Handoff to Iraqi Forces Being Tested in Mosul

[leftchick]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32631-2005Apr6.html

MOSUL, Iraq -- The two dozen Iraqi soldiers marched in formation into downtown Mosul, streets emptying in their path. The men trained their rifles on potential bomb threats: a donkey-drawn vegetable cart, a blue Opel sedan, a man with a bulge beneath his tattered gray coat.

Less than a month ago, U.S. forces patrolled these dangerous streets. But on this humid morning there were only the Iraqis and a lone U.S. adviser, Marine Staff Sgt. Lafayette Waters, 32, of Kinston, N.C., who blended unobtrusively into the patrol.


This is Area of Operations Iraq, slightly more than two square miles in the heart of Iraq's third-largest city. It is also at the center of the U.S. military's strategy to hand off counterinsurgency operations to Iraqi security forces and ultimately draw down the number of American troops.

Since Iraq's Jan. 30 parliamentary elections, that process has accelerated much more rapidly than U.S. commanders have previously acknowledged. Although AO Iraq is one of just two sectors currently under Iraqi control (the other is the area around Baghdad's Haifa Street), two senior U.S. officers said the Iraqis' zone of responsibility would soon expand and eventually include all of Nineveh province, including Mosul and Tall Afar, another volatile city, possibly within a year.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

1. What they really meant to say was...

MOSUL, Iraq -- The two dozen Iraqi soldiers marched in formation into downtown Mosul, streets emptying in their path. The men trained their rifles on potential bomb threats: a donkey-drawn vegetable cart, a blue Opel sedan, a man with a bulge beneath his tattered gray coat.

MOSUL, Iraq -- The two dozen scared shitless Iraqi teenagers huddled together as they slinked into downtown Mosul, streets emptying in the path of their poorly-maintained, wildly-aimed assault rifles. So shittlessly scared were the men that they feared, respectively, an ass, a car full of children, and a pervert.

Less than a month ago, U.S. forces patrolled these dangerous streets. But on this humid morning there were only the Iraqis and a lone U.S. adviser, Marine Staff Sgt. Lafayette Waters, 32, of Kinston, N.C., who blended unobtrusively into the patrol.

More than a year ago, U.S. forces rolled into town, shot a lot of people, and generally scared the shit out of those who weren't dead. But on this humid morning there were only the scared-shitless Iraqi children and a U.S. adviser with what is possibly the worst job in the world. Because I am an American journalist, I foolishly believe that an American wearing camoflage and carrying a gun can blend into something other than an NRA convention or Idaho.

This is Area of Operations Iraq, slightly more than two square miles in the heart of Iraq's third-largest city. It is also at the center of the U.S. military's strategy to hand off counterinsurgency operations to Iraqi security forces and ultimately draw down the number of American troops.

This is Area of Run-The-Fuck-Away Iraq, slightly more than two square blocks in the heart of Iraq's third-largest formerly-beautiful-but-now-fetid, unelectrified open sewer. It is also a the center of the Bush administration's political strategy of running the fuck away from Iraq as quickly as possible.

[leftchick]

4. your version is much more realistic....

sadly. :(

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

5. Yeah,

There's no way this ends other than disaster. The insurgents are going to fucking nuke these guys one way or another.

[Dhalgren]

2. If we plan on turning everything over to the Iraqis

why are we building those 14 permanent bases? Oh, never mind...

Heil Bush!

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. This is only the beginning.

Soon, they plan to turn over the Kirkuk cricket pitch and a small market in the suburbs of Basra to the Iraqis.

Unfortunately, we eventually plan on turning Iran over to the Iraqis, but not before they've proven they can handle the above critical areas.

[Vladimir]

6. So the Iraqis can do the dying while

the Americans in the 14 bases do the ruling silly.

[Dhalgren]

7. D'oh! Of course you're right!