European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 30, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday March 30 2007 s t a r s a n d s tripes Pace 15 opinion surge is making gains one House at a time by Jonathan v last the Philadelphia inquirer of the Many problems in Iraq one of the Thost frustrating has been the Bush administrations belief that democracy is the prerequisite to liberalism it is not Security not democracy is the sine qua non of a Liberal society without it elections Are useless or worse while the administration Laboured to deliver iraqi democracy it seemed to believe that Security would take care of itself once the purple thumbs were counted the Baghdad Security plan commonly known As the is the administrations first serious attempt to grapple with Security in Iraq the results so far Are not discouraging the Baghdad Security plan went into effect feb 14 As Gen David Petraeus assumed command Over coalition forces in Iraq the idea was to push five additional us brigades and nine iraqi battalions into neighbourhoods in and around Baghdad establishing secure Points and radiating Security outward some results were seen almost immediately in the first two weeks of the plan bomb at tacks decreased 20 percent and insurgents were being rolled up by the dozen the num Ber of bodies of apparently murdered peo ple in Baghdad dropped from 1222 in de Cember to 954 in january and 494 in february the iraqi government stepped up its training of troops to the Point at which it was minting 7500 new soldiers every five weeks most of whom were being used to spell Iraq army units already in Baghdad the news was not All Good Al Aida forces pushed Back staging an attack that nearly killed iraqi vice president Adel Abdu Mahdi during the first week of March Al Aida kidnapped and killed 14 iraqi police offic ers As conditions improved in Baghdad insurgents moved their fight to the outer provinces on March 1 they mounted a major at tack in Amariyah a Village South of fal Lujah with a Force of several Hundred iraqi regu Lars there managed to hold them off until us air and ground support arrived on March 6 coordinated car bombs in the Babil province City of Hillah killed More than 115 and wounded about 200 shiite pilgrims the same Day 300 Al Aida fighters stormed a prison in Mosul freeing 140 suspected terrorists held there Dyala province in partic ular has become a Refuge for insurgents Petraeus has deployed an additional 700 troops there to prevent Al Aida from taking Root but in the aggregate signs Are encouraging on March 4 us and iraqi forces began cleaning out Sadr City the Baghdad Strong hold of Muntada Alsa drs Mahdi army a Sadr has gone into hiding in Iran and the action was mostly peaceful originally the Baghdad Security plan had called for 35 to 40 joint Security stations mini has in Bagh dad neighbourhoods to be manned by coalition and iraqi troops after the first 20 were established the results were so Good that Petraeus increased the ultimate goal to 70 such stations the Impact is striking according to iraqi military spokesman Brig Gen Qassim Atta Almusawi in the first month of the Bagh dad Security plan while the number of car bomb incidents was at an Al time High murders were Down 75 percent the number of terrorists killed was up 80 percent and the number of terrorists arrested was up 1000 percent us military deaths were Down 20 percent it is Good news of a sort that when Al Aida staged a symbolic attack on the fou year anniversary of operation iraqi Freedom it did so in Kirkuk suggest ing that Baghdad May be moving out of its reach the Baghdad Security plan is a rolling surge meaning that the deployment of forc Marko a us army Soldier from b company 1st battalion 23rd infantry regiment searches a Home in West Baghdad Ghazal Yah neighbourhood on sunday us and iraqi forces discovered caches of weapons and ammunition during searches in the dangerous sunni area is comes gradually so far Only two of the five additional us brigades have been put in play when the insurgents launch their counterattacks or seek safer havens Petrae us has three More brigades to bring to Bear continuously increasing the pressure on the enemy caveats abound the Good results so far Are Only that it is too soon to draw any Seri Ous conclusions about the Baghdad Security plan or to predict even the Short term future in Iraq while the snapshot we have now por trays improving conditions it is quite Possi ble that cultural regious crosscurrents or other structural realities will make the goal of iraqi Liberal democracy impossible for now we must watch wait and Hope but the Baghdad Security plan does pro vide clarity on one Point former defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Rumsfeld was one of the principal objectors to the Large scale use of troops from the very begin Ning of the Iraq conflict he insisted on a Small invasion Force and was Adamant that troop Levels during the reconstruction phase be kept to a Small footprint Ideal even As the Security situation deteriorated and threatened to doom the Mission Rumsfeld was opposed to any surge in troop Levels meanwhile As columnist Andrew cock Burn recently revealed Back at the Penta gon this Petty tyrant was Busy sending around snowflakes informal personal notes dictating a Host of Micro managerial issues including the proper size of the Lemon wedge to accompany his iced Tea Jonathan v last is an inquirer columnist new Tillman probe must break pattern of deceit Miami Herald editorial two Pentagon reports on the kill ing of army Ranger Pat Tillman in Afghanistan in 2004 make it Clear that military officials engaged in a cynical hoax when they turned this Friendly fire incident into a heroic tale in the process the soldiers family was ill used the american Public was rudely deceived and everyone in the Chain of com Mand was embarrassed the incident cries out for a congressional investigation at first the soldiers family was led to be Lieve that he was killed by afghan insurgents he was honoured with a Silver Star the army third highest combat medal and a posthumous promotion from specialist to Corporal a funeral attended by 3000 mourners was held in California it was All very patriotic and very inspiring yet it was All a cruel and deliberate lie according to the pentagons latest re ports three years after the incident military officers knew within a Day that the former nil stars death was probably due to Friendly fire nine officers from Battle Field commanders to a three Star general were aware of the Friendly fire incident even before Tillman was awarded the medal Tillmans family whose anger at the brass is understandable contends that the first draft of the Silver Star award falsely claimed he was killed by enemy fire it was later changed to drop explicit references to hostile fire still leaving the impression that he was killed in a firefight with the enemy the most serious accusations involve it Gen Philip r Kensinger or who Learned of the real nature of Tillmans death two Days after it happened but told investigators he didst learn of it until a week later mean while he and others continued to burnish the Tillman legend until the real Story began to emerge under the circumstances it is hard to be the incident cries out for a congressional investigation Lieve As one of this weeks reports by the Pentagon declared that no coverup was involved the claim however is part of a consistent pattern of minimizing the damage that has been done Gen William s Wal lace commander of the army training com Mand has been ordered to re View the Case and decide what disciplinary action is needed we Hope his ultimate decision does not follow this shameful pattern and instead holds those who Are guilty of wrongdoing accountable for their conduct lies were told there was apparent destruction of evidence and professional mis conduct a fraudulent award was made these Are not Mere errors in judgment critical errors to quote from one of the Pentagon reports this week but rather actions that suggest malfeasance ultimately Congress needs to hold hear Ings to find out Why it took the Pentagon three years to get this far Congress also should look beyond the uniforms and ask the civilians who were running the Penta gon what they knew about this elaborate charade and when they knew it prickly City by Scott Stantis stat do Twa yet out