One Utah

The U.S. military in Iraq is now in the midst of Operation Phantom Phoenix, a large-scale drive to maintain the initiative of the so-called “surge” by attacking insurgent strongholds near Baghdad, in Diyala and Salah ad-Din Provinces, and various points in between.

On day three of the offensive two B-1 bombers and four F-16 fighters carried out massive air-strikes on Arab Jabour, a Sunni district on the southern outskirts of Baghdad.

The U.S. government has always estimated the strength of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) at less than 1,000 fighters (other past estimates have ranged as high as 5,000). Yet, for about the last year, American commanders have used the AQI label for all anti-occupation insurgents– at times even implying that large areas of Iraq have been under the control of AQI.

The news media have played along, even though reporters must be aware of the absurdity of saying that a thousand men (the equivalent of one infantry battalion) control wide swaths of cities and provinces. Check out maps provided by Lieutenant General Ray Odierno, the Commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, indicate large AQI strongholds and areas of operations.

The Sunni insurgency is made up of many different groups, most with ties to the former Baathist regime. Their headquarters is in Syria, where Saddam Hussein’s successor as head of the Iraqi Baath Party, Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri, is located.

Why call them al Qaeda? To make us forget that Bush attacked the wrong country in 2003.

UPDATE: Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, Multi-National Force -Iraq’s Communication Division, briefs on Al Qaeda in Iraq, “what still remains as Iraq’s most lethal enemy and its greatest threat to peace.”

This entry was posted Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 10:57 am and is filed under Disaster, Iraq, Military, This Blog, War. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.