Some related posts from Technorati and Google.
[Informed Comment] Petraeus, Iraq and the Lebanon Analogy: ' Some of the March death toll was from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's abrupt attack on the Sadr neighborhoods of Basra, which was repulsed. But surely al-Maliki rejected negotiations and attacked frontally because he knew that if he got into trouble he could call down US close air support.
[Silk Roads and Siamese Smiles] A Successful Counter-Insurgency in Iraq: Soldiers everywhere are paid, and good generals know it is dangerous to mess with a soldier’s money. The shoeless heroes who froze at Valley Forge were paid, and when their pay did not come they threatened to leave - and some did.
[Big Lizards] Squeaker Warns Petraeus He Had Better Admit Iraq War Is Lost: Elaborating during a Baghdad news conference, Crocker indicated again that Iraqi military decisions caught U.S. forces by surprise. But he described Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as having acted decisively, and praised the Iraqi military for its ability to plan, execute and adjust its operation....
[qando] Michael Yon talks about the changes in Iraq: The Sunni "awakening" was not primarily a military event any more than it was "bribery." It was a political event with enormous military benefits.COIN is a melding of the political and the military - it has to be. I still think we need to have a political surge, but you can't understand counterinsurgency doctrine without understanding how much the political and military work hand-in-hand.
[politicalbase.com Blog] Q&A with Juan Cole: Cutting Through the Iraq Spin: So far the building of what are essentially Sunni militias that focus on the province as the unit of activity has resulted in a reduction of violence in a place like al Anbar province but has not resulted in al Anbar being integrated to the Iraqi state. There is substantial resistance both on the part of the people and on the part of the Maliki government [to unify the Sunni-run provinces with the national government], so there isn't good evidence of this process resulting in national cohesion.
[Moderate Observer] White House Steps Up Iran Rhetoric: One faction, led by Vice President Dick Cheney and including a sprinkling of officials at the Pentagon, State Department and elsewhere, has argued that before President Bush leaves office in January, the administration should use military force to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities and punish Iran for supporting international terrorism and thwarting U.S. aims in Iraq.
[America's Election HQ] Raw Data: McCain’s Opening Remarks at Petraeus Hearing: We must continue to support the Sunni volunteers of the Iraqi Awakening as they stand up to al Qaeda in Iraq. And we must continue to build the capacity of the Iraqi security forces so they can play an ever stronger and more neutral .
[Pat Dollard | Young Americans] Iraqi Tribes Turning Against Iranian And Al Sadr Militias In ...: Bottom-up rebellion against terrorists, move toward reform, reconcilitation and peace, as Iraqis continue to realize America was truly a liberator, and Iran and Al Qaeda were the true colonialist invaders…if the Republican Party can play their cards right, then the greatest irony in modern American politics should come to pass: The Iraq War should be the strong horse that the Party rides back to power on…
[Cafe Talk] All Hail Petraeus!: As far as the Awakening goes, Maliki wants them disbanded because he does not want a separate military arising, which is obviously what's happening and by our doing no less, so the solution is supposed to be that the Iraqi government will absorb the members of the Awakening. If memory serves, there are about 70,000 members, and about 7,000 or so have been given places in the Iraqi army and other places in the administration.
[Masson's Blog] The Surge has turned into The Stall: Of course, Bush long ago lost any credibility with Congress and the American people on Iraq. It’s understandable that he hides behind Petraeus’s breastplate of medals and Crocker’s thatch of gray hair, sending these loyal and able public servants to explicate the inexplicable: What realistic goal is the United States trying to achieve in Iraq?
[Roundup: Historians' Take] Juan Cole: Petraeus, Iraq and the Lebanon Analogy: What if Iraq has been lebanonized, but not in the sense that Ambassador Crocker alleged, of heavy Iranian influence? (And by the way, I was in south Lebanon in December, and the influence of Iran strikes me as over-stated in the US.
[Weekly Standard Blog] Petraeus Highlights: Over time, Awakenings have prompted tens of thousands of Iraqis””some, former insurgents””to contribute to local security as so-called “Sons of Iraq.” With their assistance and with relentless pursuit of Al Qaeda-Iraq, the threat posed by AQI””while still lethal and substantial””has been reduced significantly.
[The Dudes Blog] The story of the “Sons of Iraq” and the American Military: Since the first Sunni Awakening in late 2006, Sunni communities in Iraq increasingly have rejected Al Qaeda-Iraq’s indiscriminate violence and extremist ideology. These communities also recognize that they could not share in Iraq’s bounty if they didn’t participate in the political arena.
[2008 Presidential Campaign Blog] Remarks By John McCain To The Members Of The Veterans Of Foreign ...: The international community should augment Iraqi efforts by broadly enhancing the proven success of microfinance programs to spur entrepreneurship at local levels throughout the country and Iraq's Arab neighbors should invest in regional stability by using the fruits of their oil exports to directly invest in Iraq. As these efforts begin to take hold in Iraq, it will be -- as in all countries -- the private sector that creates the vas t majority of jobs and propels the growth that will end reliance on outside aid.
[threatswatch] ThreatsWatch.Org - PrincipalAnalysis: CTA Symposium: Iraq v. Mahdi ...: The last two things I’ll say on this are, first, that the aggressive negativity of the reporting from Iraq remains inexcusable—there’s no question but that the global media (including our own) is shamelessly partisan, anti-American and anti-Iraqi-government: For all of the al Maliki government’s failings—and, God knows, they’re beyond counting—it’s accomplished more under difficult wartime conditions than plenty of developing-world governments have accomplished in decades…yet, favored dictatorships get a pass from the press, while Iraq’s struggling democracy gets picked apart mercilessly. As I’ve pointed out elsewhere, the Iraqi legislators passed more significant laws last year than did our own Congress—and we, who inherited the Anglo-American tradition, have had eight hundred years of practice.
[The Swamp] Obama: How to define Iraq success?: The definition of success is at the heart of the matter and, as he carefully and respectfully noted, we can not afford in either blood or money a pristine democratic Iraq where everyone loves everyone else. We ultimately will need to leave Iraq and this will not happen unless pressure is brought to bear on those sectarian elements involved and one way of doing that is to advise them we are going to leave and they must get their house in order.
Reflected tags on Technorati: Blog, Michael: Blogs, Photos, Videos And More On Technorati, Awakening: Blogs, Photos, Videos And More On Technorati, Iraq: Blogs, Photos, Videos And More On Technorati, General David Patreaus: Blogs, Photos, Videos And More On Technorati, Iraqi War: Blogs, Photos, Videos And More On Technorati, Iraq Reviews
