Haifa Street in Baghdad

[Milo Christensen]

http://www.mercurynews.com/images/realcities/krwashington/16466/271139133396.jpg

Eight days into a major operation. Not secure. Sunni insurgents. Iraqi troops supported by US helicopter gunships. Note proximity to Green Zone.

"We have been here before," Casey said.
"I am encouraged by what I have seen..." Khalilzad said.

[JimD]

Having trouble securing a street?

[Chris Coose]

So a bunch of the 20,000 will will go to Anbar. I wonder what the remainder will be able to do?
Baghdad is a big town.
I heard last night, add this increase and NYC will still have twice as many cops in their town.

There is nothing new in this plan whatsoever. I think dubbya has his real eye on Iran.

[John of Phoenix]

Having trouble securing a street?
Streets - plural. Getting to and from the airport is still one of the most dangerous trips in the world.

[3pepper]

our boys and girls may not have gotten body armor or humvee armor , but at least halliburton got paid enough to misplace 6 billion dollars of the money .
and they wonder why the dems voted against the 87 billion for the war and the open ended no bid contract for halliburton .

in answer to the other iraq thread , my cousin an appache pilot said 11,000 plus are permanently injured

i'm pissed

[LeeG]

John, I think the highway was made more safe a few Friedmans ("the next six months are critical") ago but it's back to being a place where stuff happens.

[Milo Christensen]

Just googling for Haifa Street Baghdad is turning into an interesting way to look at the war in Iraq. Here's a report from last year:

http://www.drum.army.mil/sites/postnews/blizzard/blizzard_archives/news.asp?id=7&issuedate=4-7-2005

How the hell many times do we have to "conquer" Haifa Street?

[LeeG]

As many times as it takes for the Great Deciders in DC. to acknowledge that Iraq, the Iraq gov't, the Iraq military is made up of people we have been calling the enemy. He's been trying to have it both ways, save the good people from the bad people when they are the same people. They have to be either good, and local, or bad and foreign.
Augment dear Condi, augment that liberation.

[Osborne Russell]

Just googling for Haifa Street Baghdad is turning into an interesting way to look at the war in Iraq. Here's a report from last year:

How the hell many times do we have to "conquer" Haifa Street?

Reading that article I see no mention of the effect of US troop density on the situation, though it is the elephant in the room.

A patrol station, with machine gun crew, 2 or 3 troops on patrol, one of whom is an Arabic speaker, is the kind of thing that was needed on pretty much every street corner, following immediately upon the seizing of the corner. 3, 4, 5 hundred thousand troops. Otherwise the foreign fighters arrive, link up with the locals, establish networks, etc etc etc. To oust them now takes perhaps double the troops if it can be done at all.

The administration didn't plan for the occupation so the invasion of Iraq was a not just a failure but a fiasco.