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Appeal for Patience

Our essential eyes on the ground, Mohammed at Iraq The Model, updates the surge, counsels the media and pols to cool it, voices optimism and notes that Baghdadis would be happy with more checkpoints with longer waits.  He and his pals went through seven in a two-hour tour of Karkh and Resafa. Mohammed offers up useful pointers on how to successfully negotiate a checkpoint. 

Then he makes a couple of other interesting points:   

The terrorists counterattack is a dirty chemical one this time.
Nothing surprising about it though—their old master had along history of using chemical weapons against unarmed civilians and so we’d expect the minions to use the same evil ways to mass murder and terrorize our people.

The other counterattack came sadly from within the government and parliament and used the media as a weapon through spreading allegations of rape to undermine the security plan. This attack, though not as deadly as poisonous gas, could be much more harmful on the long run.
Those allegations (some are being retracted now) were used to call for stopping the security operation in parts of Baghdad, and this in my opinion is not a justified call even if the allegations were true. I mean we can’t just simply generalize the accusation; thousands of patrols, raids and searches were conducted last week and one ill-doing must not justify for the halting of thousands of good peacekeeping missions.

In this regard it’s worth mentioning that the judiciary is already trying to provide the required legal component to the operation, al-Mada reports:

The supreme judicial council assigned nine judges, nine representatives of the general prosecutor and fifteen magistrates the task of visiting designated detention facilities to interrogate suspects. The source added that the council demanded that the interior and defense ministries commit to show detainees before a magistrate within 24 hours of the arrest…when the magistrate orders keeping the detainee in custody no other authority has the right to release him, and when the magistrate orders releasing the detainee through paying a bail no other authority shall continue his detention, unless the detainee is wanted for other charges.

Calling for halting the operation isn’t realistic and is of no good to us, I think asking for more judges and a bigger role for the judiciary in supervising the work of the military would’ve been a better demand; one that can really help the people.

He’s talking about his own elected representatives but could be talking about ours, who have repeatedly in the course of this war indignantly tried to use the bathwater as an excuse for throwing out the baby. 

Dan posts a Riehlly interesting AP poll.  Americans have more faith in the Iraqi people than they do in Congress.

Patrick Ruffini says surge must be working, because,

When things don’t go well in Iraq, we see the endless B-roll of chaos and carnage. When things are on the upswing, we tend to hear more about Anna Nicole Smith.

Topics: Iraq

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:00 pm on Saturday, February 24, 2007

9 Responses to “Appeal for Patience”

1. saltydog Says:
   February 24th, 2007 at 2:49 pm

   It is a close thing, this surge. Bush certainly has terrible forces arrayed against him, and there is so much at stake. It is as tense a moment in history as any critical time one might point to.

   I’ve been writing to my representatives in congress. I’m from California, though, so I’m not optimistic about having any impact.

2. Bill's Bites Says:
   February 24th, 2007 at 3:35 pm

   Appeal for Patience

   Appeal for Patience Our essential eyes on the ground, Mohammed at Iraq The Model, updates the surge, counsels the media and pols to cool it, voices optimism and notes that Baghdadis would be happy with more checkpoints with longer waits.

3. Old War Dogs Says:
   February 24th, 2007 at 3:37 pm

   Bill’s Nibbles // Open Post — 2007.02.24

   Some Bill’s Bites posts, some things I excerpted and linked but I’m sending you to the original post. I may rearrange the order of the items within this post as I add new things that I think belong above the

4. JammieWearingFool Says:
   February 24th, 2007 at 5:34 pm

   The Surge is Working

   There appear to be positive developments in Iraq, though most good efforts will be downplayed or ignored by the media.

5. the nailgun Says:
   February 24th, 2007 at 6:34 pm

   It is early days but that applies just as equally in the positive sense ie most of the Surge troops still en route. What the MSM have overlooked is in every other part of Iraq where that critical mass and mix of US and IA has been achieved violence has been greatly reduced. Baghdad is just lots bigger. We now have an Iraqi PM who appears to be on our side, we haven’t had that since Allawi handed over trhe reins. That is worth 10 divisions in my view. Likewise I have only read glowing praise of the Interior Minister, his ministry still has problems but by all accounts we have the right man for the job.
   The area where all media seems to rarely focus is the cleaning up of the facility protection forces which have been riddled with militia infiltrators and thousands of ghost employees used as a source of revenue to the same militia’s. The best evidence we have of that being tackled is the Dep. Health Minister getting the boot. 6 Months ago Al Maliki would have re-instated within 24 hours.
   I think also everyday the Surge degrades the Mahdi Army is another day the Iraqi PM gains in strength and his independence from Al Sadr.

   Death squad deaths are way down which is important because they were a very big source of the total overall deaths. Car bombs will be the real tough nut to crack. That will take the 6 months the General’s are telling us they need. The car bombs must be stopped but I think it was the death squads that were really paralysing Baghdad, life can still move forward in Baghdad with some car bombs going off as terrible as they are. That is important as that forward momentum in life also squeezes the terrorists.

   All in all I am very pleased with the progress, we do need the US troops there though as overseers. I read in a report just the other day that some Iraqi soldiers were running out front of a formation not to lead the charge but alert the terrorists/militias of their approach. The IA will need the US stamp this out in the early months until they regain control of their internal culture and establish momentum is truly with the good guys. This is the price Al Maliki must now pay for his previous stonewalling.

   Politically what interests me is both in the States and here in Oz where I am posting from the left side of politics have placed every single chip they have on the Surge failing. No hedging, no a bet each way, complete and absolute failure is the only possible outcome. If it works and I’d say it is now odds on it will they will be the parties that wanted to run and surrender when all that was required was a change in direction and better resourcing. If the Surge goes well this should be obvious by the time of the Australian election and certainly the US Presidential election. What might save the Left is this “increasing troops equals failure, withdrawing troops equals failure” line the MSM are running.

6. El Cid Says:
   February 24th, 2007 at 8:13 pm

   U.S. Military Prepares for Spring Offensive Against Insurgents in Ramadi
   http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,254418,00.html

   The U.S. military is preparing for a spring offensive against Sunni insurgents and Al Qaeda fighters in the lawless city of Ramadi as part of the troop surge to impose security in Iraq.

   The Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki said yesterday that 400 suspected militants had already been killed by U.S. and Iraqi security forces in Baghdad.

7. El Cid Says:
   February 24th, 2007 at 8:18 pm

   Dems show support for the troops.

   Thanks for Your Support, Congress!

   http://www.powerlineblog.com/

8. Pros and Cons » It’s Week 2 of General Petraeus’ Security operations in Baghdad and so far things are going far better than I expected. Says:
   February 24th, 2007 at 11:20 pm

   [...] Others who have taken an interest are The Irish Spy commening on the judiciary, The Texas Scribbler commenting on the ramp-up and chemical attacks, past and present, Big Lizards on “the functionioning core” of the world (and explaining he neo-con raison d’etre along the way), Paxalles focuses on Mohammed’s long view, Jeffreymark (I’ve never heard of him, but heseems young but classically well-educated and his heart is in the right place) and Bill’s Bites dwells somwhat darkly on the practicalities of the situation through the devices of Jules Crittenden. [...]

9. Blue Star Chronicles Says:
   February 25th, 2007 at 9:15 pm

   Don’t Tell Anybody, but the Surge is Working

   Patrick Ruffini reports on some of the successes that can be seen from the surge of Troops in Baghdad. I say ‘can be seen’ because we aren’t really seeing them. The media doesn’t seem as interested in reporting on successes of A…

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