Posted by
Dawnsblood on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 8:33:54 PM
Bill Roggio, along with
Michael Yon and
Michael Totton has done us a great service, reporting what the MSM has chosen to ignore. Bill is trying to explain why Anbar isn't quite as bad as the MSM says it is, but is clearly
frustrated.
I've received plenty of questions about the intelligence report that
claims Anbar province has been lost. I've talked to several sources in
the military and intelligence who have actually seen the entire report
(and not been fed excerpts). They are angry over the media's
characterization of the report. Basically, the report indicated that
the situation in Ramadi is dire, and that the political situation in
Anbar as a whole as a result is in danger because of this.
Ramadi has been a problem for some time, but the major problem there
has been the Iraqi government's lack ofpolitical will to act over the
course of the last year. Even ceding the security situation to the
tribes is a form of passing the problem on to the locals.
Since my sources were unwilling to go on the record, I chose not to
address this directly. If the military community is unwilling to step
up to the plate and defend itself, except in vague terms, about the
situation in Ramadi then they will have to deal with the backlash of
this decision.
Michael Yon explains Afganistan in very stark terms. Link to the last of the 3. His verdict?
The tragedy of all this is that after our military won stunning victory
after stunning victory in the early war — crushing and vanquishing the
Taliban — instead of setting in to seal the victory, we squandered it
and ran off to Iraq, and the Taliban revived and returned. At the
current rate, we, along with the Brits, Aussies, Canadians, French,
Germans, Italians, and all the rest who are there, will lose the war in
Afghanistan. We must change course with great haste. The
alternative crops will help, and there are other ideas for alternative
economies not mentioned here. Yet we are not taking the opium threat
seriously, and so we are subsidizing the enemy. Western money will
flow into Afghanistan no matter what, and we’ve seen what happens when we ignore where it goes.