The coalition of the coerced.

[Underseer]

Blair takes heat

Diplomats slam Blair on Mid-East

More than 50 former British diplomats have signed a letter to Tony Blair criticising his Middle East policy.

The 52 ambassadors said it was time for the prime minister to start influencing America's "doomed" policy in the Middle East or stop backing it.

They told Mr Blair they had "watched with deepening concern" as Britain followed the US lead in Iraq and Israel and called for a debate in Parliament.

No 10 said Mr Blair would be replying to the letter in due course.

The spokesman said the prime minister rejected the idea of a "score card" of influence between himself and President Bush.

The diplomats, among them former ambassadors to Baghdad and Tel Aviv, believe their attack is unprecedented in scope and scale.

One of the people behind the letter, former British ambassador to Libya Oliver Miles said: "A number of us felt that our opinion on these two subjects, Iraq and the Arab-Israel problem, were pretty widely shared and we thought that we ought to make them public."

On Iraq he added: ""We do think that through lack of planning and through a misunderstanding, a misreading of the situation, we have got ourselves into an extremely difficult situation."

The prime minister is urged to sway US policy in the Middle East as "a matter of the highest urgency".

"We feel the time has come to make our anxieties public, in the hope that they will be addressed in Parliament and will lead to a fundamental reassessment," said the letter, sent to Reuters.

The document's co-ordinator Mr Miles said they did not intend to damage Mr Blair politically but simply wanted to make their voice heard.

BBC News Online's World Affairs Correspondent Paul Reynolds said: "The list of names includes many former ambassadors in the Middle East and the publication of the letter shows that their frustration at Iraqi and Middle East policy has broken into the open.

"The views expressed are widely felt by officials in the Foreign Office though they are not shared by the prime minister or the foreign secretary."

The 52 diplomats urged Mr Blair to use his alliance with Mr Bush to exert "real influence as a loyal ally... If that is unacceptable or unwelcome, there is no case for supporting policies which are doomed to failure."

Mr Blair has been a staunch ally to US president George W Bush in pursuing the war in Iraq.

The ambassadors accuse the US-led coalition of having "no effective plan" for Iraq after the war and an apparent disregard for the lives of Iraqi civilians.

They said Mr Blair had "merely waited" for the US to advance a "road map" for peace that had raised expectations of a lasting Israeli-Palestinian settlement.

'Dismay'

They condemn Mr Bush's decision to endorse an Israeli plan to retain some settlements in the West Bank as an illegal and one-sided step - and criticise Mr Blair's public support for the move.

"Our dismay at this backward step is heightened by the fact that you yourself seem to have endorsed it, abandoning the principles which for nearly four decades have guided international efforts to restore peace in the Holy Land," the diplomats said.

They urged Mr Blair to act urgently to challenge the UK's portrayal as a partner in US policies condemned by the Arab and Muslim world.

Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell said the Mr Blair should listen to the advice of the former diplomats.

"This is a most remarkable intervention in the debate about the Middle East from a group of people who are almost certainly the most expert in Britain on the issue," he said.

 

[publius]

Did I mention that most Filipinos think the U.S. totally rocks? You know, that whole saving them in WWII and that Spainish-American War thing.

"Saving them from the Spanish-American War thing"? I'd think if they remembered the war that followed, they wouldn't be nearly that grateful. One of the reasons the U.S. occupation of the Philippines is almost forgotten is because it is probably one of the worst blemishes in our history. Coincidentally enough, this seems like a war which the United States should do well not to forget.

 

[llad12]

The arguments about WMD were crap. The arguments about al Qa'eda ties were crap. The arguments about September 11 ties were crap. The arguments about "stopping a BAD MAN" were crap. The arguments about imminent threats were crap.

Iraq is all about the PNAC. Period.

Ranting to me about Wolfowitz et. al. and their Policy for the New American Century is just harping to the choir Underseer. Ask around, I discussed the imperialistic ambitions of this neocon cabal on this board long ago.

 

[Underseer]

Technically, it was a response to you, but only technically.

 

[Underseer]

Meanwhile, back in Iraq...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1204230,00.html
Excerpt

Vital reconstruction work in Iraq has almost completely ground to a halt after being "screwed up" by the deteriorating security situation in the country, senior coalition officials have told the Guardian.

Unless the situation improves dramatically in the next few weeks, essential work on the electricity network will not be complete before the extreme heat of the summer arrives, raising the prospect of months of power cuts similar to those that led to riots and widespread discontent last year, the officials warned.

http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/accomplishments/watsan.html
Excerpt

Iraq's operating capacity for its 140 major water treatment facilities was 3 million cubic meters a day before the war. Today, facilities operate at about 65% of that level, primarily due to years of neglect, electricity shortages and post-war looting of plant and emergency generators. Iraq has 13 major sewage treatment plants. Baghdad's three sewage treatment plants, which together comprise three-quarters of the nation's sewage treatment capacity, are inoperable, allowing the waste from 3.8 million people to flow untreated directly into the Tigris River. In the rest of the country, most sewage treatment plants were only partially operational prior to the conflict, and shortages of electricity, parts, and chemicals have exacerbated the situation.

 

[llad12]

Just in case you were interested in knowing how our Coalition-trained Iraqi Army is doing over there:

Flunking the Combat Task

By David H. Hackworth

Two weeks ago, with good-to-go freshly stamped on the soldiers’ foreheads, the 2nd Battalion from the recently rebuilt Iraqi army (IAF) was tasked with assisting our hard-pressed Marines in Fallujah. As the convoy, accompanied by a U.S. Marine advisory team, was rolling toward the sound of gunfire, it was ambushed in the outskirts of Baghdad – where it flunked its baptismal test of fire.

It was then that the soldiers of the 2nd Battalion put to lie all the “they're combat-ready†affirmations from Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, their U.S. Army trainer, and Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the U.S. ground commander in Iraq.

Upon the battalion's graduation from training, Sanchez had proclaimed: “We are now into the accelerated period of providing Iraqi security forces, and these soldiers look very proud, very dedicated. I have high expectations that in fact they would help us bring security and stability back to the country.â€

An eyewitness to the action, who asked to remain anonymous, says: “Gen. Sanchez’s expectations tanked, because as soon as the convoy was hit, some IAF soldiers simply took off. The convoy got stalled when one of the IAF soldiers driving one of the trucks simply jumped out and ran, leaving the truck running. This truck struck a civilian vehicle, creating a jam that prevented part of the convoy from moving.â€

“About 30 IAF soldiers were lost in this ambush,†reports my source. “Some simply ran away, some sold their AK-47s and donned civilian clothes, and some had civilian clothes under their uniforms, so they simply took off their uniforms and ran.â€

The Iraqi officers commanding this unit were as useless as a bayonet on a cannon. The battalion commanding officer and all of the company COs involved have since been relieved, and more than 100 soldiers were initially tossed into the slammer. And the Marine team that saved the unit from certain destruction? It’s doubtful that these brave warriors will receive any recognition whatsoever, since Gen. Eaton and his politically-driven masters are quickly and quietly moving the earth to disappear this embarrassment.

Once the battalion came under the virtual command of the Marines, the remaining Iraqi soldiers got their act together enough to extricate themselves from contact with the guerrillas and returned to their training base at Tadji with their tails between their legs – only to be told they were being immediately airlifted to Fallujah. When they refused to go, the quitters were subsequently disarmed and jailed in a makeshift prison on the former Republican Guard base.

By the end of the day, this 695-man battalion had eight wounded, 24 combat desertions, 104 mutineers, 78 AWOLs and 170 on leave.

And our warriors have added some new slang phrases to the unofficial Book of Military Phrases and Terms. When you ask a Marine who was there what happened to the 2nd Battalion, he’ll tell you that the unit “went ARVN on us†– referring to the many South Vietnamese Army (ARVN) units that were world-class bug-out artists. There's also another new one for the military lexicon: Deserters are now called “Uas†– Unauthorized Absence From Combat. Or, as we called it way back when, “Cowardice in the face of the enemy.

Hopefully, instead of coming up with still more spin, Gen. Eaton will learn from this debacle, look truth dead in the face and recognize that no amount of magic-wand-waving will change an Iraqi mob into an instant effective army.

Sure, the key to pulling our military out of Iraq is to transfer all security operations to the Iraqi forces. But since it usually takes at least 10 years to build an army, that exercise is easier said than done. The answer, of course, is leadership – not Madison Avenue-type hype – coupled with “more sweat†training similar to the tough curriculum that converted the South Korean army from rabble into an elite force.

Both Gens. Sanchez and Eaton need to eyeball The Art of War and infuse the new Iraqi army’s leaders with the five constant factors of war: Moral Law; Heaven; Earth; The Commanders; Methods and Discipline.

It’s never too late to learn from Sun Tzu’s 2,500-year-old time-tested rules that have been used down through the ages to forge countless scores of great fighting outfits.

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=67&rnd=410.0289491063012

 

[jmervyn]

Just in case you were interested in knowing how our Coalition-trained Iraqi Army is doing over there:

Yes, impressive they aren't. Sad to say we are likely to be involved in the region for some time to come, for this very reason - but then again, if you had a bunch of crack NYPD or LAPD detectives in the same situation, you wouldn't have very good results. Trying to discriminate between combat and criminality in Iraq will continue to be a very tough row to hoe.

I heard the briefing today discussing the effective nature of those remaining - God forbid that we are being politically correct and keeping all applicants just to make the numbers look good. Therein lies the way to ruin (as with the U.S. Armed Forces)...

 

[Underseer]

Yes, impressive they aren't. Sad to say we are likely to be involved in the region for some time to come, for this very reason - but then again, if you had a bunch of crack NYPD or LAPD detectives in the same situation, you wouldn't have very good results. Trying to discriminate between combat and criminality in Iraq will continue to be a very tough row to hoe.

I only wish the army was treating this like a police action. If they have approached this the same way police forces deal with such things, we might be better off right now (at least in Fallujah and Najaf). This is one of the big downsides to using so many Guardsmen: few of them have training for police action.

I heard the briefing today discussing the effective nature of those remaining - God forbid that we are being politically correct and keeping all applicants just to make the numbers look good. Therein lies the way to ruin (as with the U.S. Armed Forces)...

What does political correctness have to do with anything?