Military Shows Gains in Iraq

Source: AP (via New Orleans Times-Picayune)

Aug 6 02:18 PM US/Eastern
By ROBERT BURNS

BAGHDAD (AP) - AP Video The new U.S. military strategy in Iraq, unveiled six months ago to little acclaim, is working.

In two weeks of observing the U.S. military on the ground and interviewing commanders, strategists and intelligence officers, it's apparent that the war has entered a new phase in its fifth year. It is a phase with fresh promise yet the same old worry: Iraq may be too fractured to make whole.

No matter how well or how long the U.S. military carries out its counterinsurgency mission, it cannot guarantee victory.

Only the Iraqis can. And to do so they probably need many more months of heavy U.S. military involvement. Even then, it is far from certain that they are capable of putting this shattered country together again.

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Read more: http://www.nola.com/newsflash/international/index.ssf?/base/international-0/1186424954238510.xml&storylist=international

the grunts on the ground bust their tails to get the mission done.

:hi::patriot:

How did you become a vet? And what branch of the service?

Here's me, U.S. Army 1986-1993, plus Gulf War I:



Here's me, on the right, with my tank crew in Saudi Arabia:



Glad to have you aboard! B-)

Still serving in the National Guard

Nov 1990- 95 Active duty (Included a stint in Somalia)

Reserve and National Guard time ever since then.

I spent almost 2 years activated for stateside duty with a NG MP unit to cover for the companies sent overseas between 2002 and 2004.

There's little mention of real gains in the story.

You are right.

It is as if the headline was cut and pasted over an article about "not much really happening".

...In northern Iraq.

Then the surge has done a great job.

Then they'll need to surge the North, and then the insurgents will move back to the middle and keep on bombing Bagdhad.

I was rushed for time.

War is Peace....Peace is War.