Author Topic: Progress in Iraq  (Read 6551 times)

headhuntersix

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Progress in Iraq
« on: August 13, 2007, 01:12:52 PM »
I figured I would relay this report from the guys fighting in Iraq.

July 31, 2007

Members and Friends of the 9th Regiment,

Task Force 1-9 Infantry continues our counter-insurgency operations in East Ramadi, Iraq. Since my last report, things have quieted down here significantly. Quiet in combat is a little boring, but it is very good. We are enjoying now the reward of all the hard fighting and sacrifices during the first part of our deployment.

In late March, we conducted Operation Chickamauga which was a battalion deliberate attack to kill, capture, and clear the enemy from the densely populated neighborhood called “Al Iskan”. After the experience of fighting during the previous months, the rifle companies really tore into the enemy that stood and fought during more than 13 fierce firefights inside the tight confines of the city. Baker and Dog Company, along with the Scout Platoon, Battalion Assault Command Post, and several attached Iraqi Army companies fought day and night for five days. We employed lots of Manchus on foot with Tanks, Close Air Support, and Attack Helicopters backing us up. In small arms contact, our Infantrymen hunted down and killed 18 armed insurgents with very few civilian casualties. They found numerous IEDs, Caches, and detained many other known and suspected insurgents. We were fortunate to come away with only two wounded Manchus, and one Iraqi Army Officer was killed, and two more wounded. The Iraqi Army Officer killed in action was a Lieutenant who was killed by sniper fire leading his platoon in the assault. After we completed the clearance, we handed over the neighborhood to an incoming Marine Rifle Battalion. As we exfiltrated out of the area on foot after dark, my Assault CP was in position to watch all the Rifle Companies come by my position. After five days of hard fighting on foot, they were very tired and dirty, but heads were held high, weapons at the ready, Sergeants keeping perfect spacing and formations – I couldn’t have been any prouder of the battalion than at that moment. I am sure you can understand my bias.

Since then, the enemy activity in Ramadi has all but stopped. The enemy has either been killed, gone to ground, or gone elsewhere to fight some other unit. Now all of our energy is spent securing our hard won neighborhoods, training and operating with Iraqi Policemen, and conducting Civil Affairs operations to rebuild all the stuff that has been destroyed during the fighting – which is extensive. The people actually like us and really go out of their way to give us information and point out any insurgents that are still in the area. They turn in caches and have showed us where all the IEDs are. We have almost 1500 policemen who work for us now and they know who all the insurgents are. It is near impossible for an insurgent to openly operate in our area.

As you have probably heard, we are also doing the “extended” tour of 15 months. We are at month number ten now, with five to go. Morale is as good as it can be with the extended deployment and temperatures averaging around 120 degrees in the afternoon. Most of the Soldiers and Leaders have gone on their mid-tour leave and are back now to get it done. Our families are also sucking up the longer deployment and it is even more difficult on them. We may well spend a second Christmas here, but are keeping our fingers crossed that the Army might slide our redeployment just a hair earlier. That said, I have told everyone to expect to go home in early January.

I am deeply honored to serve with these great young American Soldiers. They have fought hard and in the best possible way represent our Regiment and our Nation. 

Manchus! Keep Up The Fire!

LTC Chuck Ferry
Manchu 6
Commander, Task Force 1-9 Infantry

East Ramadi, Iraq
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Decker

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #1 on: August 13, 2007, 01:52:11 PM »
I just can't share your enthusiasm.  I wish I could.  You see with the eyes of a soldier and I see through lens of a lawyer.

I can't get past the illegal invasion part and all the rebuilt schools and all the US military progress will not change that fact.

When I see Bush on TV talking about the progress in Iraq (w/ that smirk) I'd like to remind him that if it weren't for his nefariously bumbling presidency, THE US WOULD NOT HAVE ATTACKED IRAQ.  I would bet my life on that point.

Thanks to Bush's asinine and uneeded nationbuilding in Iraq we have:

*30,000+ US casualties
*30,000+ damaged or ruined american families
*anywhere between 75,000 and 125,000 dead iraqis
*the middle east on the brink of chaos
*and on and on.

So forgive me if I don't partake in LTC Ferry's enthusiasm.

Again, no disrespect to you HH.  It's Bush that needs the attitude adjustment....and jail time.

Colossus_500

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2007, 01:54:01 PM »
I just can't share your enthusiasm.  I wish I could.  You see with the eyes of a soldier and I see through lens of a lawyer.

I can't get past the illegal invasion part and all the rebuilt schools and all the US military progress will not change that fact.

When I see Bush on TV talking about the progress in Iraq (w/ that smirk) I'd like to remind him that if it weren't for his nefariously bumbling presidency, THE US WOULD NOT HAVE ATTACKED IRAQ.  I would bet my life on that point.

Thanks to Bush's asinine and uneeded nationbuilding in Iraq we have:

*30,000+ US casualties
*30,000+ damaged or ruined american families
*anywhere between 75,000 and 125,000 dead iraqis
*the middle east on the brink of chaos
*and on and on.

So forgive me if I don't partake in LTC Ferry's enthusiasm.

Again, no disrespect to you HH.  It's Bush that needs the attitude adjustment....and jail time.
No offense, Decker, but I'm gonna go with the soldier.  Forget the politics of the matter.  Let's just deal with what is. 

HH6, thanks for the update. 

Decker

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #3 on: August 13, 2007, 02:01:50 PM »
No offense, Decker, but I'm gonna go with the soldier.  Forget the politics of the matter.  Let's just deal with what is. 

HH6, thanks for the update. 
I can't do that. 

The Iraq invasion is rotten from the head down and I don't see a good thing coming out of this.

There must be accountability for the crime and death and destruction.

headhuntersix

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2007, 02:22:40 PM »
Thats for the politicians to decide....this is a report about the ground truth in Iraq on that given day or days. Unless they had embeds you won't here it from the soldier point of view.
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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #5 on: August 13, 2007, 02:41:53 PM »
I figured I would relay this report from the guys fighting in Iraq.

July 31, 2007

Members and Friends of the 9th Regiment,

Task Force 1-9 Infantry continues our counter-insurgency operations in East Ramadi, Iraq. Since my last report, things have quieted down here significantly. Quiet in combat is a little boring, but it is very good. We are enjoying now the reward of all the hard fighting and sacrifices during the first part of our deployment.

In late March, we conducted Operation Chickamauga which was a battalion deliberate attack to kill, capture, and clear the enemy from the densely populated neighborhood called “Al Iskan”. After the experience of fighting during the previous months, the rifle companies really tore into the enemy that stood and fought during more than 13 fierce firefights inside the tight confines of the city. Baker and Dog Company, along with the Scout Platoon, Battalion Assault Command Post, and several attached Iraqi Army companies fought day and night for five days. We employed lots of Manchus on foot with Tanks, Close Air Support, and Attack Helicopters backing us up. In small arms contact, our Infantrymen hunted down and killed 18 armed insurgents with very few civilian casualties. They found numerous IEDs, Caches, and detained many other known and suspected insurgents. We were fortunate to come away with only two wounded Manchus, and one Iraqi Army Officer was killed, and two more wounded. The Iraqi Army Officer killed in action was a Lieutenant who was killed by sniper fire leading his platoon in the assault. After we completed the clearance, we handed over the neighborhood to an incoming Marine Rifle Battalion. As we exfiltrated out of the area on foot after dark, my Assault CP was in position to watch all the Rifle Companies come by my position. After five days of hard fighting on foot, they were very tired and dirty, but heads were held high, weapons at the ready, Sergeants keeping perfect spacing and formations – I couldn’t have been any prouder of the battalion than at that moment. I am sure you can understand my bias.

Since then, the enemy activity in Ramadi has all but stopped. The enemy has either been killed, gone to ground, or gone elsewhere to fight some other unit. Now all of our energy is spent securing our hard won neighborhoods, training and operating with Iraqi Policemen, and conducting Civil Affairs operations to rebuild all the stuff that has been destroyed during the fighting – which is extensive. The people actually like us and really go out of their way to give us information and point out any insurgents that are still in the area. They turn in caches and have showed us where all the IEDs are. We have almost 1500 policemen who work for us now and they know who all the insurgents are. It is near impossible for an insurgent to openly operate in our area.

As you have probably heard, we are also doing the “extended” tour of 15 months. We are at month number ten now, with five to go. Morale is as good as it can be with the extended deployment and temperatures averaging around 120 degrees in the afternoon. Most of the Soldiers and Leaders have gone on their mid-tour leave and are back now to get it done. Our families are also sucking up the longer deployment and it is even more difficult on them. We may well spend a second Christmas here, but are keeping our fingers crossed that the Army might slide our redeployment just a hair earlier. That said, I have told everyone to expect to go home in early January.

I am deeply honored to serve with these great young American Soldiers. They have fought hard and in the best possible way represent our Regiment and our Nation. 

Manchus! Keep Up The Fire!

LTC Chuck Ferry
Manchu 6
Commander, Task Force 1-9 Infantry

East Ramadi, Iraq


Topping the list of stories you will not see on CNN. . . .  Thanks for this headhunter.  Good news. 

pumpster

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #6 on: August 13, 2007, 08:54:07 PM »
That's consistent with a recent influential NY Times op-ed by Pollack and O'hanlon suggesting the tide was turning.

Only problem is that it's about 4 years too late and isn't accompanied by political cooperation.



Pollack: ‘Surge’ Producing Real Progress in Iraq
             
Kenneth M. Pollack, a leading expert on Iraq, supplied intellectual arguments for the 2003 invasion of Iraq but then turned quite critical of the war. He now says after his latest trip to Iraq that though conditions remain difficult, there were significant improvements on the ground as a result of the U.S. “surge” policy. “We came away feeling that Iraq was absolutely a mess, the situation remained grave, but that we did have the right strategy, and that if any strategy could create stability in Iraq, it was the counterinsurgency and stability strategy that General David Petraeus had brought with him,” Pollack said.

You and your colleague, Michael E. O’Hanlon, wrote an op-ed for The New York Times on your recent trip to Iraq whose headline says:   “A War We Just Might Win.” That sounds very optimistic. Can you elaborate?

 We weren’t quite comfortable with the word “win” when we talked about using it in the piece, but nevertheless we came away from this trip feeling that there was more progress than we expected, especially in regard to creating security in some important parts of Iraq, and to a lesser extent in terms of local, political, and economic developments. That said, to us there were enough signs of life in the “surge” that it was worth allowing it to continue for some additional months to see if it could continue to make progress. We didn’t come away having decided the war in Iraq was won, everything was fine, and it was just a matter of time before we could put up a real banner that said “Mission Accomplished.”  Quite the contrary, we came away feeling that Iraq was absolutely a mess, the situation remained grave, but that we did have the right strategy, and that if any strategy could create stability in Iraq, it was the counterinsurgency and stability strategy that General David Petraeus had brought with him.

Let’s talk about some of the signs of real progress.  Where would you start?

Starting with American forces, the first thing that was striking to me since my last trip to Iraq was the change in morale. In my previous trips to Iraq, I typically found American military personnel angry, frustrated, and confused, not really understanding their mission.

This time around, I was really struck by how positive a great many military personnel seemed. Now, this was not 100 percent. There are still some very frustrated people, and I’m sure there are many others who we didn’t get to meet.  But the overall change in tone I felt was important. They seemed to believe they actually had a good strategy. They trusted General Petraeus; they felt the change in strategy and the change in tactics was actually accomplishing something. They could all point to tangible progress in their own particular corner of Iraq. A lot of that is attributable to this change in strategy, the emphasis on counterinsurgency, securing the Iraqi people, and helping them to rebuild their lives. Power, water, sanitation, all the things that I and other people have been talking about for years—these are now the principal mission of American military and civilian personnel in Iraq, and it does seem to be paying off, at least at the local level in certain important areas of Iraq.

Do you find the electric power is on more continuously?

We found there had been a real shift from trying to repair and defend the national power grid, which was extremely difficult to do. There now is a shift away from that toward helping the Iraqis essentially get their own local generators and bring local businesses and houses into those local generators.

There’s been a lot written by the journalists in Iraq in the last couple of months about Anbar province and how the Sunni tribal leaders have coalesced against al-Qaeda in Iraq. You saw this firsthand?

We did. I’ll be honest with you. I didn’t really have a full sense of just how far it had gone or how much of an impact it has had. As always in war, it’s important to be lucky, and this was one where it was mostly more about being lucky than being good--although the U.S. forces and General Petraeus did the right thing and took advantage of their good luck very quickly.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq and other Salafi jihadist groups set themselves up as the new local government in very big swathes of territory across the country and started imposing their brand of Sharia law that the Iraqi Sunnis didn’t care for it. AQI [al-Qaeda in Iraq] started doing things such as kidnapping sons of local sheikhs and holding them for ransom, kidnapping daughters and giving them away to their loyalists as wives, and killing local sheikhs or other leaders who weren’t participating and cooperating with them as much as they wanted. None of this sat well with the Sunni Arabs. They basically decided among themselves that they were done with al-Qaeda and the other Salafi groups. They wanted to get rid of them, and they came to the U.S. forces.

Decker

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #7 on: August 14, 2007, 06:32:09 AM »
That's consistent with a recent influential NY Times op-ed by Pollack and O'hanlon suggesting the tide was turning.

Only problem is that it's about 4 years too late and isn't accompanied by political cooperation.



Pollack: ‘Surge’ Producing Real Progress in Iraq
             
Kenneth M. Pollack, a leading expert on Iraq, supplied intellectual arguments for the 2003 invasion of Iraq but then turned quite critical of the war. ...
This Pollack article was discussed in another thread.  The man has always been an apologist for the war and was behind the invasion from the beginning.  Here's an excerpt from that other thread:

Pollack and O'Hanlon are bullshit artists that have always supported the conquering of Iraq.  The veneer of plausibility from their 'democrat' and 'NY Times" ties is just window dressing.

Just like Judith Miller, Pollack and O'hanlon are neocon whores and they broadcast their 'liberal' writings on the front page of the 'liberal' NY Times.

You know they might fool some people but just look at the book Pollack authored:
The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq 
 http://www.amazon.com/Threatening-Storm-Case-Invading-Iraq/dp/0375509283

Decker

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #8 on: August 14, 2007, 06:41:45 AM »
Thats for the politicians to decide....this is a report about the ground truth in Iraq on that given day or days. Unless they had embeds you won't here it from the soldier point of view.
Yes and no.  You are right that Bush put you into this untenable position.   

But everybody always has a choice in determining the course of their actions and turning a blind eye to the moral and legal abominations surrounding this use of force in Iraq in the course of doing one's job as soldier is just not good enough.






headhuntersix

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #9 on: August 14, 2007, 06:47:00 AM »
Moral and legal, your kidding me right. Dude thats not my job, we're not murdering anybody over there. I'm doing my job, what i signed up for etc. If i bitch its because I want to win, and come home. Its not enough just to come home.
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Decker

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #10 on: August 14, 2007, 07:03:45 AM »
Moral and legal, your kidding me right. Dude thats not my job, we're not murdering anybody over there. I'm doing my job, what i signed up for etc. If i bitch its because I want to win, and come home. Its not enough just to come home.
Strictly speaking, if the invasion is held to be a war crime b/c it was a preventive attack, then the Nuremberg holdings (which are still relevant today) would apply.  And crimes against humanity do not stop at the executive branch.  They extend to the rank and file.

A soldier cannot absolve himself of responsibility by claiming "I was just following orders" or "I was just doing my job."   Those were not recognized defenses to the criminal charge at Nuremberg and I doubt they would fly today.

That's why I just can't go along with the good news that comes out of Iraq.  It might be true from that soldier's perspective but it is also a diversion from the unsavory facts underlying the propriety of the invasion.

I don't care much for writing those things.  But Justice must be served to the man that pulled the trigger in 2003--President Bush.




headhuntersix

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #11 on: August 14, 2007, 08:35:44 AM »
Thats not what I'm saying. I certainly didn't commit any crime. Those few who have, have been punished by our own system. Blame Bush for the war, this was an article about how well our guys are doing.
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rockyfortune

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #12 on: August 14, 2007, 10:33:22 AM »
I'm just wondering if ''victory'' per se was ever the goal of the iraq war...if that was the case the strategy war planned years before the invasion of iraq would have been used...and not the troop levels used at the beginning of the war.  I don't know if it was illegal or not but it appears on the surface that the admin. had ulterior motives other than removing saddam or his wmd's...
footloose and fancy free

rockyfortune

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #13 on: August 14, 2007, 10:40:02 AM »
Thats not what I'm saying. I certainly didn't commit any crime. Those few who have, have been punished by our own system. Blame Bush for the war, this was an article about how well our guys are doing.




what he is saying, and correct me if i am wrong, is that you have committed a crime if you participated (knowingly or unknowingly) in a illegal war. 
footloose and fancy free

headhuntersix

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #14 on: August 14, 2007, 12:23:38 PM »
Well he's welcome to try and drag me before the Haig..o' ;D wait I'm exempt. If the libs ever seriously tried that shit, they would be in serious trouble.
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Dos Equis

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #15 on: August 14, 2007, 12:36:45 PM »
Oh come on.  Comparing our troops in Iraq to German soldiers during the Holocaust?  That's beyond absurd. 

headhuntersix

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #16 on: August 14, 2007, 01:23:02 PM »
I can see the point that Decker is making. Of course this ridiculous. Nobody gives orders to kill civilians. We are expressly told to minimize casulties among non combatants. We work around civilians when possible, we limit the ROE to avoid these things. We are not Einzatsgruppen. If u want to look at a frustrated military, look at the Russians when they went intro Chechnia the second time. They used small scale fuel air explosives, they brough back flame throwers, they cleared streets with beehive rounds. Thats total war and thats not what we are doinbg in Iraq.
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Dos Equis

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #17 on: August 14, 2007, 02:43:03 PM »
I can see the point that Decker is making. Of course this ridiculous. Nobody gives orders to kill civilians. We are expressly told to minimize casulties among non combatants. We work around civilians when possible, we limit the ROE to avoid these things. We are not Einzatsgruppen. If u want to look at a frustrated military, look at the Russians when they went intro Chechnia the second time. They used small scale fuel air explosives, they brough back flame throwers, they cleared streets with beehive rounds. Thats total war and thats not what we are doinbg in Iraq.

It is not a good comparison at all.  Congress endorsed the war after it started, at least twice.  Congress has continued to fund the war.  The UN hasn't declared the war "illegal."  And, as you mentioned, we have our ROE.  The guys who violate the ROE go to jail.  We have soldiers in jail for taking pictures of naked Iraqis. 

Purge_WTF

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #18 on: August 14, 2007, 03:49:15 PM »
  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070814/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq


  I have a hard time getting enthusiastic about the "progress" in Iraq when things like this happen.
 

ieffinhatecardio

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #19 on: August 14, 2007, 04:00:34 PM »
  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070814/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq


  I have a hard time getting enthusiastic about the "progress" in Iraq when things like this happen.
 

I blame this most recent rash of deaths, injuries and destruction on the "Liberal Media" and not on the giant CLUSTERFUCK that is the Iraq War. After all if the "Liberal Media" weren't skewing every story in a "Liberal" way then the general population would never hear about all the people that are being killed and maimed in the giant CLUSTERFUCK that is Iraq.

This is all the "Liberal Media's" fault. Damn Liberal Media.

BTW, how's that Cheney prediction from 1994 that an invasion of Iraq would be a giant "quagmire" working out for him?

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #20 on: August 15, 2007, 12:43:09 AM »
I just can't share your enthusiasm.  I wish I could.  You see with the eyes of a soldier and I see through lens of a lawyer.

I can't get past the illegal invasion part and all the rebuilt schools and all the US military progress will not change that fact.

When I see Bush on TV talking about the progress in Iraq (w/ that smirk) I'd like to remind him that if it weren't for his nefariously bumbling presidency, THE US WOULD NOT HAVE ATTACKED IRAQ.  I would bet my life on that point.

Thanks to Bush's asinine and uneeded nationbuilding in Iraq we have:

*30,000+ US casualties
*30,000+ damaged or ruined american families
*anywhere between 75,000 and 125,000 dead iraqis
*the middle east on the brink of chaos
*and on and on.

So forgive me if I don't partake in LTC Ferry's enthusiasm.

Again, no disrespect to you HH.  It's Bush that needs the attitude adjustment....and jail time.

where are you getting these numbers?  I don't remember hearing about 30K US casualties....

24KT

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #21 on: August 15, 2007, 01:11:47 AM »
Thats for the politicians to decide....this is a report about the ground truth in Iraq on that given day or days. Unless they had embeds you won't here it from the soldier point of view.

No, ...it is for the citizens of the USA to decide, ...before the rest of the world decides for them.
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w8tlftr

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #22 on: August 15, 2007, 04:15:06 AM »
No, ...it is for the citizens of the USA to decide, ...before the rest of the world decides for them.

So, in other words, for the elected politicians to decide.

And the rest of the world doesn't decide jack for the United States.

headhuntersix

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #23 on: August 15, 2007, 06:45:54 AM »
I'm sorry I don't listen to pot smokers from Holland or pole smokers from France. They sit around doing nothing while the rags take over their country. They sit around and whine about the glory days of colonialism when they could commit mass murder and nobody cared. I don't care about international law or international opinion. They will still buy our shit and still want to travel here.
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Decker

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Re: Progress in Iraq
« Reply #24 on: August 15, 2007, 07:23:26 AM »
It is not a good comparison at all.  Congress endorsed the war after it started, at least twice.  Congress has continued to fund the war.  The UN hasn't declared the war "illegal."  And, as you mentioned, we have our ROE.  The guys who violate the ROE go to jail.  We have soldiers in jail for taking pictures of naked Iraqis. 
Who is comparing the US to Nazis? 

The reason the war is illegal is b/c the US’s attack of Iraq was unprovoked.  It was not self-defense, defense of another or to stop an imminent attack by Iraq.  The US attacked Iraq to enforce compliance with a UN resolution that Iraq was already complying with.

Look at Congress’s grant of authority to the president to use force against Iraq:

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES.
(a) AUTHORIZATION. The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to
(1) defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq; and
(2) enforce all relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions regarding Iraq.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021002-2.html

Since the US couldn’t attack Iraq based on Sec. 3. (a)(1), Bush chose to order the attack to enforce UN resolutions—namely Resolution 1441.
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N02/682/26/PDF/N0268226.pdf?OpenElement

Res. 1441 required Iraq to comply with inspections and be forthcoming with all relevant info re WMDs.
The only problem with Bush’s rationale of enforcing Res. 1441 is that Iraq was already complying with the inspections.

The inspectors were let into Iraq in Nov. 18, 2002.

The Iraqis were complying and cooperating. Iraq actively cooperated, says Blix  http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27c/123.html

Mar. 20, 2003 Bush orders the invasion of Iraq to enforce Iraq’s compliance with Res. 1441 even though the country was actively complying with the resolution.

After attacking, the US deposes the Iraqi government, installs a new government, and occupies the country to keep the newly installed government afloat.  Where the authority came for those things is beyond me.

Congress’s “endorsement” of the war, at any time, is irrelevant to the legality of the invasion b/c Bush misused that authority by ordering the invasion when it was not necessary to command Iraq’s compliance with the resolution it was already cooperating with.  War crimes apply not only to individual acts in the field of battle but to the reason for ordering the war itself.