we are all doing fine.
some of the soldiers have been a little stressed out since the announcement of the extension.
The following are my personal views and not that of the US government.
There have been a lot of ups and downs here in Iraq for the past few weeks.
The political situation in the states has a lot of the soldiers concerned. The drama playing out in Washington is disheartening to hear for the soldier on the ground getting shot at. But we also realize open, free debate is what our country is based on, unfortunately, to the middle eastern mind, open debate is a sign of weakness, and not strength.
There are some major challenges that I'm honestly not sure we can overcome in any kind of time frame being discussed by Congress. If that is the will of the people then so be it. Militarily, the war was won a long time ago, but the peace is where the US policy failed. This has been said many times before. There really wasn't a plan for after the downfall of the Saddam government. Too many optimistic assumptions were made that the Iraqis would rebuild there own nation and would create a fair, honest democratic government representative of all Iraqis. What happened was the politically depressed Shia came to power and exerted nothing short of revenge.
There is little national unity here amongst the Iraqi people. There loyalty lies to religious sects and tribes. The political process here is marred with self interest. I even saw a report in the news where a US general explained there was a situation where a Sunni general was carrying on raids and arresting Shia bad guys, only to have that leader dismissed by some political leaders (Shia) and all the men he detained were released because they said he was carrying out religious based arrests. As the US general pointed out, the men arrested had IEDs in their home, rockets and mortars. Not the type of weapons normally needed for home defense. By the time the US officials found out about it, it was too late. How can we succeed when the Iraqis aren't even willing to try?
Now, these few short years later, the military is being asked to fix it all. I am seriously feeling it may be too little too late, no matter how many troops we attempt to send here.
This week, the Iraqi Parliament voted to begin a debate on whether or not to vote on legislation limiting the number of foreign troops allowed in their country and the possibility for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq at some future date. The announcement has meet with extremely mixed views by the Iraqis. Many realize the US is the only thing keeping this country from falling apart. But a significant minority want to operate with impunity, and have political backing to do so.
Here is a quick glimpse from today's Iraqi Media Monitoring Team of Iraqi newspapers, TV, radio and Internet:
Top Story of Interest:
Iraqi Politics: A number of significant political stories were in today's news. A Sadr Trend member of parliament claimed to have gathered signatures of 144 of 275 members of parliament in favor of a timetable for foreign troops' withdrawal. Meanwhile, Parliament was to vote on seven new cabinet ministers, said to be technocrats hand-picked by the prime minister and not beholden to any sect or party. And SCIRI, one of the largest Shiite parties, dropped the name "Revolution" from its name, and pledged to look to an Iraqi supreme cleric for guidance, not an Iranian one. Maj. Gen. Petraeus's message warning U.S. troops to treat detainees properly also received considerable coverage. (Al Sharqiya, al Alam, Al Fourat, Beladi TV, Radio Sawa, Radio Republic of Iraq, Radio Hurria) Analysis: The cabinet reshuffle could lead to more effective government, although some parties have expressed fears that these new ministers will be too close to the prime minister and his Dawa party. SCIRI, which reappointed Aziz al-Hakim as its leader, appears to be giving itself a patriotic makeover without any structural changes. And the withdrawal vote is a tempered measure unlikely to cause any short-term policy changes. If it ever receives any western media attention, it could have more impact in Washington than Baghdad.
Well that's enough for now. All is not lost, but there is still no clear sign of significant progress. If were looking for milestones, then the past month had few to offer in my opinion.
Hope you enjoy the stories. Our troops are doing there best against all the odds. Let's hope the Iraqi government has some realizations and sense of national unity above sectarian ones.
In my thoughts all,
Bryan
