in Iraq, but we hit the jackpot in the Green Zone. American State Dept. civilians, many just 22 or 23-years-old wearing, as the article linked above said, "low-cut necklines," walking around us and carrying on awkward conversations with my Soldiers because they were the first females they had seen in months. One female had just graduated from USC and was very surprised when my Soldiers told her that their platoon leader had went to college! Wow, that is like totally cool!!! Undoubtedly, the State Dept. employees and military aide-de-camps in dress uniform (Army Class B equivalent), were disgusted with us being in their pleasure palace and ruining their real life game of RISK. I myself had an awkward converation with a Marine 1LT in dress uniform, undoubtedly a general's aide; how could I be nice to this fellow officer? I did my best. Thoughts raced inside my head. Why don't you go outside the wire and touch the dragon, 1LT MARINE? Earn that Bronze Star your boss will get you, I thought to myself... they won't even approve a Purple Heart for one of my Soldiers who took shrapnel to the face!!?!?!!!

My Soldiers and I could not take pictures - inside the palace or outside. Outside the palace was a beautiful pool with a bar. Yes, a tiki bar. Soldiers cannot drink in Iraq, but there was a bar in the Green Zone. We played poolside ping pong and relaxed all afternoon. Afterall, we didn't have a mission so we hung out in the Green Zone, where we weren't supposed to be. My Soldiers (or I) could not believe their eyes - we all wanted to take pictures of this magical paradise to send back to our families and friends, but couldn't. We followed the rules and didn't take any pictures of the luxury the civilians and top military brass lived in... in a war zone. It sickened me (and my Soldiers). I guess that is why we weren't supposed to be there.

The Washington Post article linked above has some good pictures of Baghdad today (without retaining walls) and describes the Green Zone as it once was. Finally! Now that the media is done reporting on Iraq, they can report all about the luxury the government workers and journalists lived in during a war. Notice how almost all of the media reports in 2005-2006 came out of Baghdad (aka the Green Zone), where all of the data was aggregated and the "journalists" could just sit in luxury and write a piece on a laptop, poolside, while sipping a margarita.

As the rest of Baghdad, bedeviled by Shiite militias and Sunni insurgents, descended into lawlessness and near-anarchy in the ensuing years, the Green Zone became increasingly impenetrable and divorced from the reality that unfolded outside its cement walls.

It was a freewheeling city within a crippled one, a bubble where the days were long, the parties wild and the booze plentiful.

The poolside of the Republican Palace became the backdrop for "Baghdad Idol," a spoof of the reality TV show. The pool was used by born-again Christians for baptisms. U.S. diplomats stacked files in Hussein's sunken tub and set up the political section in his bedroom.

A blue U.S. Embassy badge and a low-cut neckline, female diplomats joked, guaranteed unfettered access to the A-list parties. The Green Zone was among the few places in the world where women wore stilettos and holsters without seeming out of place.

There were rooftop parties at the Olive House, a compound run by South African security contractors where sweltering summer nights gave way to wet T-shirt contests. There was the Lock and Load bar near the palace, the FBI bar and the enigmatic CIA bar, which everyone professed to know about but few could point out on a map.

The who's who of the Green Zone convened Thursday nights at the venerable Baghdad Country Club, a bar and restaurant that billed itself as an "oasis of calm" in the "chaos which is Baghdad."

With decent steak, fine wine and occasionally shrimp, however, the sales pitch wasn't necessary. At one point, it drew crowds of more than 600. The establishment closed in 2007 under pressure from the U.S. military...

What was once akin to college life in a war zone has become more like a strict boarding school with often-changing rules.

Last week, Robert Ford, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, held a town hall meeting to announce more-stringent rules. His message -- the Green Zone, folks, is no longer the Green Zone as we knew it -- was hard for some embassy veterans to stomach.

Now they are left to reminisce about onetime hot spots, like the Baghdad Country Club, that are only a memory. "It was designed as a place to let off a little bit of steam," said the club's founder, James Thornett. "It was a period of my life I enjoyed thoroughly."

Below are some pictures of the Green Zone I took from a HMMWV leaving and getting ready to head back up north on Route Tampa right past Samarra the day after the mosque bombing in February 2006 (obviously I'm not a photographer):

Support the Kurds...

I've said this before, but I'm a fan of the Kurds. They love us.


If we keep our NATO ally Turkey out of their hair, I have no doubt that they will be able to create a safe Kurdistan; the main question then is, can we accept the tactics they will use to do this?

COL Reese's Memo

Bravo, COL Reese!

"If there ever was a window where the seeds of a professional military culture could have been implanted, it is now long past,” he wrote. “U.S. combat forces will not be here long enough or with sufficient influence to change it. The military culture of the Baathist-Soviet model under Saddam Hussein remains entrenched and will not change. The senior leadership of the I.S.F. is incapable of change in the current environment."