Comments on: Ground Truth in Iraq

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By: v polk

v polk — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 07:29:36 +0000

You’ve got your WH talking points down pat.

By: Neil B.

Neil B. — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 20:55:49 +0000

The surge per se is doing well in many ways. However, the wear on the military limits how long we can keep it up, and the Maliki government is not competent at bringing sects together. We can hope for the best, but those factors must be satisfied somehow.

By: ajay

ajay — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:39:41 +0000

Here, for example, is the account of another soldier in Diyala, who has a completely different view of things.
http://armyofdude.blogspot.com/2007/08/i-can-taste-it.html
“If the media got anything right, it was that the surge failed. The idea, as birthed in a bloody, mucous-y blob of counter production by General Petreaus, is quite simple on paper, impossible to execute in a meddling reality…General Petraeus must be given accolades for his selflessness. A weaker man would have trembled at the arduous sight of forms authorizing a surge and extension. Thanks to his steadfast character, I

By: ajay

ajay — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:11:14 +0000

1. Anecdotes aren’t data. It’s great that this unnamed correspondent is seeing so much success. But he’s only seeing one part of the picture. I’m sure he’s telling the truth, but he’s not telling — because he doesn’t know it — the whole truth. Overall, things aren’t good. (For example, almost none of the Brookings metrics have improved. Civilian deaths, Coalition deaths, infrastructure, etc.)
2. Even if the article were representative of the general picture, it doesn’t prove anything. The surge is temporary. It cannot be maintained indefinitely — probably not much beyond spring 08. It wouldn’t be surprising if a minor increase in troop strength was producing some improvements, but the aim of the surge was not simply to score some short-term successes, but to provide a breathing space in which to achieve a political solution. This has not happened. And without it, when the surge ends — which it will, soon — the situation will not have been improved at all.

By: Kilo

Kilo — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:41:57 +0000

> Trying to work out the prevelence of Chinese
> weaponary in the world by the dollar value
> of its exports is a red herring,
No, talking about it at all is a red herring.
> how many AK47s do you think you could buy for
> the price of one F-15?
> Posted by: FOARP at August 28, 2007 07:25 AM
Who cares if nobody’s in the market for an F-15 ?
Who cares if China is ranked #2 or #20 in the world in small arms and ordinance production ?
The premise was posed that in a warzone, the non-state-based combatants using arms manufactured by one of the major producers of arms implies that nation is complicit.
This is either BS or it isn’t. It is.
The insurgent groups in Iraq have created a market for weapons and skills. That market will be supplied. Finding Chinese made weapons there is as mysterious as finding Iranian-made garage door openers used in IED triggers.
If the nation of origin of these items concerns anyone then supply them with made-in-the-USA goods. Or encourage another nation to supply superior products at lower prices. Otherwise they’re going to use what’s available and what suits their purpose. As per every economics book ever written.
And this I have to post on a blog where most of the stories are about the arms industry. Awesome.

By: Hammermill

Hammermill — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:29:13 +0000

From someone who was there:
“Winston S. Churchill to David Lloyd George (Churchill papers: 17/27) 1 September 1922
I am deeply concerned about Iraq. The task you have given me is becoming really impossible. Our forces are reduced now to very slender proportions. The Turkish menace has got worse; Feisal is playing the fool, if not the knave; his incompetent Arab officials are disturbing some of the provinces and failing to collect the revenue; we overpaid

By: Kilo

Kilo — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 09:19:40 +0000

Woops. FAS says:
“U.S. weapons sales for 2001 accounted for 45.8% of all registered international arms deliveries. This was roughly than 2.5 times the value of exports by the second (United Kingdom) and third (Russia) largest exporters, 9.7 times the level of exports registered by France, and 19 times the level of exports registered by China. ”

By: Kilo

Kilo — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 09:13:14 +0000

Posted by: murc at August 28, 2007 12:31 AM
“BTW, I think it

By: Kilo

Kilo — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 09:03:26 +0000

This guy wonders whether China is a friend of the US because insurgents are using weapons manufactured by one of the world’s #2 arms manufacturers ?
The last M4 I saw on TV was in the hands of a Hezbollah member in Lebanon. Pretty much every martyr poster I’ve seen out of that region has featured a terrorist posing with an M16.
Who is the US a friend of in that region when so many terrorists there are also using easily obtainable weapons again manufactured by another of the world’s leading manufacturers ?
Really don’t have to work that brain much when writing the fluff pieces do you.