For some weeks there have been reports that foreign jihadis are departing Iraq in increasing numbers to join their fellow believers in Afghanistan. According to The Washington Post, Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri himself has recently relocated. With security improving in Iraq, Americans with neocon leanings have predictably announced that “victory” is at [...]
Archive for July, 2008
Jihadis Leave Their Iraqi Training Ground for the Real War
Posted in AQI, Al-Qaeda, Iraq, Militancy on July 31, 2008 | 19 Comments »
Maliki’s Army Enters Diyala to Simulate Combat
Posted in ISF, Iraq on July 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In a sure sign that security has greatly improved in Diyala, the Iraqi Army has ventured out of its barracks to conduct one of its live combat simulations in the province. Touted as a “major offensive” by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the U.S. military and the skeleton crew of journalists still in Iraq, the operation [...]
How Sons of Bitches Became Sons of Iraq
Posted in Iraq on July 29, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I’ve never personally met a Concerned Local Citizen, or a Baquba Guardian, or a Son of Iraq, although I’ve had the dubious honour of meeting very bad people in many countries during my career. Even so, I have always presumed that co-opting local power players by bribery is not a lasting solution to an insurgency. [...]
Afghanistan: Will Obama Take Rubin’s Advice?
Posted in Afghanistan, Election 08 on July 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday, an al-Qaeda chemical weapons expert was killed in a Predator strike in Pakistan. Today, Los Angeles Times reports that Pakistan plans to move units of its XI Corps to cover the Afghan border. And according to an Army Times article by Sean Naylor, apparently leaked to bloggers, new CENTCOM chief General David Petraeus will [...]
Iraq: The Journalist As a Nuisance
Posted in Iraq, Media on July 29, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Journalists are up in arms after photographer Zoriah Miller published photos of dead Marines on his web site and was consequently kicked out of his embed. Predictably, the U.S. military is being accused of censorship; the Marines, for their part, say Miller’s photos desecrated the memory of their fallen comrades, added to the grief of [...]
A Hard Day in Nuristan
Posted in Afghanistan on July 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Someone will write a book about this.
The Cost of No Security: $859 Billion
Posted in Afghanistan, Iraq on July 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
According to calculations by the Congressional Research Service, the total cost of America’s post-9/11 wars now stands at $859 billion, almost equal to that of Korea and Vietnam together. Wars are expensive, but when they go well, no one complains. Of course, what American taxpayers have gotten for the money invested in the present conflicts [...]
When a Surge Is Not Really a Surge
Posted in Afghanistan, Election 08, Iraq on July 28, 2008 | 4 Comments »
The foreign policy debate between the two U.S. presidential hopefuls now seems to boil down to just two questions: (1) Has the surge worked? (2) When can we leave? For some pertinent answers, check out this LA Times story by Ned Parker & co. GEN Petraeus, for his part, puts it this way in a [...]
Afghanistan: Why Rory Stewart Is Wrong
Posted in Afghanistan on July 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Rory Stewart’s prescription for the ills of Afghanistan has elicited sharp responses, some more angry than thoughtful, but interesting nevertheless. For a thorough dismantling of Stewart’s arguments, I recommend Christian Bleuer’s excellent post at CTLab.
Speaking of Afghanistan, here are a couple of interesting papers, which I haven’t had time to finish:
“Securing Pakistan’s Tribal Belt”, Daniel [...]
Iraq: Elections, Schmelections
Posted in Iraq, Iraq: Elections on July 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
As expected, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, rejected the provincial elections law passed by the parliament yesterday, which means they’re back to square one, the political situation has taken a sharp turn for the worse, and the elections are highly unlikely to be held in 2008.
As to what exactly transpired on Monday when the [...]
