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NYT makes minor setback major news

Leave it to the New York Times to make mountains out of molehills.

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The headline actually reads, "Iraqi Unit Flees Post, Despite America's Plea." It turns out barely four dozen Iraqi soldiers are involved:

"A company of Iraqi soldiers abandoned their positions on Tuesday night in Sadr City, defying American soldiers who implored them to hold the line against Shiite militias.

"The retreat left a crucial stretch of road on the front lines undefended for hours and led to a tense series of exchanges between American soldiers and about 50 Iraqi troops who were fleeing. . . .

"This episode was a blow to the American effort to push the Iraqis into the lead in the struggle to wrest control of parts of Sadr City from the Mahdi Army militia and what Americans and Iraqis say are Iranian-backed groups.

How severe a blow it was is never made clear. In fact, the story seems to be incomplete:

"The Iraqi convoy drove off, and the Americans began to scramble to find a new Iraqi unit to plug the gap. Senior Iraqi commanders hurried to the scene and a special Iraqi reconnaissance unit was ordered to advance up the road. With the help of an American bomb-clearing unit, Stryker vehicles and attack helicopters, the Iraqis rumbled north, spraying rounds as they went. According to the last reports monitored by Company B, the Iraqis were stopped short by several roadside bombs, and planned to resume the push in daylight.

In any case, we also learn from reading the story that the deserters were "a particularly hesitant Iraqi unit," that "some Iraqi soldiers have fought hard," and that the company that deserted "had replaced a more battle-hardened Iraqi unit just two days earlier."
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Just chalk this up to more propaganda from the New York Times!

-Matt Hittle

Posted at 08:17AM Apr 17, 2008 by College Republicans in Iraq  |  Comments[2]

Senate Democrats ignore Iraq progress

The Wall Street Journal has a great column today about the Democrats' blind eye toward Iraq progress.

Here are some pertinent excerpts:

"A useful measure of General David Petraeus's achievement is the turn in the political mood, even in the U.S. Congress. In September, Senators felt entitled to lecture, even berate, the Iraq commander. This time he was accorded more respect, no doubt because the surge is showing results even Democrats can no longer deny. Instead, they ignored them."

The author describes the progress, then says:

"Regrettably, none of this seemed to penetrate the minds of most Senate liberals. Democrats largely used the platform for reiterating the arguments they have made for 16 months, notwithstanding the changes on the ground. Joe Lieberman described the approach of his former party as "hear no progress in Iraq, see no progress in Iraq, and most of all, speak of no progress in Iraq."

"Hillary Clinton seemed to take umbrage at Mr. Lieberman's assessment. She devoted her time to arguing that, to the contrary, it would be "irresponsible" to remain in Iraq and said, "I think its time to begin an orderly process of withdrawing our troops." Under a similar barrage from other questioners, General Petraeus declined to commit to further troop reductions once the five additional combat brigades sent to Iraq last year have completed their pullout in July. He recommended a 45-day "period of consolidation and evaluation."

"If the hearings had a common theme, it was the contrast between the seriousness of General Petraeus and the sensitivity of Democrats to domestic political concerns. President Bush's worst mistakes in Iraq were due to standing by flawed strategies and old thinking. Democrats have now adopted that posture."

The Party Line is getting old. They "support the troops," yet don't congratulate the troops for the hard work they're doing! They totally ignore everything the troops do! Shameful.

-Matt Hittle

Posted at 04:14PM Apr 09, 2008 by College Republicans in Iraq  |  Comments[0]

Pelosi says Iraq a failure; Al-Qaeda says otherwise

The London Times is reporting that letters found in Iraq confirm Al-Qaeda's collapse in the country.

Letters written by Al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq attest to the collapse, say military sources:
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Al-Qaeda in Iraq faces an “extraordinary crisis”. Last year's mass defection of ordinary Sunnis from al-Qaeda to the US military “created panic, fear and the unwillingness to fight”. The terrorist group's security structure suffered “total collapse”.

These are the words not of al-Qaeda's enemies but of one of its own leaders in Anbar province — once the group's stronghold. They were set down last summer in a 39-page letter seized during a US raid on an al-Qaeda base near Samarra in November.

The US military released extracts from that letter yesterday along with a second seized in another November raid that is almost as startling.
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The Anbar letter conceded that the “crusaders” — Americans — had gained the upper hand by persuading ordinary Sunnis that al-Qaeda was responsible for their suffering and by exploiting their poverty to entice them into the security forces. Al-Qaeda's “Islamic State of Iraq is faced with an extraordinary crisis, especially in al-Anbar”, the unnamed emir admitted.

In an apparent reference to al-Qaeda's brutal tactics, he said of the Americans and their Sunni allies: “We helped them to unite against us . . . The Americans and the apostates launched their campaigns against us and we found ourselves in a circle not being able to move, organise or conduct our operations.”
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This is excellent news. Of course, Nanci Pelosi disagrees with Al-Qaeda leaders.. She says the war is a "failure." In fact, she said that twice on Sunday:

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“There haven't been gains, Wolf,” the speaker replied. “The gains have not produced the desired effect, which is the reconciliation of Iraq. This is a failure. This is a failure. The troops have succeeded, God bless them. We owe them the greatest debt of gratitude for their sacrifice, their patriotism, and for their courage and to their families as well.
“But they deserve better than the policy of a war without end, a war that could be 20 years or longer. And Secretary Gates just testified in the last 24 hours to Congress that this next year in Iraq and Afghanistan are going to cost $170 billion."
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I think it's interesting that things are going better than they ever have been and all the while, Pelosi and the Democrats only spout more defeatism.

Posted at 09:07PM Feb 10, 2008 by College Republicans in Iraq  |  Comments[0]

Reid backtracking on Iraq

Harry Reid is hedging his bets on Iraq.
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"We sent other troops over there, and there are a lot of reasons the surge certainly hasn't hurt. It's helped. I recognize that."
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Oh, by the way, in April, Reid said:
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“I believe myself that the secretary of state, secretary of defense and — you have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows — that this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq.”
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What a turnaround! Too bad Reid won't admit he's wrong. Instead, he'll keep repeating the Party Line. This new Party Line details the money spent on Iraq. Yeah, lots of cash has been spent over there, but we never seem to hear about the enormous omnibus bills that are stuffed to the gills with earmarks.
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Congressional Dems-- live up to your own ethics standards and fight to get rid of wasteful earmarks and fight to decrease spending...NOT just with regard to Iraq.
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-Matt Hittle

Posted at 11:42PM Dec 22, 2007 by College Republicans in Iraq  |  Comments[0]

I've got a not-so-secret secret!

Pssst...the surge is working...don't tell the Dems
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"Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, seem lost in a time warp. They could try to impose new benchmarks that acknowledge the military progress. Instead, too many seem unable or unwilling to admit that President Bush's surge of 30,000 more troops has succeeded beyond their initial predictions. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who in the spring declared the war lost, said last week that "the surge hasn't accomplished its goals." Anti-war Democrats remain fixated on tying war funding to a rapid troop withdrawal. Yet pulling the troops out precipitously threatens to squander the progress of recent months toward salvaging a decent outcome to the Iraq debacle."
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No explanation needed for this piece...Read it!
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-Matt Hittle

Posted at 12:56PM Dec 13, 2007 by College Republicans in Iraq  |  Comments[2]

Harry Reid: The LEAST optimistic man EVER

Harry Reid is bucking the optimistic trend of his fellow Democrats and railing against the obvious success of the troop surge in Iraq.
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"Democrats are increasingly bailing on their previously held view that the troop surge in Iraq has been a "failure," but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid isn't ready to jump on the bandwagon with other Democrats who say the surge has worked."
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'But Reid, in a Monday press conference, ceded no ground.

"The surge hasn't accomplished its goals," Reid said. "... We're involved, still, in an intractable civil war." '
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'Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took to the Senate floor on Monday to highlight the "stunning reversal" in Iraq, and chided Democrats, saying "unfortunately, talk of congratulations is scarce among the anti-war left."'
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Now, what was the goal of the surge? No, Harry, it wasn't to TOTALLY END the war, it was to curb violence.
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As Bush said in the State of the Union, when he introduced the idea:
"The most urgent priority for success in Iraq is security, especially in Baghdad. Eighty percent of Iraq's sectarian violence occurs within 30 miles of the capital. This violence is splitting Baghdad into sectarian enclaves, and shaking the confidence of all Iraqis...

America will change our strategy to help the Iraqis carry out their campaign to put down sectarian violence and bring security to the people of Baghdad. This will require increasing American force levels. So I've committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq. The vast majority of them -- five brigades -- will be deployed to Baghdad. These troops will work alongside Iraqi units and be embedded in their formations. Our troops will have a well-defined mission: to help Iraqis clear and secure neighborhoods, to help them protect the local population, and to help ensure that the Iraqi forces left behind are capable of providing the security that Baghdad needs."
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Harry needs to wake up and realize that Iraq isn't just about garnering votes! He needs to give credit where credit is due and acknowledge that the surge is working.

Posted at 03:06PM Dec 03, 2007 by College Republicans in Iraq  |  Comments[0]

Murtha backtracks on Iraq remarks

My post yesterday quoted Democrat John Murtha, who said that the situation in Iraq is better.
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Well, this view isn't consistent with the defeatism that is the Democratic Party's platform on this issue.
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I bet he got chewed out by Nancy Pelosi,,,and now he's saying this:
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The clarification came after House Republicans circulated an article about Murtha’s comments written in Friday’s edition of his home-state Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after a teleconference from Murtha’s Johnstown, Pa., office. In addition to saying that the surge is working, the Post-Gazette reported, Murtha called the Iraqi government “dysfunctional” and said, “The thing that has to happen is the Iraqis have to do this themselves. We can't win it for them.”
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http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/murtha-clarifies-remarks-on-iraq-surge-2007-11-30.html
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-Matt Hittle

Posted at 02:25PM Dec 01, 2007 by College Republicans in Iraq  |  Comments[0]

Democrats on Iraq

TownHall has an interesting article this morning (http://townhall.com/columnists/LorieByrd/2007/11/30/denying_progress_in_iraq_in_2008).
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Basically, it discusses what could happen in 2008 if the war in Iraq becomes more successful. Interestingly, it's on that path already.
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"The Democrats running for President are now trying to appeal to their anti-war left base primary voters, and most congressional Democrats are still using the same old “Iraq is a hopeless failure” lines, but if the mission in Iraq is seen as anything close to a success next year the time between the primary and the general election will be spent by many Democrat candidates trying to find a way to get on the right side of the issue. Other Democrats will continue to do as some now are doing – denying the progress that has been made in the region and calling what is happening there anything but success."
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"Already many on the liberal blogs have begun to explain why the reduction in violence in Iraq is not good news and how any purported successes there are only an illusion. Here are just a couple of the justifications being given for sticking to the “Iraq is an irredeemable failure” storyline.

1. Things have not really improved in Iraq – the administration is lying.
2. Okay, admittedly things really have changed, but lower casualty rates and reduced violence mean nothing if there is no political progress.
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Check it out- great article.
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-Matt Hittle

Posted at 07:51AM Nov 30, 2007 by College Republicans in Iraq  |  Comments[0]

Murtha switches views on Iraq

Democrat John Murtha, formerly a rabid anti-surge activist (He even tried to stop funding for it: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16185.htm), now says that it's working, (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07333/837824-100.stm).
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I would normally rant about him being wrong, but I think that what's heartening isn't Democratic error, but that the surge IS working, and that our men are safer than they have been in the past.
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Violence has dropped significantly in recent months, but Mr. Murtha said he was most encouraged by changes in the once-volatile Anbar province, where locals have started working closely with U.S. forces to isolate insurgents linked to Al Qaeda.
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Hate Bush all you want, but this is a policy that is living up to the Administration's positive expectations.
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-Matt Hittle

Posted at 10:55PM Nov 29, 2007 by College Republicans in Iraq  |  Comments[0]