molson_golden2002 Posted November 19, 2006 Share Posted November 19, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/world/mi...?_r=1&hp&ex=116 3912400&en=67a1f1d2a105c7f4&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin BAGHDAD, Nov. 18 — Capt. Stephanie A. Bagley and the military police company she commands arrived in Iraq in December 2005 brimming with optimism about taking on one of the most urgent tasks in Iraq: building a new police force. Now, as the 21st Military Police Company approaches the end of a deployment marked by small victories and enormous disappointments, Captain Bagley is focused on a more modest goal. “I just want to get everyone home,” she said. In the past several weeks, Captain Bagley, 30, barred her troops from foot patrols in the most violent neighborhoods and eliminated all nonessential travel. “I’m just not willing to lose another soldier,” she said. The local police force in her region, as in much of Iraq, remains undertrained, poorly equipped and unable to stand up to the rigors of this conflict. It offers little resistance to the relentless Sunni Arab-led insurgency and has at least partly come under the sway of wily Shiite militias. Casualties are high, morale is low and many police officers do not show up for work. Captain Bagley, a West Point graduate and the daughter and granddaughter of military policemen, said she has come to realize just how little she and her unit knew when they arrived, and just how much was stacked against their success. The company’s challenges crystallized in a moment late last month during a routine assignment. Some of her soldiers had gone to the Baya Local Police Station, one of 18 local stations in the troubled southern outskirts of Baghdad where her unit has worked this year. They were picking up a contingent of Iraqi policemen for a daily patrol of Dora, an especially violent neighborhood here in the capital. On these patrols, the Americans, swaddled in Kevlar from head to hips, travel in Humvees and other armored vehicles. The Iraqis, wearing only bulletproof vests, ride in soft-skinned pickup trucks and S.U.V.’s, the only vehicles they have. The Iraqi policemen begged the Americans not to make them go out. They peeled off their clothes to reveal shrapnel scars from past attacks. They tugged the armored plates from their Kevlar vests and told the Americans they were faulty. They said they had no fuel for their vehicles. They disappeared on indefinite errands elsewhere in the compound. They said they would not patrol if it meant passing a trash pile, a common hiding place for bombs. The Iraqis eventually gave up and climbed into two S.U.V.’s with shattered windshields and missing side windows, and the joint patrol moved out. One Iraqi officer draped his Kevlar vest from the window of his car door for lateral protection. During a lunch break, the officers tried to sneak away in their cars. Later in the day, back at her command center on a military base in southern Baghdad, Captain Bagley said the pleading and excuses were common. But she did not blame the Iraqis. They are soft targets for the insurgency, and scores of officers have been wounded or killed in her area during the past year. The police stations’ motor pools are so crowded with ravaged vehicles that they could be taken for salvage yards. But hey, if we don't stay it will be WW3! http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789466.html BTW, Nixon said the samething about Nam in 1966 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted November 19, 2006 Share Posted November 19, 2006 BTW, Nixon said the samething about Nam in 1966 841139[/snapback] Nixon wasn't President in 1966 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molson_golden2002 Posted November 19, 2006 Author Share Posted November 19, 2006 Nixon wasn't President in 1966 Brilliant! I forgot that people who are not President cannot talk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted November 19, 2006 Share Posted November 19, 2006 Brilliant! I forgot that people who are not President cannot talk! 841167[/snapback] Nixon talking about Vietnam in 1966 is as relevant as Al Gore talking about Iraq in 2006 Until elected President the talk of an out of office politician means bubkus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverNRed Posted November 19, 2006 Share Posted November 19, 2006 Nixon wasn't President in 1966 841157[/snapback] Holy crap! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molson_golden2002 Posted November 19, 2006 Author Share Posted November 19, 2006 Nixon talking about Vietnam in 1966 is as relevant as Al Gore talking about Iraq in 2006 Until elected President the talk of an out of office politician means bubkus 841173[/snapback] Nonesense, he was the GOP frontrunner for the Presidential nomination and his advice carried weight, so much in fact that his view was supported by most Americans in the next election. Anyway, looks like it just might be the UN to the rescue! http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061119/ap_on_..._iraq_kissinger Kissinger, whose views have been sought by the Iraqi Study Group, led by former Secretary of State James Baker III, called for an international conference bringing together the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Iraq's neighbors — including Iran — and regional powers like India and Pakistan to work out a way forward for the region. Isn't this a scream! The hated UN being asked to clean up Bush's mess. Or is your view that Kissenger and Baker are not President so they don't carry any weight? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blzrul Posted November 19, 2006 Share Posted November 19, 2006 Nonesense, he was the GOP frontrunner for the Presidential nomination and his advice carried weight, so much in fact that his view was supported by most Americans in the next election. Anyway, looks like it just might be the UN to the rescue! http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061119/ap_on_..._iraq_kissinger Isn't this a scream! The hated UN being asked to clean up Bush's mess. Or is your view that Kissenger and Baker are not President so they don't carry any weight? 841216[/snapback] Bush doesn't hate the UN. He thinks its irrelevant...until he wants something from them. Only this guy could make Nixon AND GHWBush look like really really good presidents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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