Saturday, June 23, 2007
Are we winning yet?
Thomas Ricks examines that question in the WaPo today. While he does have responses from the usual cheerleaders like Gen. Odie Cologne and "Fatuous Fred" Kagan the troublig quotes come from people in the field who can see what is happening.
An officer working in Arrowhead Ripper, the subsidiary offensive in Diyala province, said wearily, "We just do not have the forces in country right now to have the appropriate level of presence across the country."Even the name of the operation in Baghdad speaks volumes in a military not known for its appreciation of irony, "Phantom Thunder".
"I believe we have enough U.S. troops for this specific operation," said a U.S. military strategist there, referring to Phantom Thunder. "I do not believe we've ever had enough troops to do all of the tasks we should be doing in Iraq."
"For the control and retain phases, we will need reliable Iraqi security forces in sufficient numbers," said Lt. Col. Douglas A. Ollivant, a senior Army planner in Baghdad. "There are clearly not yet enough reliable forces."
Even so, some insiders worry that the new push will still prove to be too little, too late. "We have lost the fight for public and political support, so no matter how successful we are militarily, we are being led to failure," said one U.S. intelligence expert involved in Iraqi operations.
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