Pressing Petraeus
Petraeus meets the press. The press meets Petraeus according to their wont. “Encouraging signs” and “sensational attacks inevitable” … “no military solution” and “military action is necessary” … “tough days” with “demons” and “thugs with no soul.” Discussion of surge realities and withdrawal wishes follows the roundup:
ABC: “Encouraging signs.”
“(It’s) too early to discern significant trends, (but) there have been a few encouraging signs,” he said.
He said U.S. and Iraqi forces would press ahead with the plan while “recognizing that some sensational attacks inevitably will continue to take place.”
Reuters: Big type, “No military solution.” Small type, “military action is necessary.”
“There is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq, to the insurgency of Iraq,” Petraeus said.
“Military action is necessary to help improve security … but it is not sufficient.”
Political progress would require talking with “some of those who have felt the new Iraq did not have a place for them”.
He said a key challenge for the Shi’ite-led government of Nuri al-Maliki was to identify those militant groups who were “reconcilable” and to bring them into the political process.
Beeb: “Tough days.”
US and Iraqi forces must “control the demons responsible for the vicious sectarian violence of the past year - demons who have torn at the very fabric of Iraqi society”.
The general detailed the measures taken jointly by US and Iraqi forces to secure Baghdad’s neighbourhoods.
He said the aim was not just to secure areas of the capital, but to hold them and help to improve the provision of basic services.
The general also denounced as “thugs with no soul” the recent attackers of Shia pilgrims. On Tuesday, more than 100 people died when suicide bombers targeted a crowd of pilgrims in the town of Hilla.
More ABC: No need for more troops than those already enroute.
However, another 2,200 military police now approved to help deal with influx of detainees. AP:
Gates also cited early indications that the Iraqi government is meeting the commitments it made to bolster security, although he cautioned that it was too early to reach any firm conclusions about the outcome.
“We’re right at the very beginning,” he told a Pentagon news conference. “But I would say that based in terms of whether the Iraqis are meeting the commitments that they’ve made to us in the security arena, I think that our view would be so far, so good.” He was referring to the movement of additional Iraqi troops into the capital.
Gates said that the request for extra MPs is in addition to the 21,500 combat troops that President Bush is sending for the Baghdad security plan, along with 2,400 support troops.
Gordon England, the deputy defense secretary, told Congress this week that the number of required support troops could reach 7,000.
“That’s a new requirement by a new commander,” Gates said of the request for more MPs by Gen. David Petraeus, who assumed command in Baghdad last month. He added that there were other troop requests still being considered in the Pentagon; he gave no specifics.
Meanwhile, someone better tell Hillary, Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Murtha, Webb, etal. Military commander in Iraq says they’ll need surge troops there through February 2008. That might conflict with plans to have the lot of them out of there minutes after Feb ‘08, as some have suggested. (AP link above notes Dem Cong is now looking at fall ‘08 drop-dead date for the kickoff of the big Iraqi genocide).
… some military officials in Iraq say it is unrealistic to expect a troop buildup of several months to create enough of a breathing space for Iraqis to achieve political reconciliation. “There is Washington time and Baghdad time,” said a senior Defense official in Iraq. “Some in Washington want it now, and there is reality on the ground in Baghdad. They don’t always match.”
One concern is that Shiite militants and some insurgents will try to outlast the American troops if the buildup is too short. A longer buildup would give the American and Iraqi forces more time to disperse economic assistance, provide better protection to Iraqi neighborhoods and try to win over the Iraqi public.
“You have to protect the people long enough to get economic assistance to them and change their attitude and change their behavior,” said Jack Keane, the retired vice chief of staff of the Army, who has argued that the troop buildup should last 12 to 18 months. “You cannot do that in weeks. It takes months to do that. The problem with the short-term surge is that the enemy can wait you out.”
The recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq also suggested that the Iraqi Security Forces would not be able to assume the major responsibility for securing Baghdad in the near future. An unclassified version of the report noted that “the Iraqi Security Forces, particularly the Iraqi police, will be hard pressed in the next 12 to 18 months to execute significantly increased security responsibilities, and particularly to operate independently against Shia militias with success.”
Given the time needed to adjust training schedules and prepare units, decisions may need to be made before there is clear evidence about whether the new strategy is working. “If he defers some decisions he potentially will foreclose deployment options downstream because people won’t begin to move,” said a Pentagon official, referring to Secretary Gates. “By deferring a decision he will in effect be making a decision.”
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:35 am on Thursday, March 8, 2007
3 Responses to “Pressing Petraeus”
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March 8th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
“He said a key challenge for the Shi’ite-led government of Nuri al-Maliki was to identify those militant groups who were “reconcilable” and bring them into the political process.”
Wasn’t this the plan with al-Sadr? Isn’t that what led us to this mess in the first place?
March 8th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Pressing Petraeus
Gen. Petraeus speaks Michelle Malkin “It is not in our power to turn back the clock to the day before the al Askaria Mosque was bombed. We can, however, in partnership with our Iraqi colleagues, help improve the security situation
January 4th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
[...] What Petraeus actually said: “There is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq, to the insurgency of Iraq. Military action is necessary to help improve security … but it is not sufficient.”* [...]