THE US, THE UN AND IRAQ, ELEVENTH THREAD

FWIW,
I read somewhere a few years ago that Vietnam was offering to give the Cam Ranh Bay navy base back to the US.
I dont know what happened with that.

The campaign in Afghanistan is failing and the strategies in place must be revised, the commander of US and Nato forces said today.

General Stanley McChrystal described the situation in the country as "serious", but said success could be achieved there with a new approach.

Gen McChrystal today delivered the results of his 60-day strategic assessment to US and Nato commanders in a long-awaited review of strategy ordered by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

He said: "The situation in Afghanistan is serious, but success is achievable and demands a revised implementation strategy, commitment and resolve, and increased unity of effort."

Since taking command, Gen McChrystal has adjusted the focus of Western forces from hunting down insurgents to trying to protect the Afghan population, borrowing in part from US tactics in Iraq developed under CentCom commander General David Petraeus.

The general described his approach to me like this: "The situation is serious, and we need to turn the momentum of the enemy. We can do that.

"What what we need to do is to correct some of the ways we operated in the past. We need show the kind of resolve and the imagination in some cases to do this smarter and to do it right."

It is clear he wants the Nato troops in Afghanistan to move away from the idea that they are fighting an all-out war - the "body-count approach".

Instead, he wants them to help the Afghans get rid of the Taliban for themselves.

Gen McChrystal knows that ordinary Afghans have many complaints about the way Nato troops operate.

They include the indiscriminate bombing which has killed large numbers of civilians, and the arrest of people who are left languishing in jail without trial.

In Sarobi the general visited the district governor, Qazi Sulaiman, who put these two complaints to him directly. The general gave him a clear assurance that such things would not continue.

The war or effort in Afghanistan was and remains justified, unlike Iraq (this is not addressed to you Ican) and Vietnam, we were attacked by AQ who was harbored by the Taliban and of which both have regrouped while we have been distracted in Iraq.

However, dropping bombs indiscriminately the way it seems we have been doing is not justified and is more than likely (stands to reason) counter productive. More effort needs to made in countering the problem in diplomatic ways and finding common ground with the moderates in Afghanistan the way we did in Iraq just before the "surge." (repeating this stuff, but it just keeps being repeated everywhere so there is need..)

Lets hope they turn things around and stop with the current failing strategy which kills innocent people. But this was not an unjustified war and we are still fighting the same enemy who attacked us on 9/11 over there and we need to concentrate on Pakistan as well. We may very well loose but the fight was an is justified and that is what makes the distinction between that fight and Iraq and Vietnam.

The German military dropped that bomb on that ship that killed many Afghanistani civilians.

If you are referring to the incident with the two fuel tankers: an U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle jet dropped two 500-pound (225-kilogram) bombs.

I understand, Walter, that Germany will be having some general elections in less than a month. There is (isn't there?) a growing dismay with Germany's involvement in Afghan.

www.c-span.org/resources/pdf/hjres114.pdf
Public Law 107-243 107th Congress Joint Resolution Oct. 16, 2002 (H.J. Res. 114) To authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq

Whereas in 1990 in response to Iraq's war of aggression against and illegal occupation of Kuwait, the United States forged a coalition of nations to liberate Kuwait and its people in order to defend the national security of the United States and enforce United Nations Security Council resolutions relating to Iraq;

Whereas after the liberation of Kuwait in 1991, Iraq entered into a United Nations sponsored cease-fire agreement pursuant to which Iraq unequivocally agreed, among other things, to eliminate its nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs and the means to deliver and develop them, and to end its support for international terrorism;

Whereas Iraq persists in violating resolution of the United Nations Security Council by continuing to engage in brutal repression of its civilian population thereby threatening international peace and security in the region, by refusing to release, repatriate, or account for non-Iraqi citizens wrongfully detained by Iraq, including an American serviceman, and by failing to return property wrongfully seized by Iraq from Kuwait;

Whereas the current Iraqi regime has demonstrated its continuing hostility toward, and willingness to attack, the United States, including by attempting in 1993 to assassinate former President Bush and by firing on many thousands of occasions on United States and Coalition Armed Forces engaged in enforcing the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council;

Whereas members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq;

Whereas Iraq continues to aid and harbor other international terrorist organizations, including organizations that threaten the lives and safety of United States citizens;

Whereas in December 1991, Congress expressed its sense that it supports the use of all necessary means to achieve the goals of United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 as being consistent with the Authorization of Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution (Public Law 102-1),' that Iraq's repression of its civilian population violates United Nations Security Council Resolution 688 and `constitutes a continuing threat to the peace, security, and stability of the Persian Gulf region,' and that Congress, `supports the use of all necessary means to achieve the goals of United Nations Security Council Resolution 688';

Whereas the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-338) expressed the sense of Congress that it should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove from power the current Iraqi regime and promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime;

Whereas on September 12, 2002, President Bush committed the United States to `work with the United Nations Security Council to meet our common challenge' posed by Iraq and to `work for the necessary resolutions,' while also making clear that `the Security Council resolutions will be enforced, and the just demands of peace and security will be met, or action will be unavoidable';

Whereas Congress has taken steps to pursue vigorously the war on terrorism through the provision of authorities and funding requested by the President to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such persons or organizations;

Whereas the President and Congress are determined to continue to take all appropriate actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such persons or organizations;

Whereas the President has authority under the Constitution to take action in order to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States, as Congress recognized in the joint resolution on Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107-40); and,

Whereas it is in the national security interests of the United States to restore international peace and security to the Persian Gulf region:

Now therefore be it, Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, Authorization for use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. 50 USC 1541 note.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansar_al-Islam
Ansar al-Islam (Supporters or Partisans of Islam) is a Kurdish Sunni Islamist group, promoting a radical interpretation of Islam and holy war. At the beginning of the 2003 invasion of Iraq it controlled about a dozen villages and a range of peaks in northern Iraq on the Iranian border.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansar_al-Islam
Ansar al-Islam was formed in December 2001.
Ansar al-Islam comprised about 300 armed men, many of these veterans from the Afghan war, and a proportion being neither Kurd nor Arab. Ansar al-Islam is alleged to be connected to al-Qaeda, and provided an entry point for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other Afghan veterans to enter Iraq.

The air picture changed once more. Now the icons were streaming toward two ridges an a steep valley in far northeastern Iraq, right on the border with Iran. These were the camps of the Ansar al-Isla terrorists, where al Qaeda leader Abu Musab Zarqawi had trained disciples in the use of chemical and biological weapons. But this strike was more than just another [Tomahawk Land Attack Missile] bashing. Soon Special Forces and [Special Mission Unit] operators, leading Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, would be storming the camps, collecting evidence, taking prisoners, and killing all those who resisted.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.html
I say to you ... These youths [love] death as you love life.
…Those youths know that their rewards in fighting you, the USA, is double than their rewards in fighting some one else not from the people of the book. They have no intention except to enter paradise by killing you. An infidel, and enemy of God like you, cannot be in the same hell with his righteous executioner.

http://www.dni.gov/release_letter_101105.html
[Summary] The war in Iraq is central to al Qa'ida's global jihad.
The war will not end with an American departure.
The strategic vision is one of inevitable conflict with a call by al-Zawahiri for political action equal to military action.
More than half the struggle is taking place in the battlefield of the media.
Popular support must be maintained at least until jihadist rule has been established.

http://intelligence.senate.gov/phaseiiaccuracy.pdf
Postwar information indicates that the Intelligence Community accurately assessed that al-Qa'ida affiliate group Ansar al-Islam operated in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Iraq

rjb, Short primer with 5 candidates? LOL

Walter is good. He can do it tomorrow. Watch.