Here’s another of Capt. James Smith’s PDF updates to family and friends back home, from Kandahar Airfield, a forward base in the fight against the Taliban.
The photo above, taken on Saturday, shows him and "Ink" on the hood of his M114 Up-Armored Humvee.
Brad:
Thanks for the email — I have several
updates in the works – they seem to come in spurts as time
permits…
…
Its has been round 124 degrees these days — lots happening lately — and
definitely a lot to write about… Just saw some Portuguese commandos returning
from Helmand – they got ambushed on the road returning to KEF at a distance of
10 to 20 meters — one RPG round went through the passenger window – the tail of
the rocket glanced off the metal from the door frame redirecting the rocket
through the front window ballistic glass — shrapnel tore up the front
passenger’s face and neck and slightly wounded the driver – they will be ok…
yesterday [an ISAF soldier] was killed by a suicide bomber in Kandahar and a bunch of
other stuff that I am not sure gets back there — we have now deployed several
teams and more are heading out soon.
I have missed being at the House —
I look forward to returning — I think it will be hard… Hard to listen to
some of the same excuses for not doing so many of the things that need to be
done … could go through the list but you know them all…
All is well
here …
Smith
James E. Smith, Jr.
"Dirty, rotten commies!," one of my colleagues has been muttering since yesterday. "The only thing worse than a commie is one with oil!" He refers to this news:
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – Venezuela is studying buying Russian submarines that would transform the South American country into the top naval force in the region, a military adviser to President Hugo Chavez said Thursday.
Gen. Alberto Muller, responding to a Russian newspaper report that Chavez plans to sign a deal for five diesel submarines, said the government is "analyzing the possibilities" but that the money has not yet been set aside.
Oil-rich Venezuela has already purchased some $3 billion worth of arms from Russia, including 53 military helicopters, 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 24 SU-30 Sukhoi fighter jets and other weapons.
But he misses the silver lining: Now we can crank out those nifty new Seawolf-class attack subs. We’ve got the excuse now! We’ve got Russian boats to track and kill again! Right here in River City! "Top naval force in the region?" In our hemisphere? Shades of the missiles of October…
Just let those peace-dividenders stop us now! They can take their little Virginia-class toys and shove them where … but I must restrain myself. We readers of too many Tom Clancy novels must be magnanimous in our triumph.
I wonder if we can get Bart Mancuso and Jonesy to come out of retirement for this?
You had probably heard about the increasing tension between Sunnis and foreign terrorists, but this piece that just moved is one of the more interesting, and promising, developments I’ve heard about lately:
Sunnis Revolt Against al-Qaida in Iraq
BAGHDAD (AP) – U.S. troops battled al-Qaida in west Baghdad on Thursday after Sunni Arab residents challenged the militants and called for American help to end furious gunfire that kept students from final exams and forced people in the neighborhood to huddle indoors.
Backed by helicopter gunships, U.S. troops joined the two-day battle in the Amariyah district, according to a councilman and other residents of the Sunni district.
The fight reflects a trend that U.S. and Iraqi officials have been trumpeting recently to the west in Anbar province, once considered the heartland of the Sunni insurgency. Many Sunni tribes in the province have banded together to fight al-Qaida, claiming the terrorist group is more dangerous than American forces.
Three more U.S. soldiers were reported killed in combat, raising the number of American deaths to at least 122 for May, making it the third deadliest month for Americans in the conflict. The military said two soldiers died Wednesday from a roadside bomb in Baghdad and one died of wounds inflicted by a bomb attack northwest of the capital Tuesday.
Lt. Col. Dale C. Kuehl, commander of 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, who is responsible for the Amariyah area of the capital, confirmed the U.S. military’s role in the fighting in the Sunni district. He said the battles raged Wednesday and Thursday but died off at night.
Although al-Qaida is a Sunni organization opposed to the Shiite Muslim-dominated government, its ruthlessness and reliance on foreign fighters have alienated many Sunnis in Iraq.
The U.S. military congratulated Amariyah residents for standing up to al-Qaida.
"The events of the past two days are promising developments. Sunni citizens of Amariyah that have been previously terrorized by al-Qaida are now resisting and want them gone. They’re tired of the intimidation that included the murder of women," Kuehl said.
A U.S. military officer, who agreed to discuss the fight only if not quoted by name because the information was not for release, said the Army was checking reports of a big al-Qaida enclave in Amariyah housing foreign fighters, including Afghans, doing temporary duty in Iraq.
U.S.-funded Alhurra television reported that non-Iraqi Arabs and Afghans were among the fighters over the past two days. Kuehl said he could not confirm those reports.
Capt. James Smith of Columbia, with whom I spoke yesterday, is spending his off-hours in the hooch at Kandahar Airfield sending pictures and notes to family and friends back home, and is kind enough to include me on the list.
I will continue to share them with you,
as a way of helping us all remember what these guys are going over there for us. Chuck Crumbo is there covering the main body of the 218th at Camp Phoenix. I can’t hope to match that kind of immediacy from my desk in Columbia. But as long as Capt. Smith keeps sending them, I think his dispatches will provide a very different view of a very different mission.
Capt. Smith is a member of a small team that will be embedded with an Afghan Army unit near Kandahar — the place from which the Taliban conquered the country back in the 1990s, and a place the Taliban would like to have back. As I was writing this, the AP reported from Kandahar Airfield that a NATO helicopter had gone down, and the Taliban claims "credit." I wrote to Capt. Smith to see what was going on, and am still waiting to hear back. Keep him and all the men in Team Swamp Fox in your prayers.
Here are his most recent reports. As you can tell by the sheer frequency of them, he is very pumped to be there:
I’ll keep posting them as I get them.
The lower level of the Carolina Coliseum is not the best place to receive a phone call from Afghanistan.
I was sitting near the door of a seminar room in the Journalism school there, waiting for Jack Bass to finish his presentation before I spoke to Charles Bierbauer‘s class, looking at my Treo trying to remember what I was supposed to be there to talk about, when the thing started buzzing.
I lunged out into the hall to answer it, and got nothing but an occasional blip of sound. One of the blips said "Smith," so I got out of the building as quickly as I can. With Assembly Street traffic in the background, I stuck a finger in my other ear and talked for about 15 minutes with Capt. James Smith, who was calling on his satellite phone from Kandahar Airfield. (What, if anything, is going through the brains of people who deliberately gun their motorcycles to max volume on city streets?)
I had nothing to write on — I lost connection with him a couple more times as it was, and didn’t want to lose the contact completely, so I was loathe to run back down and get something from my coat pocket. But the gist is that he’s finally in place at the base where he and a handful of others will be embedded with Afghan Army units opposing the Taliban in that region. They were supposed to do this in two-man teams (he would work with the noncom who underwent the special training with him at Fort Riley, Kansas), but that mission profile has been expanded to eight-man teams, which seems like a smart move to me.
Of course, he said, every time he turns around there, he is reminded that Afghanistan is not the "main event" in terms of U.S. military priorities right now, so he and his immediate comrades don’t always get what they need right away. For instance, the C-130 that was supposed to take him from Camp Phoenix, where the main body of the 218th is, to Kandahar was taken away for another mission several days back, delaying his arrival.
He’s eager and pumped about getting started, but sober about the challenges. As for his initial impressions of his surroundings, my memory is at least good enough to quote him as calling Afghanistan "a beautiful country… a tragically beautiful country." He’s very aware of the hundreds — he corrects me and says "thousands" — of years of suffering by the Afghan people, and he’s committed to doing what he can to improve their lot.
Capt. James Smith, a.k.a. Rep. James Smith, D-Richland, sends this PDF file to friends back home.
And so I share it with you:
Download 21_may_2007_camp_phoenix_reunions.pdf
Needless to say, as an American, a South Carolinian, and a friend, I’m very proud of that guy, and deeply appreciative. I’m very proud of the whole 218th Brigade, it’s just that I know James.
If I were so honored as to be embedded with them like Chuck Crumbo, I would know a lot more of these fine soldiers, and it would be a tremendous privilege.
In lieu of that, I will from time to time share correspondence from Capt. Smith.
All the energy spent raising that flag every day at the State House would be better spent on this kind of war memorial, one that would have meaning for all of us:
Brad,
I firmly support your move to get the flag off the state house grounds. Its value, however meaningful, pales in comparison to the negative emotions it creates.
I hate to bring up another topic in the midst of this movement, but I wanted to talk to you about how we plan to honor the Marines and soldiers from South Carolina who have died in Iraq. I am a former Marine officer and every day I wake up I thank God that I am fortunate enough to be in my own house and only concerned about unimportant things like work and domestic responsibilities. Whereas, those in Iraq are patrolling every day in hostile terrain and hoping they get to see their families back home again. I think we have a responsibility to honor those who have died to the best of our ability.
I am also the reforestation technician for the city of Columbia, which means I am in charge of all the trees that get planted in the right of way. I know a good bit about trees, so I propose we plant a tree on state grounds in memory of each serviceman or woman who has died in Iraq or Afghanistan. I can provide trees myself, or find them elsewhere. But I am willing to organize this entire effort. Since I see this as something I can do, that’s my idea, but if someone has something better, I will support that as well. We just need to do something. I have emailed the governor’s office a couple of weeks ago, but failed to get a response. What are your thoughts on this idea? I know you are probably overwhelmed with flag emails this week, but mull it over and let me know what you think. I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.Sincerely,
Sounds like a promising idea to me. I told Carroll I’d put it up on the blog to see what folks think of it. So here it is.
Erstwhile challenger Glenn Lindman raises and interesting point regarding S.C. Adjutant General Stan Spears’ endorsement of John McCain for president in ’08.
Ex.-1st. Sgt. Lindman notes that in 2000, our military commander was against McCain, backing W.
For me, this raises two rather obvious points:
We decided this piece wasn’t worth bumping some local writer or one of our syndicated columnists for, our op-ed space in the paper being so limited these days. Besides, we keep the bar pretty high for candidates wanting to use our space for free media. (Calling it "exclusive" didn’t do it. We appreciate it, but we pretty much expect that; why use precious space for something people can read anywhere?)
Fortunately, the threshold is considerably lower here on Brad Warthen’s Blog. So you can read it here.
Dear Brad and editorial team:
Please see below the following op-ed penned below by Sen. Joe Biden. As you probably know, Sen. Biden will be in South Carolina tomorrow. With the many military bases and training facilities in SC, we believe this op-ed on the new MRAP vehicle would be very pertinent to your readers and hope you will consider its publication.
We are offering this op-ed as an EXCLUSIVE to the State Newspaper and look forward to hearing from you on whether you choose to publish.Elizabeth Alexander
Press Secretary for U.S. Senator Joe Biden
elizabeth_alexander@biden.senate.gov
###No Price Tag on Protecting our Troops
By Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Road side bombs are by far the most lethal weapons used against Americans in Iraq. They account for seventy percent of our casualties. So if we had the technology to cut these casualties by two-thirds, it is safe to assume that the Bush Administration would spend whatever is necessary, as quickly as it could, to get that technology into the field, right?
Wrong.
The President’s emergency spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan significantly short-changed the budget for new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. They have a v-shaped hull that offers four to five times the protection of the armored Humvee.
Right now, only a few hundred MRAPs are in service in Iraq. The Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force need 7,774 vehicles, costing a total of $8.4 billion. The Administration’s plan was to spend $2.3 billion this year and $6.1 billion next year. However, the military believed they could accelerate production at the eight manufacturers (one of which is right here in South Carolina) if we gave them adequate funding.
As Army Chief of Staff General Schoomaker told the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this month: "We can build what we can get the funds to build. It’s strictly an issue of money."
The President’s emergency budget under-funded MRAPS by $1.5 billion. So I introduced an amendment to the emergency budget to add the necessary funds and it passed the Senate unanimously. If the House agrees and the President signs the budget into law, we now can manufacture and deploy 2,500 more vehicles by December 2007, six months earlier than we would have under the President’s plan.
$1.5 billion is a lot of money, but it is money we were going to spend next year anyway. The pay-off for spending it now is literally priceless. Each vehicle means four to twelve Americans in the field get four to five times more protection than they have now. That means 10,000 to 30,000 more soldiers and marines will be protected sooner than later.
So, the question is, do you want to spend the $1.5 billion now and save lives, or go with the current schedule and spend it next year? Do you want 10,000 to 30,000 more soldiers and marines to be protected in December?
For me, the bottom line is simple: get as many of these vehicles as possible into the field as quickly as possible to protect our troops.
Their safety is our first responsibility.
________________________________________________________________________The author, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., is the senior Senator from Delaware and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
####
The "tomorrow" in the intro was a reference to Saturday. This was sent on Friday; we only rejected it today.
Here’s the AP story on what happened. As I said before, dramatic stuff. It was truly a case of Capt. Smith of the 218th Brigade to the rescue of public schools:
{BC-SOU-XGR-Legislator-Guardsman, 1st Ld-Writethru,0321}
{SC legislator, Guardsman on leave from training casts key vote}
{Eds: Will be updated.}
{AP Photos SCMC101-103}
{By SEANNA ADCOX}=
{Associated Press Writer}=
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – A proposal that would help parents pay for private school tuition with public money was defeated Thursday by South Carolina lawmakers, the third consecutive year the idea has failed.
The effort to defeat the plan was energized by a House legislator who flew home from Army National Guard training to argue against the proposal.Army Capt. James Smith, on leave from Fort Riley, Kansas, told colleagues that voters decided in November they didn’t want school vouchers when they elected a Democrat to head the Education Department.
Smith, a Democrat, is set to deploy to Afghanistan in a couple of months.
"I’m here solely for the voucher vote," he said.
Smith said he told his battalion commander Lt. Col. John Nagl that it was an important vote and was granted a day’s leave.
"He said he didn’t want to stand in the way of Democracy," Smith said at the Statehouse, where he was flanked by his 11-year-old son, Thomas.
House Minority Leader Harry Ott said he called Smith on Wednesday after Republicans proposed a plan that would allow students to transfer to private schools. The idea came as legislators debated a proposal to let parents enroll their children in any public school regardless of attendance lines.
"I said, ‘Get home. We need your vote,"’ Ott, D-St. Matthews, said he told Smith.
Smith told colleagues that when voters chose Education Superintendent Jim Rex – the only Democrat elected to statewide office – it showed they did not want public money going to private schools. Rex wants to give parents more choice by allowing them to send their student to any public school.
Advocates of private school choice thought they had the votes Wednesday night, but Smith’s presence likely renewed Democrats’ efforts, said Denver Merrill, spokesman for South Carolinians for Responsible Government.
"We’re inching along, and we’re not going anywhere," Merrill said.
The libertarian impulse doesn’t stand up all that well in the face of a
man so willing to lay his life on the line for the greater good. That’s
just a little too much moral force, I guess.
Apparently, efforts to use our tax funds for private schooling have failed again, in a dramatic series of events this morning. I don’t have all the facts yet, but it seems that the following have happened:
A lot of big-time good news happening very quickly. More as I’m able to get to it.
Here’s the plan the Speaker unveiled today for helping our troops stranded in Mississippi. I provide it both as a Word file, for neat freaks, and in messy cut-and-paste text — for Cindi, who doesn’t believe in links:
Office of the Speaker
SOUTH CAROLINA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Greg Foster
March 8, 2007 (803) 734-3125
fosterg@scstatehouse.netBusinesses to bring troops home to visit family
Speaker Harrell, S.C. Chamber and many others vow to make this possible(Columbia, S.C.) – Today the Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell along with members of the House Republican Caucus, South Carolina Chamber of Commerce and business leaders stood together at state’s Veterans Monument to pledge their support to bring our troops home to visit their families before being deployed to Afghanistan.
Our Guardsmen have been granted a 10-day leave to visit their families before their deployment in late April, but have not been provided with any transportation home.
Speaker Harrell said, “Our troops are leaving to go overseas to fight and protect the freedom all South Carolinians enjoy. Our state needs to come together and thank them for their service by helping them come home to see their families before they leave on their mission.” Speaker Harrell continued, “I want to thank Rep. Mick Mulvaney for advocating this just cause, and the South Carolina Chamber and our business community for pledging their support to make this happen.”
The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce is helping to raise money among our business community to go towards the Defenders of Freedom Fund. Speaker Harrell also opened the fund to personal donations by donating $500 to the fund. The fund will help provide bus transportation for any soldier wishing to return home during their leave.
“Members of the South Carolina National Guard and others who serve in the military are the heart and soul of our state. They are here for businesses and communities when disasters strike. And they are risking their lives to fight in the war on terror for the future of our nation. The South Carolina Chamber is asking other businesses and community organizations to join us in bringing our troops home to visit their families before their deployment overseas,” said S. Hunter Howard, Jr., president and chief executive officer of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber has been instrumental in getting organizations like the S.C. Realtors, S.C. Trucking Association, S.C. Manufacturing Alliance, S.C. Farm Bureau, S.C. Home Builders Association, Association of General Contractors and the Greenville, Spartanburg and Greer Chamber of Commerce to step up and join this cause. We hope many other organizations and businesses around our state will also take this initiative to assist our troops.
Please make all checks payable to the Defenders of Freedom Fund c/o Bobby Harrell, 8316 Rivers Avenue Charleston, SC 29406.
# # #
And this time, I’m not even breaking the rules.
More good news for the troops in Mississippi. I just got this advisory:
Office of the Speaker
SOUTH CAROLINA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESEMBARGOED UNTIL: March 8, 2007
Contact: Greg Foster
March 7, 2007
(803) 734-3125
fosterg@scstatehouse.netMedia Advisory
Speaker Harrell, Rep. Mulvaney, S.C. Chamber of Commerce and others pledge to give S.C. Guard transportation home(Columbia, S.C.) – Recently 1,600 S.C. National Guard troops in Camp Shelby, Mississippi were granted a 10-day leave in early April before their deployment to Afghanistan. They were granted leave to visit their families one last time before being deployed, but were not given access to transportation. Speaker Harrell and others will announce in a press conference their intentions to aid our troops in their efforts to come home.
Who: Speaker Harrell, Rep. Mick Mulvaney, other members of the House Republican Caucus, South Carolina Chamber of Commerce and business leaders from across our state
When: March 8, 2007 at 12:40
Where: Veterans Monument on State House Grounds. West side of State House on Assembly Street.
What: Speaker Harrell and the business community pledge to help to bring our troops home to visit their family before being deployed for Afghanistan.
This follows on the good news that Rusty shared with us the other day:
Brad–I checked with the Guard and they have about 800 coming home.
Some opted not to do so having already gone through that wrenching
good-by more than a month ago. According to information I received from
HQ, for those few who might have some difficulty paying for the trip
home, "the National Guard Assn. of SC in conjuction with the 218th
Family Readiness Group has established a program to assist in the
funding of family and soldier relief programs for the 218th. This will
include assisting soldiers who have chosen to return to SC with their
travel. This program and funding will also be used to help soldiers’
families at home as needed during the deployment. The S.C. National
Guard has assisted the National Guard Assn. of S. C. with arranging
round trip charter bus transportation from Camp Shelby to S. C. at a
cost of $110 per soldier. Anyone wishing to donate funds to the
National Guard Association of S. C. Family Readiness program can send
checks payable to the ‘SCNG Family Program’ to: National Guard Assn. of
S. C.
1 National Guard Road
Stop # 36
Columbia, SC 29201
Attn: Cindy Watson (803-254-8456)
Rusty’s going to send them a check for future help. I will, too. Others who had offered earlier might want to consider channeling their generosity to this route.
We’ve got soldiers training in Mississippi who are going on leave before heading to Afghanistan, and The State has reported that some of them can’t afford to get home to South Carolina.
Some suggest that the military should pay their way. I don’t see how (although, as I said before, if that’s more normal than it sounds, I’d like to know about it).
bud says we should help them out. I agree. I’ll kick in if anybody else will. I mean, I’ll kick in anyway, but I think we need a mechanism: I certainly don’t know where to send the money.
So write in with your pledges, and I’ll contact the Guard, and see if they’ll supply us with a conduit. Don’t send money to me; my wife doesn’t even trust me with the family checkbook. We’ll give it to somebody responsible.
But first, I need to be able to say to the officer in charge: "We want to give X amount," so that it will be worth their while to bother with us.
Or maybe there’s a better way to do this. Suggestions? Pledges? Let’s get on the ball with this.
Help me here, because I really don’t know, but is there a precedent for the military giving a brigade a free ride to wherever it goes on leave? Is that normal? Maybe there is. But if not, why would anyone expect it?
I realize that a soldier or sailor here or there might catch a ride on a transport plane on a standby basis, or back in the day, he might have been able to catch a troop train going in the right direction.
And there is a long-standing tradition that uniformed service personnel get priority treatment at airports, train stations, etc. At least, there used to be — I don’t hear much about that any more when I travel. Airlines seem more concerned about their first-class passengers.
But the military providing a free ride for a whole brigade? Where does that expectation come from? Is this a departure, or the norm?
Anyway, if it’s a widespread problem that soldiers can’t get home on leave, that would be an excellent charity for those of us in the private sector to kick in for, as the story suggests. But if the Army has the money, I’d rather see it going to bullets and body armor.
Not to stir up another round of "you’re a coward;" "no, you are," but this was an interesting tidbit in
The Washington Post yesterday:
Some Loaded Comments at ‘Abu Ghraib’ Screening
When the lights go up after most documentary screenings, you usually can expect a politely snoozy lovefest at the "panel discussion to follow." So the folks who turned out for the preview of HBO’s "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" at the Ronald Reagan Building last night were unusually lucky.
Among the VIPs on hand to discuss the Rory Kennedy project (set to air Feb. 22) were Uncle Ted Kennedy and Sen. Lindsey Graham. The latter livened things up in a big way when he denounced Army Col. Janis Karpinski, who was demoted from brigadier general after the prison torture scandal.
"Karpinski should have been court-martialed," said the South Carolina Republican, who sits on the Armed Services Committee. "She was not a good commander."
Awkward! For who was in the audience but Karpinski herself. "I consider you as cowardly as [Lt. Gen. Ricardo] Sanchez or [Donald] Rumsfeld or [former Guantanamo Bay commander Geoffrey] Miller," she shot back. "You’re saying I should be court-martialed — they didn’t want me in a courtroom because I would tell" the truth. Graham sputtered clumsily until moderator Jeffrey Toobin jumped in.
Afterward, Karpinski told our colleague Michael Cavna: "Ninety-nine percent of the story is still covered up. . . . Miller and Sanchez and Rumsfeld should be in those cells" with the Army guards who were found guilty.
Maybe Lindsey Graham has gotten a little too accustomed to speaking frankly on "Meet the Press," and neglected to consider the possibility that at a live speaking event, the person you’re talking about just might be there.
I don’t know who’s right here (although I’ve always blamed Rumsfeld), but I know I don’t want to make Col. Karpinski mad at me. I’m just going by her pictures (although she is smiling in this one, bless her heart). She looks like somebody you’d rather have on your side, or just avoid. Perhaps that’s her misfortune; her rather severe habitual expression makes her a convenient scapegoat (the "evil lady torturer" from Central Casting). Or perhaps she’s just as culpable as Miller and Sanchez and Rumsfeld and the Army guards who were convicted. There were probably no angels anywhere near the situation.
I just don’t know. But it would have been interesting, and perhaps enlightening, to have her testify.
Gen. David H. Petraeus had not even had the chance to present his case to Congress before some otherwise thoughtful folks were moving to undermine his ability to implement his plan for stabilizing Iraq — a thing he’s shown in the past he know how to do.
Nevertheless, he went on to present it, to the Senate Armed Services Committee, today.
I truly believe it would have been worth waiting to hear him before judging his chances.
On past occasions, the trio of John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Warner has been a bulwark of sanity, courage, and principle in the U.S. Senate. They stood together to move the Bush administration on the treatment of enemy prisoners, for instance.
But now they’re parting ways on Iraq, and I see it the way Sen. Graham does:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Wes Hickman or Kevin Bishop
January 22, 2007
(202) 224-5972 / (864) 250-1417Graham Statement on the
Warner-Collins-Nelson
Iraq Resolution
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today made the following statement on the Warner-Collins-Nelson Iraq resolution.
“Unfortunately this new Iraq resolution, no matter how well-intentioned, has the same effect as the Biden resolution. It declares General Petraeus’s new strategy a failure before it has a chance to be implemented.
“Any resolution that could be construed by American forces that Congress has lost faith in their ability to be successful in Iraq should be rejected because it rings of defeatism at a time when we should be focused on Victory.
“Success or failure in Iraq will spread throughout the region creating momentum for moderation or extremism. Petraeus’s new strategy is our best hope for success, acknowledges past mistakes, sets benchmarks for Iraqi leaders, and provides needed reinforcements in all areas: militarily, politically, and economically.
“I urge my colleagues not to try to micromanage the war, but instead listen to General Petraeus and fully resource his proposal. We must stand behind him and the brave men and women who will execute this new strategy, as the successful outcome in Iraq is essential to winning the War on Terror."
####
Of course, one of the virtues of independent, thinking, honest people is that they are free to disagree, rather than being mindlessly bound to ideology or party.
But I’m sorry to see Sen. Warner go the way of the crowd on this one. Men such as Sen. Graham and especially Gen. Petraeus need support on this. The stakes are too high to play resolution games that will weaken the general’s position before he and his new troops even get their boots on the ground.
It’s a sound plan,
but Bush can’t sell it
By Brad Warthen
Editorial Page Editor
WE HAVE in place much of what we need to succeed in Iraq. We have a new, comprehensive plan that corrects many of the mistakes of the past three years. We have new leadership on the ground, in the form of a general who has shown that he knows what it takes to win this war.
We just need a better salesman.
If you saw and heard President Bush’s address to the nation live Wednesday night, and listened with an open mind, you probably still went away saying, “Huh? How is this going to improve the situation?”
I’m glad that wasn’t my first impression. I missed the live broadcast. And before watching a replay of the Bush speech, I called U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham.
George W. Bush has two, and only two, virtues as our commander in chief: He understands, on some fundamental, gut level, how important it is that we succeed. And he won’t give up. Those are fine, but they’re not enough.
We need someone in charge who is able to communicate to the nation why we need to be in Iraq, how we need to proceed, and why that course of action can work. He needs to persuade fair-minded people to believe him, and to follow.
Of course, he has to have a good plan to start with. If I had heard him tell about it first, I would doubt that he does.
In fairness, it helps if you start by asking the right question. The president was trying to talk to a nation that polls tell him is asking, “Why on Earth are you sending more troops?” I asked Sen. Graham, “Why on Earth do you think 20,000 will be enough?”
Sen. Graham and his friend and ally Sen. John McCain have maintained that we need more troops in Iraq. The senator from Arizona has insisted that it needed to be a lot more. But Sen. Graham had indicated he was pleased with this smaller “surge.” Why? Because it’s a part, and not the largest part, of a comprehensive new approach that stresses diplomatic, economic and political initiatives.
The military mission is specific: Put in enough troops to provide security in Baghdad and increase our muscle over on the Syrian border, in Anbar province.
Here are some critical points related by Sen. Graham that the president failed to get across:
Who is David Petraeus? He’s a West Point graduate with a Ph.D. from Princeton. He’s the former commander of the 101st Airborne Division. Under his command, the 101st was described by the author of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq as the one Army outfit that was doing it right — providing security in its area, and winning hearts and minds. The general himself is the author of the Army’s new manual on counterinsurgency, which applies practical tactics that work.
The president didn’t do an awful job in his speech. He explained how things went wrong, emphasizing the critical bombing of the Golden Mosque. He mentioned increased diplomatic efforts, the fact that we need to hold as well as clear dangerous areas, and that troops will now go wherever they need to go to get the job done. He let us know that even if things go perfectly, there will be more casualties.
But a wartime president who has lost the people’s trust to the degree that he has needed to go a lot farther, and the president did not. He failed to draw a clear, bright line between his past failure and a future in which we have a realistic expectation of success.
Why the president didn’t even mention the name “Petraeus,” explaining what a departure he was from the discredited Rumsfeld approach, is beyond me.
After talking to Sen. Graham, I feel a lot better about our future in Iraq. I’m still not positive that six brigades is enough, but I now have sound reasons to believe we’re finally on a better track.
I’ve put a recording of that interview on my blog. I urge you to go listen to it — and don’t miss the senator’s column on the facing page.
For that, and observations on last week’s inaugural activities, go to http://blogs.thestate.com/bradwarthensblog/.
This is a test. We’re going to see just how big a wonk you are.
I have, to the best of my ability, given you full access to the audio of a phone interview I conducted with Lindsey Graham on Thursday morning. I was restricted by certain challenges. The interview is 28 minutes long, and I have no sound file compression software. I DO have video software that compresses things as a matter of course in saving them. So I put the audio in a video file, and added some recent still photographs from the wire, just to see if I could.
The only way I knew how to give you access to the audio without you having to download the whole gargantuan file was to stream it from YouTube. Trouble is, YouTube won’t take files longer than 5 minutes, no matter how they’re compressed.
So here you go — it’s in seven parts, and the audio and photos aren’t nearly as nice as they were before I compressed them. But you can still hear it. I recommend that you give it a try, because it’s pretty interesting.
The background for the interview: I was seeking input before we decided what we would say in Friday’s editorial. As it happens, the interview only had an indirect — although significant — impact on the editorial, since the person who wrote it was not involved in the interview. All he had was what I had briefly told him about it. In other words, my impressions of Graham’s views had an influence on the forming of consensus that led to our conclusions, but you won’t find much trace of it in the paper. That’s the way it is with most of the things that go into editorials — the factors are too many for all to be mentioned.
But I thought it was particularly interesting and helpful, so I’m working on a followup column based on the interview. Yeah, doing it this way is pretty weird and awkward, but bear with me. I’m just exploring new ways to make this blog useful and worth the time, both yours and mine.
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Thanks.
Anyway, that’s Part I up at the top of the post. Here’s Parts II-VII:
