By Larry C. Johnson (bio below)
Horribly sad news out of Iraq overnight. Ten brave Marines died in a bomb blast while clearing a factory in Fallujah. At least another eleven of their brothers were wounded during the same operation. I guess the insurgents in Fallujah did not get the memo from Condi Rice and other Bush Administration hawks that things are fine and the insurgency is, as Dick Cheney said, in “its last throes”.
Just two months ago Condi Rice claimed:
Each day increased numbers of trained and equipped Iraqi security forces are being fielded against the insurgents, Rice said. And, “with more capable Iraqi forces, we can implement this element of the strategy,” she explained, which is to have Iraqi troops go “neighborhood by neighborhood” to flush out insurgents and secure territory. . . .Former Iraq hot spots are being pacified, Rice said, noting that security along the Baghdad airport road “has measurably improved.” In contrast to a year ago, life is also now calmer in places like Mosul, Najaf, Fallujah, and formerly frenetic parts of downtown Baghdad, Rice said.
All well and good until you consider the implications of this attack. The Marines were clearing a factory. The enormous blast that killed our Marines had been carefully placed inside over a period of time. This appears to have been an ambush. Clearly the Marines had poor intelligence about the factory and there was no control around its perimeter in the days preceding the patrol. No neighbors in the area chose to alert U.S. forces that they were walking into the jaws of death. And, more importantly, where were the damn Iraqi troops accompanying our Marines? Why didn’t they fan out in advance and gather intel that might have prevented the loss of these brave troops.
When you are fighting an insurgency and do not have the genuine support of the locals, it is relatively easy to kill alot of Americans. God bless the souls of these brave Marines who have died fulfilling their duty. Too bad their civilian leaders do not have the same code of honor and integrity.
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Larry C. Johnson is CEO and co-founder of BERG Associates, LLC, an international business-consulting firm that helps corporations and governments manage threats posed by terrorism and money laundering. Mr. Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism (as a Deputy Director), is a recognized expert in the fields of terrorism, aviation security, crisis and risk management. Mr. Johnson has analyzed terrorist incidents for a variety of media including the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, ABC’s Nightline, NBC’s Today Show, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, and the BBC. Mr. Johnson has authored several articles for publications, including Security Management Magazine, the New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured on terrorism and aviation security around the world. Further bio details.
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Why in hell would or should they care if the invaders get blown up? Why would they risk their lives to protect the invaders. The Iraqi troops are in it for their own reasons, unless you think all the former Saddam enforcers got born again into the joys of Christianity and democracy.
You offer great insights and information in your writing, Larry, and I look forward to them. The one point you make that really pisses me off is the underlying assumption that the Iraqis — any Iraqis — owe us something. They don’t.
If the Iraqi troops feel that way, they shouldn’t sign up. Oh wait. They need the money because the unemployment rate is so high and inflation is rampant.
Larry believes the Iraqis owe us something.
Larry believes America has a right to interfere not just in the business of other people in other countries, but in the business of any person it chooses to including it’s own citizens.
Larry believes the world is a dangerous place. The world is made dangerous by people who are paranoid. Paranoids are attracted to the military, to the CIA, to control over others, to being unnessarily secretive and to subversion of other people who might seem contrary.
The marines died for no reason. Their mission was an unnecessary expression of one man’s truculent paranoia and the nation that he governs and the nation that indulges him as President.
A relatively sane nation would have run Bush out of office long ago. He’s is obviously distrubed, paranoid, insensitive, ignorant, delusional and hate filled. He needs to be removed now. He is going to get more dangerous as his own people turn against him.
He hears the voice of God? C’mon! That is reason enough to get rid of him.
The Marines may be brave, they may not be brave. The people fighting them may be brave or they may not be brave. It doens’t matter. it’s all utterly pointless from the American side.
Cotterperson, If you think I misread, I’d be interested in your take. Seems to me he’s saying that the quote damn unquote Iraqi troops owe it to the Americans to protect them. Maybe I’m missing the sarcasm or something.
They clearly do not deserve all the democracy America has been so magnanimously spreading on them.
In fact, it’s not just the Iraqis. The Afghans are ungrateful, and the families and friends of all the people America has so generously kidnapped and rendered to its many facilities around the globe for “enhanced interrogation” are just as ungrateful.
You just can’t please some people, no matter how much you torture their sons and shame their daughters and melt the flesh off their toddlers.
Maybe they just don’t realize how much money Halliburton is making.
Today’s NYT carries a piece describing the reaction of Marines at Camp Pendelton (which has lost over 250 “alumni” so far) and Camp Lejeune (140). For my money, the money quote is: