Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
September 16, 2008
Pg. 16
By Thom Shanker and Stephen Farrell
BAGHDAD — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates landed here Monday to meet Iraqi officials and preside over Tuesday’s change-of-command ceremony as Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno takes over from Gen. David H. Petraeus as the senior American officer in Iraq.
Mr. Gates’s unannounced visit coincided with at least three explosions — one at a Ramadan feast in Diyala Province and two in central Baghdad — that killed at least 32 people.
Such attacks have grown less common during the strategy known as the surge, for which Mr. Gates praised General Petraeus.
General Petraeus “has played a historic role” in his “translation of a great strategy into a great success in very difficult circumstances,” Mr. Gates said. The general, who became the top American commander in Iraq last February, will be assuming command of American military forces across the Middle East and Southwest Asia.
En route to Iraq for his eighth visit as defense secretary, Mr. Gates described the challenge of the months ahead, saying the central question was “how do we preserve the gains that have already been achieved, and expand upon them, even as the numbers of U.S. forces are shrinking?”
The United States is beginning preparations to withdraw 8,000 troops by early next year. The overall American military presence in Iraq, which includes 15 combat brigades as well as support and logistics personnel, would then number about 138,000.
On the eve of the formal change-of-command ceremony, Mr. Gates hosted a dinner Monday night during which he presented General Petraeus with the Defense Distinguished Service Medal and, in a surprise, presented Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador here, with the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Civilian Service, the Pentagon’s top honor for someone not in uniform.
Mr. Gates joked that the general and the ambassador played “good cop, bad cop” — but alternating the roles — and he praised them for having forged the strongest, most successful diplomatic-military working relationship in more than a generation.
Speaking before the blasts in Baghdad and Diyala, General Petraeus said the average number of attacks a day was down to 25 from 180 at the height of the violence in June 2007, and praised the role of Iraqi and American-led coalition forces during his time in command.
“I don’t use words like victory or defeat,” he said. “In fact, I am a realist, not an optimist or a pessimist. And the reality is that there has been significant progress but there are still serious challenges.”
He said Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia “remains lethal, dangerous and barbaric, albeit in a degree of disarray, on the run and with a very damaged, completely destroyed reputation.”
Both Mr. Gates and General Petraeus spoke of the increasing responsibility Iraqi forces were taking for security.
General Petraeus said that American combat forces “are by and large already out of the populated areas in 13 or 14 of Iraq’s 18 provinces” and that 11 provinces had already been transferred to Iraqi control, with two more “expected to shift in the month of October.”
Among the pillars of the new security efforts in Iraq are the American-financed patrols known as Awakening Councils or Sons of Iraq. General Petraeus was questioned about concerns over their pending transfer to the Shiite-led Iraqi government’s books, beginning on Oct. 1 in Baghdad.
Many of the groups are filled with former Sunni insurgents who are now on the American payroll, and some of their leaders are unhappy at the Shiite-led government’s plans to absorb only around 20 percent of them into the police and army, and the remainder into other programs.
Asked if 20 percent was enough to satisfy the Sunni groups, General Petraeus said: “Clearly it depends on what is done for the other 80 percent.”
He said that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had given a commitment to him and other American commanders “that the government of Iraq will honor the Sons of Iraq and ensure that it recognizes appropriately the services that they have provided to Iraq in the fight against extremism.”
Speaking at a podium alongside General Petraeus, Iraq’s defense minister, Abdul-Kader Jassem al-Obeidi, insisted that the Iraqi government was working to move the Sons of Iraq into the government system “gradually.”
After the minister’s comments General Petraeus reiterated the importance of the transition. “Doing this right is one of the challenges that lies on the horizon for Iraq,” he said.
In the attack in Diyala on Monday, Iraqi security officials said that at least 20 people were killed and 30 injured in Balad Ruz, when a bomber detonated explosives during the evening meal at which observant Muslims break their daytime fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.
The officials said the feast was being held at the house of a policeman who had recently been released from American custody. There were conflicting early reports about the identity of the bomber, with one security official in Balad Ruz saying it was a man wearing a suicide vest and others telling news agencies that it was a woman.
The American military said it could not confirm the sex of the bomber, and gave a slightly lower number of deaths, at 17. Discrepancies between American and Iraqi figures are not uncommon.
In Baghdad, witnesses said two car bombs in quick succession killed 12 people and wounded 37 near a courthouse along the route of an Iraqi Army convoy in the Karrada district. Officials said 22 of the wounded were Iraqi Army personnel.
Reporting was contributed by Muhammed al-Obaidi, Mohammed Hussein and Atheer Kakan from Baghdad, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Diyala Province.
September 16, 2008
Pg. 16
By Thom Shanker and Stephen Farrell
BAGHDAD — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates landed here Monday to meet Iraqi officials and preside over Tuesday’s change-of-command ceremony as Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno takes over from Gen. David H. Petraeus as the senior American officer in Iraq.
Mr. Gates’s unannounced visit coincided with at least three explosions — one at a Ramadan feast in Diyala Province and two in central Baghdad — that killed at least 32 people.
Such attacks have grown less common during the strategy known as the surge, for which Mr. Gates praised General Petraeus.
General Petraeus “has played a historic role” in his “translation of a great strategy into a great success in very difficult circumstances,” Mr. Gates said. The general, who became the top American commander in Iraq last February, will be assuming command of American military forces across the Middle East and Southwest Asia.
En route to Iraq for his eighth visit as defense secretary, Mr. Gates described the challenge of the months ahead, saying the central question was “how do we preserve the gains that have already been achieved, and expand upon them, even as the numbers of U.S. forces are shrinking?”
The United States is beginning preparations to withdraw 8,000 troops by early next year. The overall American military presence in Iraq, which includes 15 combat brigades as well as support and logistics personnel, would then number about 138,000.
On the eve of the formal change-of-command ceremony, Mr. Gates hosted a dinner Monday night during which he presented General Petraeus with the Defense Distinguished Service Medal and, in a surprise, presented Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador here, with the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Civilian Service, the Pentagon’s top honor for someone not in uniform.
Mr. Gates joked that the general and the ambassador played “good cop, bad cop” — but alternating the roles — and he praised them for having forged the strongest, most successful diplomatic-military working relationship in more than a generation.
Speaking before the blasts in Baghdad and Diyala, General Petraeus said the average number of attacks a day was down to 25 from 180 at the height of the violence in June 2007, and praised the role of Iraqi and American-led coalition forces during his time in command.
“I don’t use words like victory or defeat,” he said. “In fact, I am a realist, not an optimist or a pessimist. And the reality is that there has been significant progress but there are still serious challenges.”
He said Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia “remains lethal, dangerous and barbaric, albeit in a degree of disarray, on the run and with a very damaged, completely destroyed reputation.”
Both Mr. Gates and General Petraeus spoke of the increasing responsibility Iraqi forces were taking for security.
General Petraeus said that American combat forces “are by and large already out of the populated areas in 13 or 14 of Iraq’s 18 provinces” and that 11 provinces had already been transferred to Iraqi control, with two more “expected to shift in the month of October.”
Among the pillars of the new security efforts in Iraq are the American-financed patrols known as Awakening Councils or Sons of Iraq. General Petraeus was questioned about concerns over their pending transfer to the Shiite-led Iraqi government’s books, beginning on Oct. 1 in Baghdad.
Many of the groups are filled with former Sunni insurgents who are now on the American payroll, and some of their leaders are unhappy at the Shiite-led government’s plans to absorb only around 20 percent of them into the police and army, and the remainder into other programs.
Asked if 20 percent was enough to satisfy the Sunni groups, General Petraeus said: “Clearly it depends on what is done for the other 80 percent.”
He said that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki had given a commitment to him and other American commanders “that the government of Iraq will honor the Sons of Iraq and ensure that it recognizes appropriately the services that they have provided to Iraq in the fight against extremism.”
Speaking at a podium alongside General Petraeus, Iraq’s defense minister, Abdul-Kader Jassem al-Obeidi, insisted that the Iraqi government was working to move the Sons of Iraq into the government system “gradually.”
After the minister’s comments General Petraeus reiterated the importance of the transition. “Doing this right is one of the challenges that lies on the horizon for Iraq,” he said.
In the attack in Diyala on Monday, Iraqi security officials said that at least 20 people were killed and 30 injured in Balad Ruz, when a bomber detonated explosives during the evening meal at which observant Muslims break their daytime fasting during the holy month of Ramadan.
The officials said the feast was being held at the house of a policeman who had recently been released from American custody. There were conflicting early reports about the identity of the bomber, with one security official in Balad Ruz saying it was a man wearing a suicide vest and others telling news agencies that it was a woman.
The American military said it could not confirm the sex of the bomber, and gave a slightly lower number of deaths, at 17. Discrepancies between American and Iraqi figures are not uncommon.
In Baghdad, witnesses said two car bombs in quick succession killed 12 people and wounded 37 near a courthouse along the route of an Iraqi Army convoy in the Karrada district. Officials said 22 of the wounded were Iraqi Army personnel.
Reporting was contributed by Muhammed al-Obaidi, Mohammed Hussein and Atheer Kakan from Baghdad, and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Diyala Province.