Marines with Company K, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 2, walk through a field during a clearing mission in Sangin, July 28, 2010. Photo by Corporal Ned Johnson. The Los Angeles Times covers the price paid by US Marines during the difficult campaign in Sangin: When the Marines of the 3rd Battalion, […]
The political posturing about the status of American forces in Iraq continues. On Dec. 28, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared to the Wall Street Journal, “The last American soldier will leave” in 2011. He added: “This agreement is not subject to extension, not subject to alteration. It is sealed.” Two days ago, Vice President Joe […]
Josef Patterson, a platoon commander out of Camp Pendleton, meets with the Alikozai tribe last week. In exchange for quelling insurgent attacks against coalition forces, elders have asked for more Afghan-led patrols and reconstruction projects. AP image. Hopeful news about a tribal peace deal in the turbulent southern Afghan province of Helmand has been making […]
The young AAF is developing with assistance from embedded ISAF trainers and the procurement of new aircraft. Strengths include the experience of Afghan pilots; challenges center around administration and communication.
A jail cell at Forward Operating Base Musa Qala. Photo by Bill Ardolino A prisoner escape and subsequent small arms engagement occurred last weekend at the small three-room jail inside the wire at Forward Operating Base Musa Qala, which also serves as an Afghan police and army headquarters. Two Marines and one British security contractor […]
The destruction of a bazaar in the Now Zad district in Helmand province raises difficult questions about the counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.
Opium looms large in the insurgency in northern Helmand, further complicating counterinsurgency efforts. Part 3 in the series on Musa Qala.
Marines from the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment wage a counterinsurgency in Musa Qala after months of fighting on the peripheries of the district center.
Coalition forces have struggled to gain control of the district in northern Helmand province for four years. US Marines have now taken over from the British, who have come under fire for their handling of the district. Part 1 of a three-part series.
In an interview with The Long War Journal, Musa Qala Deputy District Governor Mohammad Akbar Khan discusses the Taliban, governance, reconstruction, and Coalition support in the Helmand district.
In an interview with The Long War Journal, Musa Qala District Police Chief Haji Abdul Wali discusses the Taliban problem and the need for NATO forces to remain in Afghanistan.
I had the ironic fortune to meet Michael Hastings, the author, on the military side of Kabul International Airport last week on my way to Helmand. We were both cooling our heels waiting for MilAir flights to other parts of the country, and had a couple of hours to chat. Nice guy, and interestingly, he […]
The view from the back of a CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter, en route from Camp Leatherneck to Delaram. Photo by Bill Ardolino for LWJ. I’m currently embedded with the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, in Musa Qala, Helmand province, Afghanistan. After traveling through JFK, Frankfurt, Kabul, Camp Leatherneck, and Delaram, I’ve finally settled in. Several pieces […]
The Institute for War and Peace Reporting has published some interesting testimony from an ostensibly reformed nationalist footsoldier for Al Qaeda in Iraq. While it’s quite possible that this man is putting his best spin on things to distance himself from his unpopular former employer, much of it echoes my research for a project documenting […]
Heavy turnout is being reported in Iraq’s parliamentary elections today, despite inevitable insurgent attempts to cow voters with violence. The New York Times: Insurgents here vowed to disrupt the election, and the concerted wave of attacks – as many as 100 thunderous blasts in the capital alone starting just before the polls opened – did […]
Recently published numbers indicating accelerated integration of the Sons of Iraq (SOI) were confirmed to me over the weekend by Major General Stephen Lanza, spokesman for United States Forces – Iraq. Specifically, Lanza listed the following statistics: ~ 76,000 Sons of Iraq remain on the payroll ~ 41,000 (53.9%) total Sons of Iraq have been […]
Click image to view slideshow of a night patrol through Shorja Market with the al Sadria Sons of Iraq in May 2008. Photos by Bill Ardolino. In a recent post noting continued stabilization of Iraq, I mentioned three versions of a statistic that remains troubling for the country’s future: the slow pace of integrating the […]
A graphic from The New York Times pithily compares statistical progress on the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Iraq’s numbers are heartening, with dramatic year-over-year reductions in civilian deaths, Iraqi Security Force deaths, and US troop deaths in November 2009. An update on one statistic is even more positive: In December, there were only […]
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry in Baghdad after the August 19 suicide attacks. Photo by The New York Times. Joel Wing rolls up his sleeves again and does the boring yet essential work of analyzing mass casualty events within the context of Iraq’s overall decline in violence: Every time there is a massive, headline-grabbing bombing in […]
Al Qaeda in Iraq has suffered stunning losses over the past two years, but a core of the intractable wing of the insurgency persists. A tragic case in point from the Associated Press: BAGHDAD – He compared al-Qaida in Iraq to wolves, urging that the terrorist group be crushed since he believed its members would […]
The reporter who famously threw a shoe at George Bush received similar treatment from an Iraqi colleague during a press conference in Paris yesterday. From Al Sumaria Iraqi TV: An Iraqi journalist threw his shoe on Tuesday at Iraqi reporter Montazer Al Zaidi who was imprisoned for throwing his shoes at U.S. President George W. […]
Here is some very good news: Iraq’s parliament has approved a long-delayed law governing national elections scheduled to be held next January, officials have said. Members of parliament passed the law with 141 votes in favour in the 275-seat parliament after overcoming disagreements over the disputed city of Kirkuk. Sunday’s vote came after delays the […]
Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki. Joel Wing critiques the Iraqi government’s response to the recent catastrophic attacks: In August, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki tried to defer blame and distract public opinion from a domestic security failure by turning it into an international event. This time, the Iraqi government’s response was better at first. That […]
Iraqi Army recruits undergo basic training in Habbaniyah. Photo by Bill Ardolino. Najim Abed al Jabouri, the former mayor of Tal Afar and a current fellow at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, warns of security forces, including whole Iraqi Army Divisions, maintaining loyalties to different political parties: Both the military and […]
AFP photo. In light of the recent terrible spasm of violence in Iraq, I recommend Tom Friedman’s latest column for its broad view. His metaphor for Iraqi politics is particularly appropriate: Six years after the U.S. invasion, Iraq continues to unnerve and tantalize. Watching Iraqi politics is like watching a tightrope artist crossing a dangerous […]
Shamsia Husseini, right, was among 15 girls and women in Kandahar, Afghanistan, who were splashed with acid last November. Photo from The New York Times. The recent arguments over Afghanistan have focused on “going all in” with properly resourced counterinsurgency vs. keeping al Qaeda diminished via Predator strikes and super-secret squirrel (commando) raids. Seemingly lost […]
An Iraqi Air Force Mi-17 helicopter takes off from Landing Zone Washington, in Baghdad’s International Zone, during the first night flight outside the air base at Taji since the new Iraqi Air Force was formed. Photo by William Lovelady, Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq Public Affairs. I’ve argued that beyond the political patina of […]
Marine Staff Sergeant Niceforo “Joker” Mendoza leads a section of Amtraks on an IED hunt/route clearance mission between Abu Ghraib and Habbaniyah in January 2007. Photo by Bill Ardolino. A heartening Op-Ed by James Soriano in The New York Times proclaims “Mission Accomplished in Anbar,” marking “the formal end of the presence of U.S. Marine […]
US Marines escort Fallujan sheiks to a meeting in January 2007. Photo courtesy of Captain Jason Brezler. This article on US disengagement from Anbar by Anthony Shadid is interesting and informative, if one views the generously applied “grand theme” in context. In Shadid’s presentation, a reader might shake his head at the idea that the […]
So goes the refrain from a host of pundits who posit a maliciously empowered Iran as a consequence of the US invasion of Iraq. Subscribers to the possibility include David Ignatius, Brookings, and Thomas Ricks, who has authored grim appraisals of Iran being the “biggest winner” after the invasion. This popular narrative has various appeals. […]