Chicago Daily Observer

In an event touted by President George W. Bush as a sign of U.S. success in Iraq but tinged with evidence of political friction and threats bubbling below the surface, U.S. forces Monday handed control of security in Anbar province to the Iraqis.

The U.S. military also said that Iraq’s government plans to take control Oct. 1 of more than 50,000 mainly Sunni Arab fighters known as the Sons of Iraq and allied with U.S. forces in Baghdad.

Taken together, the developments represent a major shift that will test the Shiite-led government’s willingness to support Sunni-led efforts considered key to sustaining relative calm in Iraq and fostering reconciliation.

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The 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines were escorted from Midway Airport to the All State Arena in DesPlaines, IL by hundreds of motorcycle bikers of the Patriot Guard Riders from all over Chicago Land. The bus bearing Fox Company with Morgan Park/Beverly ( St. Barnabas Parish) native Ryan Nolan broke down on 294 four miles south of the River Road exit. Patriot Guard Riders assisted Illinois State Police Troopers in maintaining the steady flow of traffic to O’Hare.

The Bikers were not necessarily family, but most shared the experiences of the young people aboard the buses – the Bikers were guys in their late fifties and Sixties and almost all sported Vietnam and Gulf Storm insignia as well as patches identifying them as sailors, soldiers, airmen and many, many Marines.

Patriot Guard Riders helped families keep idiots away from funerals of fallen Iraq War Heroes – Westboro Baptist Cult led by ... Read More...

July casualty figures are nearly finalized for Iraq and Chicago, with Chicago having 4 times the number of murders as US Military Casualties in Iraq.

By my count, 7 of the casualties in Iraq were the result of hostile fire, the other 6 were accidents. Accidents, of course, are not regarded as homicide in Chicago.

In response to a previous comment, 4 homicides were counted in Sen. Obama’s former State Senate District, with the adjacent wards adding 13 more homicides.

Calculations may vary for Chicago, as ongoing cases are not consistenly included in homicide statistics. In Iraq, injuries which later result in death are counted in the month of the death rather than month of the injury.

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John Powers is the President of the Chicago Daily Observer.

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Irrespective of the different plans of the two American presidential candidates, a reduction of American troop numbers is also happening steadily, from 171,000 in October to 145,000 at last blush. At the same time, the size of the Iraqi forces is creeping up, from 115,000 two years ago to 229,000 today. This week the province of Kadisiya, south of Baghdad, became the tenth out of 18 to come under Iraqi, rather than American, operational command.

The Iraqi army, alongside the Americans, recently began a big push against al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in the mixed-sect Diyala province, perhaps now the bloodiest, just north-east of Baghdad. Basra and Anbar provinces, in turmoil a year and a half ago, are quiet.

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“Anyone who wants to pull troops out of a vitally important country where we’re finally winning and send them to a marginal country where ultimate victory is impossible must be a Democrat.”

“Thanks to the surge, whose effectiveness my opponent refuses to admit, the Iraqis now see a way forward to peace and democracy. If they are correct, Iraq will set an example for the entire Muslim world of a nation prosperous, pious, progressive, and free. This is an outcome my opponent was unable to imagine and cannot imagine yet. For some reason, he’d rather fight in Afghanistan, a primitive collection of clans and warlords on the fringes of Arabia that for centuries has defied every attempt to civilize and reform it, chewing up and spitting out every invading army that tried. Osama bin Laden is nowhere to be found in Afghanistan, and neither is the future of the Arab-Muslim ... Read More...

In July, by my count, there were 8 American Soldiers killed in Iraq as a result of hostile fire, and 5 killed as a result of accidents and mishaps. I also count 49 Homicides in Chicago in July, but did not bother to count the number of accidental deaths in the City.

There were 30 casualties in Afghanistan in July. Tentatively totaling it up (with 3 days remaining for the Chicago Police Department to report July numbers) more people were murdered in Chicago (44) than American casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan combined (43).

The 20th Ward seems to be the most dangerous in Chicago, with around 9 homicides. Alderman Willie Cochran serves the 20th ward, which was represented for many years by Arenda Troutman.

Not to make light of the American servicemen and women who are on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the City ... Read More...

Sen. Barack Obama acknowledged today that he had failed to understand how much violence would decrease this year in Iraq, but he contended that President Bush and Sen. John McCain, the Republicans’ presumptive presidential candidate, had made the same mistake.”

Well, the difference would be that the surge was even more successful than McCain anticipated. Not really the “same mistake” as trying to do everything to prevent implementation and completion of a successful strategy.

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The United States is now winning the war that two years ago seemed lost.

Limited, sometimes sharp fighting and periodic terrorist bombings in Iraq are likely to continue, possibly for years. But the Iraqi government and the U.S. now are able to shift focus from mainly combat to mainly building the fragile beginnings of peace — a transition that many found almost unthinkable as recently as one year ago.

Despite the occasional bursts of violence, Iraq has reached the point where the insurgents, who once controlled whole cities, no longer have the clout to threaten the viability of the central government.

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The Chicago Tribune’s Steve Chapman cheers Sen. Obama for holding to withdrawing troops regardless of the circumstances in Iraq and the MidEast. I actually believe that one can mature while not wavering (flip-flopping) in their political campaigns, yet I agree with Chapman’s observation that Sen. Obama is not straying substantially from his left-wing voting record, regardless of how the rest of the media potrays him.

Syria will open an embassy in Lebanon. Lebanon may also opened an embassy in Syria. Syria has pretty much stopped sending fighters into Iraq to battle with the Coalition forces and Iraqi civilians. Israel has sent a peace offer to Syria via Turkey. France is stepping up diplomatic efforts inviting both Israel and Syrian leaders to a Bastille Day celebration. Al-Qaeda may be defeated in Iraq or close to it, with 70 more militants surrendering yesterday. President Bush ... Read More...

This point cannot be emphasized enough: Obama, in opposing the surge, was wrong on the most important politico-military decision since the war began. He not only opposed the surge, he predicted in advance that it could not succeed and that it would not lead to a decrease in violence (on January 10, 2007, the night President Bush announced the surge, Obama declared he saw nothing in the plan that would “make a significant dent in the sectarian violence that’s taking place there.” A week later, he repeated the point emphatically: the surge strategy would “not prove to be one that changes the dynamics significantly.”)

Both predictions were demonstrably wrong. And for Obama to state that Iraq’s leaders “have not reached the political accommodation that was the stated purpose of the surge” is misleading and false. Iraqi leaders have reached comprehensive political accommodations, including passing key laws having to do with ... Read More...

The call by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for a timetable for the removal of American troops from Iraq presents an enormous opportunity. We should seize this moment to begin the phased redeployment of combat troops that I have long advocated, and that is needed for long-term success in Iraq and the security interests of the United States.

The differences on Iraq in this campaign are deep. Unlike Senator John McCain, I opposed the war in Iraq before it began, and would end it as president.

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Clashes broke out in the Sadr City district in northeastern Baghdad after Iraqi forces detained a senior Sadrist leader, an Iraqi news outlet reported.

Iraqi soldiers and police cordoned several neighborhoods in the Mahdi Army stronghold to contain the fighting that occurred after security forces detained Abbas Abdul Aal, who is a “senior Sadrist leader,” Voices of Iraq reported. Aal’s nephew was also detailed. “Security forces closed all of the city’s outlets and prevented the movement of traffic and pedestrians,” an eyewitness told the Iraqi newspaper.

The move in Sadr comes one day after Iraqi soldiers closed the Sadrist office in the neighborhood of Shula, where the Sadrist maintain a strong presence. This is the second Sadrist office to be closed in Shula since May.

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In case you missed it, the London Times reports Al Qaeda is being defeated in Iraq, with 1/10 of their forces remaining, leading Major-General Mark Hertling, American commander in the north, to say: “I think we’re at the irreversible point.”

The New York Times discovers that 550 Metric Tons of Uranium ,“yellowcake uranium”-a popular term in the Valerie Plame era, has been removed from the main nuclear site in Iraq.

As we have previously noted here at the Chicago Daily Observer, President Bush and Prime Minister Brown announced a drawdown of 30,000 US Surge Troops scheduled for next July. Even John Murtha has acknowledged that progress has been made in Iraq, though only on local Pittsburgh CBS affiliate, and only after hurling a few insults at U.S. Troops.

Paraphrasing a commenter on the London Times site..If America had a Democrat president, he would he ... Read More...

A potentially dangerous anti-Iran resolution is flying through Congress on the wings of some of our best-known doves. By the time you read this it may already have passed one or the other house with the all-out support of scores of liberals and progressives including Florida’s Robert Wexler, California’s Henry Waxman and the representative of the district next to where I live in Chicago, Jan Schakowsky.

Known as Concurrent Resolution 362, the nonbinding resolution expresses “the sense of Congress regarding the threat posed to international peace, stability in the Middle East, and the vital national security interests of the United States by Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and regional hegemony…”

The big problem is that a key clause can readily be interpreted as urging a naval blockade of the country, likely in the Hormuz Straits, which would be seen by most of the world as an act of war.

Its ... Read More...

Progress in Iraq: Is it enough?

In early 2005, three Iraqi army or security units out of 115 were considered by the Pentagon to be “Level 1” capable units, those able to plan and execute counterinsurgency operations on their own with no assistance from Americans.

A report this week by the Government Accountability Office estimates there are now possibly 10 percent of Iraqi forces that can operate on their own. But that apparent progress — from 2.5 percent ready to 10 percent ready — masks the real issue.

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It’s a fact: President Bush stated that the US will pull 30,000 surge troops out of Iraq in a joint press conference with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Bush at Foreign & Commonwealth Office Building at the Lacarno Treaty Room London, England on June 16, 2008.

Seems sort of newsworthy to me. I am in favor of the troops coming home, when their job is reasonably complete, and have relatives and an old roomate over there who I take a personal interest in coming home safely. So, I sort of follow such things as leaders of the free world mentioning that troops are coming home.

Yet, outside of the Chicago Daily Observer (and our ever faithful reader/contributor Bill Baar), and a few Iraqi newsites, this seems to be of little interest to the press. There is quite a bit at stake here; the allies have spent a great ... Read More...

Perhaps a White House press release is not national news, but the previous story about a troop draw down in Iraq has not been picked up by the media.

President Bush said Monday: 30,000 surge troops will be coming home by July.

So to iterate, and format for syndication, here’s Prime Minister Brown and President Bush from their recent press conference on pulling out troops from Iraq.

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Q Are you prepared to see British troop withdrawn from Iraq while you’re still in office, or are you concerned about the symbolic significance of that?

PRIME MINISTER BROWN: Can I just say that in Iraq there is a job to be done and we will continue to do the job, and there’s going to be no artificial timetable. And the reason is that we are making progress—making progress in the Iraqis themselves being trained up to run the ... Read More...

From a Joint Press Conference with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Bush at Foreign & Commonwealth Office Building -- Lacarno Treaty Room London, England on June 16, 2008

PRESIDENT BUSH: We’re withdrawing troops. We anticipate the 30,000 surge troops will be coming home by July—more or less, 30,000. And so the plan is, bring them home based upon success. That’s what we expect the British Prime Minister to do. That’s what I’m doing—that as the Iraqis are trained up, as they’re taking more responsibility, as the security situations decline, as the economy is improved, as political reconciliation is taking place, we can bring more troops home. That’s the whole purpose of the strategy. And so, give the Iraqis more responsibility. Let them take more—be in more charge of their own security and their own government, and that’s what’s happening.

And so, you know, I mean—look, ... Read More...

Before Barack Obama can get his presidential hands on the Iraq War, it might end, not in disaster as he figures, but in an American victory.

He, his fans and much of the media haven’t noticed in the heat of the presidential campaign, but the war is winding down, if not nearing its end. Fewer military and civilians killed or wounded; fewer insurgent attacks; more order and security, especially in such troubled areas as Basra and Sadr City; more reconciliation; improved quality of life, and—not the least—greater liberties.

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