Iraqi Forces Taking The Lead
Here are three articles that show great improvements in the Iraqi Army. The first is taken from the The Advisor, a must read for those who really want the inside scoop on what is happening in Iraq. Read on:
Task Force Liberty trains Iraqi combat lifesavers
By U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Acosta
22nd Mobile Public Affairs DetachmentTIKRIT, Iraq – Task Force Liberty Soldiers are moving into the role of observers as Iraqi Army soldiers in their area of responsibility begin conducting missions on their own. Iraqi soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division, for instance, recently completed a successful independent mission. “The operation that we conducted is according to information and intelligence that our battalion gathered,†said Iraqi Col. Mahoumoud. “The targets we have are wanted for conducting (terrorist activity) against Iraqi police, army and their families. We watched the targets, verified information and found out they meet in certain houses. We conducted this operation to detain these people.â€Â
The mission not only achieved the goal of detaining high value targets, but soldiers at all levels worked together well, said U.S. Army Capt. David Byrne, an intelligence officer with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment. “It went really well,†Byrne said. “They moved through the objectives quickly and they’re reporting well through their chain of command, so their battalion commander is aware of what’s going on.
They also used their own communication, move quickly and had good situational awareness.†The Iraqi leaders had no Coalition help in preparing for this mission, he added.
“We’re here for quality assurance and quality control purposes,†Byrne said.
“Basically to watch them and help them when they are doing their after action review and give them some tips for how they can improve and what they really did well.â€Â
Coalition forces have been working with the Iraqi Army and have seen vast improvements, he said.
“We’ve been working with them since we got here on the ground back in January,†Byrne said. “We’ve developed our relationship since then and given them more freedom. The more missions they execute, the less supervision they need from us.â€Â
“My whole battalion went through special training from special forces by Coalition forces,†Mahoumoud said. “Every mission done with Coalition forces we get more experience and training. Every soldier has gained special skills during the training cycles they conducted with Coalition forces, which makes the battalion stronger and more effective.â€Â
The Iraqi soldiers are learning from their training and continue to improve after every mission, he added.
For many Iraqi soldiers, serving in the army is about protecting the freedom of their friends and family, Mahoumoud said. “This is a responsibility that I’m proud to have for my battalion because I’m allowing the families of my soldiers and my family to move around safely without being scared of insurgents,†he said. “Our main mission is to protect and serve the people.â€Â
Sept. 24, 2005 Multi-National Security Transition Commandâ€â€Iraq The Advisor 6
MSGT Mark Baker
By U.S. Army Spc. Adam Phelps
22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
The above article was filled with good reports; here are a few that caught my eye:
“They moved through the objectives quicklyâ€Â
“They’re reporting well through their chain of commandâ€Â
“They also used their own communicationâ€Â
“They move quickly and had good situational awareness.â€Â
“The Iraqi leaders had no Coalition help in preparing for this mission.â€Â
“Coalition forces have been working with the Iraqi Army and have seen vast improvements.â€Â
Also note that they are proud of what they do, and see their mission clearly to “protect and serve†the people.
This is evidence to me that we are on track for success in Iraq, and our troops levels being lowered when the military says, not a bunch of suits in D.C.
Here’s another article which shows improvement of the Iraqi forces, taken from this link here.
CAMP TAJI, Iraq, Nov. 15, 2005  The lights are out. The streets are dark. Soldiers are trudging down the alley in silence to find a target.
“I think we are well on our way to turning this area of Iraq back over to the Iraqi army with their set of governance and security. At this rate, we will have the Iraqis leading Iraqis very soon.” U.S. Army Maj. Steve Lutsky
Early in the morning on Nov. 9, Iraqi soldiers of the 2nd Mechanized Battalion, 1st Mechanized Brigade, 9th Iraqi Army Division walk from their patrol base in Saba Al Bor to a strategic area to catch terrorists before they have a chance to escape.
They start at their target house, knocking on the front door as an early-morning surprise. Their targeted suspect is in the house and the soldiers detain him without a struggle.
“I think they did really well,†said U.S. Army Maj. Steve Lutsky, 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division operations officer. “This was their first dismounted attack. We moved dismounted in the cover of darkness, and doing that, they did very well.â€Â
The Iraqi Army’s participation was just part of a bigger operation by the 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment searching the surrounding area.
Iraqi soldiers were conducting most of the mission on their own with little American intervention. “We let them do their own thing,†said U.S. Army Sgt. Troy Krahmer, a member of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment. “We were just there to kind of look over them, but we were always there to point them in the (right) direction.â€Â
“They had their own objectives, so they conducted a company operation,†Lutsky said.
The Iraqi army was successful in finding who they were looking for  as well as someone they weren’t expecting to run into during this operation.
“The [Iraqi army] caught one of the targets, and also a target of opportunity that we have been looking for,†Lutsky said.
They went from house to house, knocking on doors and searching for contraband.“They found a couple of weapons that the Iraqis aren’t allowed to have,†Krahmer said. “Everything was good. There was nothing bad that happened, so it was all a good mission.†Lutsky thinks the operation also showed local residents that the Iraqi army is here to help them build a safer life.
“The goal of the operation was to cordon and search areas to provide a safer environment for Iraqi people in Saba Al Bor and also show that the Iraqi Army is here and capable of protecting them,†Lutsky said.
“It’s their country. It’s good that they’re out,†Krahmer said. “(The Iraqis) want their own people. They see their own people; they’re going to respect them because it’s Iraq.â€Â
Out on the streets, the Iraqi army soldiers joked around with children and gave out Iraqi flags.
“It’s good to go out and have the people see that the [Iraqi army] is out there doing the work,†Krahmer said. “Everybody seemed to interact with them and liked what was going on.â€Â
Lutsky believes continuing to conduct company-level operations will help guide the Iraqi Army to bigger operations in the future. “The more often they get out and do this, and the more often they can exercise as a company, the better off they’ll be,†Lutsky said. “And eventually they will be conducting battalion-level operations without our assistance.â€Â
Lutsky thinks the Iraqi army is getting close to taking over their areas and leading the way as they should.
“I think we are well on our way to turning this area of Iraq back over to the Iraqi army with their set of governance and security,†he said. “At this rate, we will have the Iraqis leading Iraqis very soon.â€Â
I may not be a military expert, but I do understand business management. There are three levels to training up an assistant properly.
1) I do the work, the assistant watches.
2) The assistant does the work, I watch.
3) The assistant does the work, I go on to the next task.
Note that while politicians and press are squabbling here in the States, over in the Sand Box our military is successfully taking the Iraqi Army from step 2 to step 3. The hardest part is over. As we move into what I have called “level 3†we will see the troop reductions that so many back home have been bickering about.
But it will be because of the dedication, perseverance, planning, and sacrifices of the military, not because of the chattering at home. In fact, it will be in spite of it.
Noteworthy is this quote, “Lutsky thinks the Iraqi army is getting close to taking over their areas and leading the way as they should.â€Â
Read this from the AP:
More Iraqi Forces Play Lead Roles
Associated Press November 29, 2005WASHINGTON - A growing number of Iraqi troop battalions - nearly four dozen as of this week - are playing lead roles in the fight against the insurgency, and American commanders have turned over more than two dozen U.S.-established bases to Iraqi government control, officials said Monday.
Those are among the signs of progress that the Bush administration is citing as evidence that the Iraqis not only want more responsibility on the security front but are capable of handling it with less assistance from U.S. troops.
The steps toward lessening the U.S. military role in Iraq come amid mounting political pressure on the Bush administration to reduce the American presence in the face of rising casualties and an unrelenting insurgency.
President Bush is to give a major speech Wednesday at the U.S. Naval Academy in which administration officials say he is expected to spotlight recent moves toward increasing Iraqi security responsibilities. One recent step was putting Iraqi forces in full control of sections of Baghdad and other cities.
There are now about 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. They have trained and equipped about 212,000 Iraqi security forces, including infantry, commandos, special police battalions and a variety of military support units. The figure is supposed to reach 230,000 by mid-December and top out at 325,000 by July 2007.
Do I need an exit strategy? No. I can do basic math.
Look at the numbers, working backwards. Iraq needs 350,000 troops to run the country.
Right now there are.
212,000 Iraqi troops
160,000 U.S. troops
Let’s say that by mid-2006 there are
260,000 Iraqi troops
That means 60,000 Americans can come home
Then if by Dec. 2006 there are
300,000 Iraqi troops
That means that 50,000 more Americans can come home.
By Christmas 2006, the bulk of our troops could be home, with special forces remaining to launch operations against Al Qaeda — who for the most part are not Iraqi’s anyway, they are Syrians, Saudi’s, and others from the surrounding countries. This is just a guess on my part, based on the way things are going.
If I can so easily get this information and come to these conclusions, I must also come to the conclusion that the Senators and liberal media playing this guessing game are simply irresponsible kids playing with matches, and fanning the flames of sensationalism, to the harm of our troops in the heat of the battle.
Cross-posted at Rightfielder
December 27th, 2005 at 11:49 am
Howard Roberts
A Seven-point plan for an Exit Strategy in Iraq
1) A timetable for the complete withdrawal of American and British forces must be announced.
I envision the following procedure, but suitable fine-tuning can be applied by all the people involved.
A) A ceasefire should be offered by the Occupying side to representatives of both the Sunni insurgency and the Shiite community. These representatives would be guaranteed safe passage, to any meetings. The individual insurgency groups would designate who would attend.
At this meeting a written document declaring a one-month ceasefire, witnessed by a United Nations authority, will be fashioned and eventually signed. This document will be released in full, to all Iraqi newspapers, the foreign press, and the Internet.
B) US and British command will make public its withdrawal, within sixth-months of 80 % of their troops.
C) Every month, a team of United Nations observers will verify the effectiveness of the ceasefire.
All incidences on both sides will be reported.
D) Combined representative armed forces of both the Occupying nations and the insurgency organizations that agreed to the cease fire will protect the Iraqi people from actions by terrorist cells.
E) Combined representative armed forces from both the Occupying nations and the insurgency organizations will begin creating a new military and police force. Those who served, without extenuating circumstances, in the previous Iraqi military or police, will be given the first option to serve.
F) After the second month of the ceasefire, and thereafter, in increments of 10-20% ,a total of 80% will be withdrawn, to enclaves in Qatar and Bahrain. The governments of these countries will work out a temporary land-lease housing arrangement for these troops. During the time the troops will be in these countries they will not stand down, and can be re-activated in the theater, if both the chain of the command still in Iraq, the newly formed Iraqi military, the leaders of the insurgency, and two international ombudsman (one from the Arab League, one from the United Nations), as a majority, deem it necessary.
G) One-half of those troops in enclaves will leave three-months after they arrive, for the United States or other locations, not including Iraq.
H) The other half of the troops in enclaves will leave after six-months.
I) The remaining 20 % of the Occupying troops will, during this six month interval, be used as peace-keepers, and will work with all the designated organizations, to aid in reconstruction and nation-building.
J) After four months they will be moved to enclaves in the above mentioned countries.
They will remain, still active, for two month, until their return to the States, Britain and the other involved nations.
2) At the beginning of this period the United States will file a letter with the Secretary General of the Security Council of the United Nations, making null and void all written and proscribed orders by the CPA, under R. Paul Bremer. This will be announced and duly noted.
3) At the beginning of this period all contracts signed by foreign countries will be considered in abeyance until a system of fair bidding, by both Iraqi and foreign countries, will be implemented ,by an interim Productivity and Investment Board, chosen from pertinent sectors of the Iraqi economy.
Local representatives of the 18 provinces of Iraq will put this board together, in local elections.
4) At the beginning of this period, the United Nations will declare that Iraq is a sovereign state again, and will be forming a Union of 18 autonomous regions. Each region will, with the help of international experts, and local bureaucrats, do a census as a first step toward the creation of a municipal government for all 18 provinces. After the census, a voting roll will be completed. Any group that gets a list of 15% of the names on this census will be able to nominate a slate of representatives. When all the parties have chosen their slates, a period of one-month will be allowed for campaigning.
Then in a popular election the group with the most votes will represent that province.
When the voters choose a slate, they will also be asked to choose five individual members of any of the slates.
The individuals who have the five highest vote counts will represent a National government.
This whole process, in every province, will be watched by international observers as well as the local bureaucrats.
During this process of local elections, a central governing board, made up of United Nations, election governing experts, insurgency organizations, US and British peacekeepers, and Arab league representatives, will assume the temporary duties of administering Baghdad, and the central duties of governing.
When the ninety representatives are elected they will assume the legislative duties of Iraq for two years.
Within three months the parties that have at least 15% of the representatives will nominate candidates for President and Prime Minister.
A national wide election for these offices will be held within three months from their nomination.
The President and the Vice President and the Prime Minister will choose their cabinet, after the election.
5) All debts accrued by Iraq will be rescheduled to begin payment, on the principal after one year, and on the interest after two years. If Iraq is able to handle another loan during this period she should be given a grace period of two years, from the taking of the loan, to comply with any structural adjustments.
6) The United States and the United Kingdom shall pay Iraq reparations for its invasion in the total of 120 billion dollars over a period of twenty years for damages to its infrastructure. This money can be defrayed as investment, if the return does not exceed 6.5 %.
7) During the beginning period Saddam Hussein and any other prisoners who are deemed by a Council of Iraqi Judges, elected by the National representative body, as having committed crimes will be put up for trial.
The trial of Saddam Hussein will be before seven judges, chosen from this Council of Judges.
One judge, one jury, again chosen by this Council, will try all other prisoners.
All defendants will have the right to present any evidence they want, and to choose freely their own lawyers.
December 27th, 2005 at 12:03 pm
I will personally go to iraq and let any fully trained iraqi soldier who numbers more than 5000 shoot me in the head.
STOP LIVING THE LIE OF EMPIRE.
READ MY PLAN.
December 27th, 2005 at 12:09 pm
1) To late for your plan. Iraq is already a self governing nation.
2) Put our soldiers in harm’s way protecting others under a “cease fire?”
Haven’t you ever watched “Blackhawk down?”
You must be joking, right?
December 27th, 2005 at 1:05 pm
iraq is a U.S. governed nation.
My plan protects all of our soldiers during the cease-fire
by making them into partners in a negotiaion that will lead to peace.
The insurgents are fighting against an Occupying power-when they realize that they can be part of a power sharing process that leads to a withdrawal of our troops they will help us in neutralizing the miniscule elements of jihadists that Bush let in when he started this war.
As for harms way: give me a freakin break.
The majority of our military forces are put into harms
way everyday-by our Commander in Grief.
The insurgents didn’t start this war.
The are defending their country from invasion.
Would you sit back, see your jobs, and livlihood, family,
and your nation destroyed for the profits of a few
Oil dictators and greedy entrepeneurs.
I don’t think so.
Haven’t ever watched “Apocylypse Now”, or “Syriana “.
You must be joking, right !!!!
December 27th, 2005 at 2:05 pm
Iraq’s election and the results were legit.
Unless you’re one of those “Bush rigged the vote in 2000″ liberals, you should be content with whatever results the Iraqi’s acheive in their own recent election.
As far as YOUR plan, have you even run it by an Iraqi?
How about going to
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
and asking the writer what he thinks of your plan?
As far as the insurgents, those who are legitimate Iraqi’s are mostly Sunni’s, who were the favored group under Saddams rule.
They would not be happy with any form of government that did not FAVOR them, and that includes your plan.
PS. Bush did not let the jihaadists into Iraq. Zarqawi went there for medical treatment when he was wounded in Afghanistan. Saddam offered the enemies of the U.S. his country for refuge.
And we invaded because the burden of proof was on Saddam to prove that he no longer had WMD. We declared a cease fire in the Gulf War. Saddam, by shooting at our planes and refusing inspections, merely negated the terms of the cease fire.
Bit alas, this is all intellectual debate between you and me.
In 5 years the New Iraq will be completely stabilized, History will judge George W. as a visionary and pioneer of democracy and peace, and my Iraqi dinars will be worth a fortune!
Good day!
December 27th, 2005 at 9:44 pm
Righto-
Their were hundreds of complaints about rigging the vote, not allowing voters into polling centers, adding voters who were dead, flipping ballots, intimidating voters, and how about this one: In Baghdad-outside of Sadr city where Sunni voters outnumber Shiites by more than 2 to 1-the Shiites won by more than 25%.
I won’t get into how the candidates were chosen by public relations agents in North Carolina, or how the number of exiled Iraqi U.S. supported candidates were given carte blanche and all the total perks of a campaign-and the others were not.
The new government is a puppet and that if it has enough animation I suggest it cut the strings as soon as they are placed in office, or they will suffer the same fate as the British Iraqi puppet government did.
I checked youe link: it seemed difficult to get on this blog-and reach enough Iraqi’s as possible.
Do me a favor-get the e-mail of several Iraqi citizens you are working with and I will send them my plan.
it is true that the bulk of the insurgents are Sunni.
And it is true that Saddam favored them.
But my plan calls for distrubution of power in each of the 18 autonomous regions-this would not favor any of the
ethnic groups, if it was implemented as I specified.
I am not seeking happiness,but equity-and if this could be reinforced by the general populace , all the groups would be open to it.
As for Zarqawi-have you ever read anything about him that was verified independently of U.S. military intelligence ?
Are you sure he is really in iraq ?
Do you have positive proof he is alive ?
The answer to these three questions is :NO.
This line of questions also should be applied to Zarqawis
supposed medical visit to Iraq.
As for your assertion that “Saddam offered the enemies of the U.S his country for refuge”- this is total garbage.
Saddam hated Islamofascism more than anything on Earth-and he was scrupulous in eliminating any sign of it,or any other jihadist movement, with the most brutal means.
The United States knew from 1996-2003 that Saddam had no WMD’s.
But continued the charade of the murderous sanctions
that killed 1 million iraqi’s, the 3500 unprovoked bombings of iraq. and the lies about his military capacities.
I hope to see iraq stabilized in lesst han two years-if we let the iraqi’s run their country.
My plan can fulfill this dream.
History will view George Bush the same as they viewed the British Empire. Those who write the textbooks based on corporate lies of the so-called victors will judge him kindly, but those who have witnessed the real process of history, through the eyes of the victims, will piss on his grave.
Give your dinars to the poor of Iraq-they need it.