"All Things Considered," 17 September, 2005

I had the chance to speak on this NPR program yesterday.  Here is the link with which to listen.

Pat Lang

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4852937

Comments

[Alvord]

I listened to it and thought it was an interesting interview.

FYI- Here is one british officer's assessment of the situation:

"One serving brigadier, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the danger of Britain becoming bogged down in its own "Vietnam war" was getting stronger every day. "The return of the 7th Armoured Brigade to Iraq is a significant benchmark," he said.

"There is a real head-in-the-sand mentality as to how we're going to extricate ourselves from this mess. There is no endgame to the problems in Iraq."

http://telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/18/nirq18.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/09/18/ixportaltop.html

[searp]

Time magazine says folks inside the Pentagon think the new constitution may hasten outright civil war.

Very gloomy article.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1106254-7,00.html

COL Lang: opinion?

[ked]

you made rational points. therefore, the chance of having any positive impact on our Nation's stay-the-course Jacobins is nil. however, please keep at it - someone has to...

speaking of the Pentagon, will retired Army leadership EVER speak up on policy, for the "good of the Soldier"?

[wtofd]

Colonel, Juan Cole today reports that insurgents control the Amiraya, Ghazilya, Shurta, Yarmouk and Doura neighborhoods of Baghdad. Do you have a sense of the veracity of this?

If this is true and if BIAP is approachable only by helicopter or on the ground with helicopter (Apache) support is the oil spot theory perhaps taking place but in reverse?

Informed Comment does make the point that the insurgents aren't sticking when confronted. The five neighborhoods could be retaken soon. Still, are we losing the country in stages?

[Pat Lang]

wtofd

The insurgents know that they can not stand up to US forces without losing men and weapons that they can not afford to lose.

They don't need to fight our forces. They need to control the population when we are NOT there. That is 95% of the time.

If they can do that, then THEIR oil spot is certainly spreading. pl

[Pat Lang]

ked,

Generals? You know the answer. pl