Inside the Ring

[DDilegge]

Inside the Ring (http://www.washtimes.com/national/inring.htm) every Friday in the Washington Times.

21 October:


Nicaragua: Divide and Conquer
CIA vs. OSD (Post Iraq MCO Intel)
DIA, Unchained (HUMINT)
China - U.S. Defense Phone Link
N. Korea Missile Tests

[DDilegge]

28 Oct. edition of the Washington Times' Inside the Ring (http://www.washtimes.com/national/inring.htm):


Iraq Theft (Reconstruction Corruption)
Leakgate (Plame Affair)
Bin Laden Watch (Still Alive?)
Uninvited Guest (Cmdr PACOM in China)
Voting Stats (Iraq)

[SWJED]

18 Nov. Washington Times - Inside the Ring (http://www.washtimes.com/national/inring.htm). This week's edition includes the National Security Agency, China RMA, two vignettes from Iraq and a snipe at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (http://www.csis.org/) for callng the non-Iraqi terrorists in Iraq foreign volunteers.


A Marine Corps statement on the fighting to clear towns of insurgents along the Syrian border provided a window into how the enemy seizes the homes of civilians, rather than being welcomed as liberators.

In the town of Husaybah, foreign terrorists forced their way into a home and killed two occupants. The al Qaeda insurgents locked the rest of the family in a room and then used the home to launch attacks against U.S. and Iraqi troops.

The coalition called in air strikes, which destroyed the home. The Marines said they did not know the insurgents were holding hostages. Two Iraqi civilians were found alive and were taken for medical treatment.

"Insurgents used home invasion tactics extensively during Operation Spear last June in the nearby city of Krabilah," the Marine statement said. "Insurgents violently entered homes and used women as human shields to prevent Marines from returning fire."

[Jedburgh]

Some people just aren't happy unless you are constantly shouting Terrorist!. Nobody wants to hear dispassionate analysis or neutral reporting anymore - its editorial commentary, politicization of issues and sensationalism that sells. This goes to both sides of the spectrum.

Here's the actual CSIS report: Iraq and Foreign Volunteers (http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/051117_iraqforeignvol.pdf) If it had been titled Iraq and the Bloodthirsty Terrorists Sent by its Neighbors I'm sure it would be much more widely read.

Older CSIS reports on the nature of the Iraqi insurgency:

New Patterns in the Iraqi Insurgency: The War for a Civil War in Iraq (http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/050927_civilwar.pdf), dated 27 Sep 05.

Saudi Militants in Iraq: Assessment and Kingdom's Response (http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/050919_saudimiltantsiraq.pdf), dated 19 Sep 05.

Iraq's Evolving Insurgency (http://www.csis.org/media/csis/pubs/050805_iraqi_insurgency.pdf), dated 5 Aug 05.

[SWJED]

25 Nov. edition of Washington Times' Inside the Ring (http://www.washtimes.com/national/inring.htm).

Today's lineup:


Morale Check (Army Helicopter Pilot)
Auto Pilots ("Safety Brief")
Bookshelf (Noam Chomsky)
From the Front (E-mail Update)
Iraq Brief (Highlights)



"The men over there right now are mission-focused, and from what I can tell the morale is pretty good. On a day-to-day basis, it is difficult to see progress, but if one looks back over the months that you are there, you can see progress, and it makes you feel good about what you have done."

"On the other hand, it is the news that ruins morale. It's watching the news and seeing everything negative and nothing positive that hurts morale...


A few highlights from a briefing by Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, top communications strategist in Baghdad:


The insurgents comprise three groups: foreign terrorists, Iraqi rejectionists and Saddam Hussein loyalists. The terrorists are the most lethal group.
In the past several months, the coalition has killed or captured more than 100 members of al Qaeda in Iraq, the terror group led by Jordanian Abu Musab Zarqawi.
The Sunni rejectionists "will stop their violence" as more of their leaders join the political process.
Eleven of Iraq's 18 provinces average less than one attack a day. Forty percent of all attacks are in four provinces: Anbar, Baghdad, Salahuddin and Ninevah.

[SWJED]

Washington Times - Inside the Ring (http://www.washtimes.com/national/inring.htm).


Abizaid on War:

Gen. John Abizaid spoke recently at the U.S. Naval War College and said the war on terrorism will continue for the foreseeable future, and that the real enemy is not insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan but the Islamist ideology of al Qaeda...

War Document:

The Washington Times acquired a copy of U.S. Central Command's secret plan for postwar Iraq. It was sent to the Pentagon from Centcom headquarters in Tampa, Fla., a few months before the March 2003 invasion.

The Times reported on the document, but we thought it was a good time to look again at the plan, in light of the Pentagon's announcement this week that postwar stability operations, or nation-building, are now a core military mission, comparable to major combat...

Narco-terrorists:

Rep. Henry J. Hyde, Illinois Republican, has worked an amendment into the pending USA Patriot Act that makes it a federal crime to engage in drug trafficking that benefits terrorists...

[SWJED]

23 Dec. Washington Times - Inside the Ring (http://www.washtimes.com/national/inring.htm).

Army Not Broken

IED Threat

9-11 Commission Sacred Untruths

Xiong Still Powerful


Retired Gen. Gordon Sullivan, the former Army chief of staff who runs the Association of the United States Army, has sent an e-mail to colleagues arguing against the position of Rep. John P. Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat.

"After five decades of very personal involvement with the Army, 40 in uniform and 10 in close relationship, it seems to me that perhaps ... the Army is stretched as well as overcommitted, but there is no evidence to support an institutional breakdown. To the contrary I think it is remarkable ... that the leaders and soldiers of the Army have performed as magnificently as they have given the nature of the ongoing conflict.

"The Army is not broken. Talk with our troops and their families."

[SWJED]

30 Dec. Washington Times - Inside the Ring (http://www.washtimes.com/national/inring.htm).

Pentagon Flak - ASD for Public Affairs

Bin Laden's Phone - Who said what, when

Cheney's Press - Plame affair

Rumsfeld's Message - Christmas Eve in Mosul

Chinese Greeting - Lobbying Congress

[SWJED]

13 Jan. Washington Times - Inside the Ring (http://www.washtimes.com/national/inring.htm).


No Show - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the front-runner to win the Democratic Party presidential nomination, has made armor in Iraq a new issue on which to bash President Bush.

The junior senator from New York appeared on ABC News to criticize Mr. Bush after a military study determined that body armor with side plates around the shoulders and neck would have increased the survival rate of Marines.

Mrs. Clinton, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, also issued a press release that called on Committee Chairman John W. Warner, Virginia Republican, to convene a hearing "to investigate these reports."

By the time the press release had hit the street on Monday, Mr. Warner had scheduled a closed-door hearing. Two generals in charge of procuring armor and an Army soldier fitted in the armor that is currently protecting troops in Iraq were the featured witnesses. Some Marines say they do not want side-plate armor because it adds weight and limits mobility.

With the Senate in recess, the attendance was light when Mr. Warner convened the classified hearing on Wednesday. Only two other senators attended: Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat; and Sen. Jack Reed, Rhode Island Democrat....

Fighters Deploy - Coinciding with increased tensions with Iran over the resumption of illicit uranium enrichment, the U.S. Air Force has dispatched additional warplanes to the region in a not-so-subtle sign, military sources say.

An entire wing of F-16s, the Air National Guard's 122nd Fighter Wing based in Fort Wayne, Ind., left for a base in southwest Asia on Tuesday. A wing is usually about 72 aircraft and several hundred support personnel.

F-16s and support personnel from the 4th Fighter Squadron of the 388th Fighter Wing based at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, also deployed recently to Iraq. The squadron has 12 F-16s.

Both units' F-16s could be used in any military operation to take out Iranian nuclear facilities.

A spokesman for the U.S. Central Command Air Forces, which runs air operations in the region, said the F-16 deployment of about 80 jets is part of a rotation and is not related to Iran's uranium reprocessing.

Admissions - The Army reports that it has made its recruiting goal for the active force for the seventh straight month in what is normally a slow time of year for enlistment. The Reserve and National Guard components also met their targets in December, the Army reported this week.

The Army cited incentives approved by Congress for the current budget year that may help further. New recruits now can receive up to $40,000 as sign-up bonus and up to $90,000 for re-enlisting.

[SWJED]

3 Feb. Washington Times - Inside the Ring (http://www.washtimes.com/national/inring.htm).


Commando power

The soon-to-be-released Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) further empowers U.S. Special Operations warriors to find and kill, or capture, terrorists. The language in a late draft we've seen is fairly explicit, leaving no doubt that special operations forces (SOF) are out there, day in, day out, hunting al Qaeda members in uniform and out...

Iran in Iraq

Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte confirmed publicly for the first time yesterday what had been reported unofficially in the past: Iran is helping Iraqi insurgents make bombs used to maim and kill U.S. troops...

Front Man

Ayman al-Zawahiri's latest taped message, in which he called President Bush a "butcher," is his eighth over the past year. He has clearly become the voice and face of al Qaeda as his boss, Osama bin Laden, stays mostly silent...

New Pilots

The Army long has relied on warrant officers to pilot attack and transport helicopters. Now the Navy is going to give it a try...

Dr. Rumsfeld

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld did not send a letter to The Washington Post, as did the Joint Chiefs of Staff, protesting a Tom Toles cartoon. But Mr. Rumsfeld's staff thinks he had a right to. The cartoon depicted Mr. Rumsfeld as an uncaring physician standing over an armless and legless Army soldier...

Staff change

Larry Di Rita, a close adviser to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, has relinquished his public affairs duties and has a new post: counselor to the Defense Department...