Half of Baghdad Secured

The Fourth Rail ^ | June 30, 2007 | Bill Roggio

[bnelson44]

The numbers have changed dramatically in the two months since April. Today about 48 percent of Baghdad is secured, with 7 percent under the control of the Iraqi security forces in the retain phase, 16 percent of Baghdad has yet to be cleared, and about 36 percent of Baghdad is in the process of being cleared.

In a little over two months, the Baghdad Security Plan resulted in a jump of about 30 percent of the neighborhoods secured (19 percent in April to 48 percent in June), a drop of neighborhoods in the disruption phase of about 25 percent (41 percent in April to 16 percent in June), and a steady state of neighborhoods in the clearance phase (about 35 percent).

With Operation Phantom Thunder ongoing against al Qaeda in Iraq in the Baghdad Belts of Diyala, northern Babil, and eastern Anbar provinces, the pressure on the terror organization will increase. It would be unwise to look at operations to secure Baghdad - to get to the control and retain phases - as a linear function. As fewer neighborhoods are in the disruption phase and operations in the Belts progress, the offensive-oriented Iraqi and Coalition forces will become available to concentrate forces on the troubled areas of Baghdad, which is largely in the western Rashid district and Sadr City. But clearing Baghdad is only a start. The real work will come in holding these neighborhoods to keep al Qaeda from reestablishing bases in the capital.

[George W. Bush]

Today about 48 percent of Baghdad is secured, with 7 percent under the control of the Iraqi security forces in the retain phase.

There's something pathetic about a government that can't even secure it's own capital unaided after all this time and all the money we've spent on them.

This thing will fall to pieces the second we leave. And then what will the sacrifice of our soldiers be for? It won't be for peace or for freedom because they are an Islamic "democracy" (until they can vote in a theocracy or let some default Saddam-type dictator into office).

[berdie]

I can’t believe that a war can be fought with no civilian casualties. It is tragic..but true. I don’t believe that our military cannot win. But they cannot win if their hands are tied. So our soldiers fight with the specter of “You Killed Civilians” over their heads.

We won in WWII, but I don’t think we have the fortitude to win again. We are too P.C.

[berdie]

Taking the risk of being flamed...look at Viet Nam. We demanded that a weak government “fix” it.

[George W. Bush]

Obviously, some Americans have absolutely ZERO idea why we've been training Iraqi forces from the beginning of our occupation of that formerly terrorist nation.

Iraq was never subject to internal or al-Qaeda terrorism prior to our entry there. Now you can hardly keep track of all the different terrorist factions.

Today, the only peaceful terrorist-free area of Iraq is the Kurdish north. Just like before we spent hundreds of billions of dollars and sacrificed another 3000 soldiers.

[ZULU]

Which half? The half underground??

The problem with the Iraqi war is not that it happened.
We needed to do what we did. There was more than ample justification.

The problems came AFTER we defeated the Iraqi military and we refused to FINISH the job and take out the ayatollahs and the Syrian Baathists, instead of engaging our troops, their lives, and our money in an attempt to create a democracy where none ever before existed.

[George W. Bush]

Taking the risk of being flamed...look at Viet Nam. We demanded that a weak government “fix” it.

They weren't so weak they couldn't even hold their own capital unaided.

[skr]

Germany wasn’t ready to run itself until 1955. In 1957, the British were still having to shoot Nazis when guarding coal for the Germans. Is there some reason we should expect faster results from Iraq which has the added pressure of non-Iraqis coming in to kill anyone who doesn’t share their beliefs.

[cuky]

I love the site “The Fourth Rail”. They present the real picture in Iraq. Did you read 2 days ago “20 found beheaded in Iraq”, that was splashed in the MSM? Today we read from the DoD that the story was FALSE, planted probably by terrorist sympathizers. Did I find that written in the MSM? No, I found it through The Fourth Rail. The ONLY reason the terrorists are having any success is the leftist, socialist MSM. So sad.

[berdie]

Explain, please.

[karnage]

“This thing will fall to pieces the second we leave.”

One reason wec will be in Iraq as long as we remained in Germnay after WWII.

[ccmay]

Four years into an occupation and less than half the capital city is secured?

Pathetic, isn't it? Not the fault of our heroic troops, that's for sure, but the namby-pamby politicians in charge.

Here is a recipe for salvaging the most we can hope for from this cluster-f**k:

1. Arm the Kurds
2. Bomb the Sunnis
3. Ignore the Shias
4. Get our boys out of this meat grinder that will still be a blood-soaked s**t hole a thousand generations from now.

-ccm

[xzins]

Iraq was a terrorist STATE, GW. They had safe haven in Iraq. Of course they weren’t blowing up Saddam’s minions.

How much evidence do you need that Saddam’s Iraq was aligned with all the terrorist organizations? Simply go to Feb 01 to the Beirut Conference.

All of the terrorist organizations were OFFICIALLY in attendance. All of the terrorist states were OFFICIALLY in attendance: Iran, Iraq, Syria.

Reported in the Feb 01 by none other than our famous weekly news rags...Time/Newsweek. Who so quickly forget.

There are more terrorist ties to Iraq and Iran in pre-invasion times, than there are ties between the democrats and the successionists in Civil War days. Ya gotta be blind not to see it.

The cause was just; the war was absolutely necessary.

[Dave Elias]

“Obviously, some Americans have absolutely ZERO idea why we’ve been training Iraqi forces from the beginning of our occupation of that formerly terrorist nation.”

Whilst others choose not to believe that The Emperor has no clothes on!

[Eagles6]

Yep. They wore all that hot, heavy MOPP gear because everyone believed that saddam would use chemical weapons.

I remember the lefties before the afghan war. No one had ever beaten them, the winter would drive us out. We would come home with our tail between our legs.