RICKS: He's a man of great talent, great energy, great vigor. I think where he went wrong in Iraq was the summer of 2003, when all those characteristics could have really helped us adjust and recognize the insurgency. And instead, he kind of froze and said there is no war, there is no insurgence. In a hierarchical system like the military, when the top guy freezes the whole system freezes. That's when we lost the initiative in Iraq, that's when things started going wrong. And he was never able to catch up with that and say, wait a second, I got it wrong, fellas.
There was more evidence that summer that Iraq was headed in the wrong direction but no one in charge seemed to be paying attention.
Copyright 2003 The Christian Science Publishing Society
Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA)
May 5, 2003, Monday
SECTION: WORLD; Pg. 01
LENGTH: 976 words
HEADLINE: Iraq goes back to school, but not back to normal
BYLINE: By Danna Harman Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
DATELINE: BAGHDAD
...getting back to normal in the post-Hussein era will take more than removing the man or his image. Electricity and water are still unpredictable, traffic lights are flickering, buildings are smoldering, offices are closed, and looters firing guns into the air abound.
Copyright 2003 The Christian Science Publishing Society
Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA)
May 5, 2003, Monday
SECTION: USA; Pg. 03
LENGTH: 1223 words
HEADLINE: US forces struggle with new role as order-keepers in Iraq
BYLINE: By Warren Richey Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
DATELINE: BAGHDAD
Welcome to Part 2 of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
If the combat phase of the war was characterized by a quick, devastating, and decisive military assault on the Baathist government of Saddam Hussein, this second, more complicated stage is everything but quick, devastating, and decisive.
Instead, US forces are now facing the extremely difficult role of trying to fill a security vacuum left by one of the most ruthlessly efficient security apparatuses in the world. Exactly how they do it in the days and weeks ahead will go a long way in determining whether average Iraqi citizens cheer American soldiers as liberators or eventually fight and curse them as military occupiers.
A similar situation developed in Fallujah, a town northwest of Baghdad, which was a Hussein stronghold before the war. The town remains tense after a series of clashes last week between US forces and local residents that left 18 Iraqis dead. The trouble started when American soldiers opened fire after they said someone shot at them during a street protest.
Copyright 2003 The Hearst Corporation
The Times Union (Albany, NY)
May 5, 2003 Monday ONE STAR EDITION
SECTION: MAIN, Pg. A9
LENGTH: 676 words
HEADLINE: U.S. failing to keep the peace in Iraq
BYLINE: Mohammed Mashmoushi
DATELINE: BEIRUT, Lebanon
The widespread looting and burning that afflicted Baghdad, Kirkuk, Mosul, Basra and other cities immediately after coalition forces entered them were not the only evidence of disorder seen in the first days of Pax Americana.
Self-appointed civil administrators emerged in almost every major Iraqi city -- sometimes backed by the Americans, sometimes not -- and large numbers of armed groups took to the streets to defend their homes and families under the eyes of American troops.
With no authority in place to enforce law and order, and scant intervention by U.S. troops, there is growing concern that these armed groups will either coalesce into permanent militias or, worse, become guns for hire for anyone who has a score to settle in the post-Saddam period.
The current anti-American demonstrations that have been seen almost everywhere in Iraq do not grow from hostility toward the United States and the West. They are a reaction to post-war anarchy by a people who urgently need an order and a stability that America has not, so far, delivered.
Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
May 9, 2003, Friday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 919 words
HEADLINE: REBUILDING IRAQ Elizabeth Neuffer and Dominic Chavez of the Globe staff and correspondent Rebecca Bou Chebl contributed to this report.;
2 US SOLDIERS KILLED IN BAGHDAD CRIMINAL COURTS REOPEN IN STILL-PERILOUS CAPITAL
BYLINE: By Charles A. Radin and Patrick Healy, Globe Staff
BAGHDAD - Two US soldiers were killed yesterday in separate attacks in the Iraqi capital, one shot at close range as he sat in an Army vehicle and the other hit by a sniper, military officials said.
Military leaders acknowledged that looting is still a problem. Gunfire shakes the capital nightly, and plumes of smoke rising from fires amid the ruins are a regular feature of the daytime sky. Civilian discontent with the disorder is widespread.
Lieutenant General David McKiernan, the US military commander in Iraq, said at a press conference at the Baghdad Convention Center that "restoration of order and security on the streets and neighborhoods across Iraq will come, but it will not come overnight." "There is still crime," he said. "There is still looting. There is still a huge percentage of ex-military Iraqis who need to be put back to work."
Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
May 15, 2003, Thursday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. A22
LENGTH: 833 words
HEADLINE: REBUILDING IRAQ / CONTROLLING LAWLESSNESS;
US TO DOUBLE FORCE PATROLLING IN BAGHDAD OFFICIALS DENY REPORT OF READINESS TO SHOOT LOOTERS
BYLINE: By Charles A. Radin, Globe Staff
BAGHDAD - The United States is doubling its force of military police and soldiers patrolling the streets of the Iraqi capital in an effort to curb the rampant looting and lawlessness that have erupted since a US-led coalition seized control of the city.
"It's going to take a while, a long while" to fully restore public security in Baghdad, McKiernan said, "but it is getting better week by week." This assertion was challenged by a reporter who asked why, when the giant Al Rasheed Telecommunications Center, on the banks of the Tigris River in central Baghdad, was set afire Tuesday, no troops or military police showed up to try to arrest the vandals.
Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
May 20, 2003, Tuesday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 1046 words
HEADLINE: KURD-ARAB CLASHES IMPERIL IRAQ CEASE-FIRE
BYLINE: By Charles A. Radin, Globe Staff
KIRKUK, Iraq - A wave of village burnings, forcible evictions, and armed clashes between Kurdish forces and Arab fighters is sweeping through north-central Iraq in an outbreak of ethnic strife that threatens the tenuous cease-fire imposed by the US-led coalition.
Several freshly charred villages - Albu Saraj, Jamboor, Al Behar, and others - were observed by reporters on both sides of the main highway through the Kirkuk area. Residents of larger towns said efforts to eject Arab residents forcibly are occurring daily.
Copyright 2003
The New York Times Company
he New York Times
May 25, 2003 Sunday Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section 1; Column 6; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 35 words
HEADLINE: QUOTATION OF THE DAY
"If they don't pay us we'll start problems. We have guns at home. If they don't pay us, if they make our children suffer, they'll hear from us."
LT. COL. AHMED MOHAMMED, a leader of the unpaid Iraqi soldiers.
Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
May 30, 2003, Friday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. A28
LENGTH: 866 words
HEADLINE: REBUILDING IRAQ / US COMMANDERS Material from Reuters was used in this report.;
TROOPS MAY TARGET REMNANTS OF HUSSEIN LOYALISTS
BYLINE: By Patrick Healy, Globe Staff
BAGHDAD - Additional US troops may be sent to cities outside Baghdad that have been smoldering with violence this week as a result of new weapons confiscation programs and newly emboldened "thugs" loyal to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, American war commanders said yesterday.
...brief but ferocious ambushes and firefights by former Fedayeen militiamen and Hussein allies have intensified this week in Fallujah, Ramadi, and Heet.
Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
June 4, 2003, Wednesday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. A12
LENGTH: 879 words
HEADLINE: REBUILDING IRAQ;
IRAQIS SAY US LAGGING ON GOVERNMENT PROMISES PLANNED COUNCIL NOW POSTPONED
BYLINE: By Stephen J. Glain, Globe Staff
While political tension simmered, American forces continued to come under fire. A US soldier was shot and killed while on patrol in central Iraq early yesterday, the military said.
Baghdad is also in such disarray that most people are more concerned with how they are governed than by who governs them.
The US administration has yet to deal conclusively with crippling postwar shortages of electricity and gasoline. Insoluble traffic jams snarl downtown Baghdad for hours each day because of roadblocks leading up to US military positions and civilian offices.
Most telephone lines are down, clean water is scarce for much of the population, and some 200,000 enlisted men released from the now-liquidated Iraqi army have gone weeks without pay.
"Right now, all we want is for the Americans to succeed, but they have not delivered the goods," said Dr. N.B. Mammo, an eye doctor and leader of a group that monitors Baghdad's civic needs. "Politics can wait until we've resolved these basic issues."
Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
June 10, 2003, Tuesday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. A20
LENGTH: 1245 words
HEADLINE: CHAOS THRIVES IN BAGHDAD DESPITE PREWAR PLANNING IRAQIS FRUSTRATED, CRITICIZE US-LED RECONSTRUCTION
BYLINE: By Stephen J. Glain, Globe Staff
BAGHDAD - Two months after the fall of Baghdad, much of the Iraqi capital and its outlying areas remains unstable and restive, the consequence of a postwar chaos that US officials have struggled to control despite months of planning.
Shop owners still watch over their goods with automatic weapons and lock up at dusk for fear of looting because of an electricity shortage that is meeting just over half the city's needs. Pregnant women give birth at home because hospitals lack adequate supplies.
Many streets are still considered unsafe after dark and traffic seizes up for hours each day because street lights aren't working, and roads leading to key US installations have been closed for security reasons.
Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
June 16, 2003, Monday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 965 words
HEADLINE: REBUILDING IRAQ;
US SEIZES WEAPONS, RAISES IRE IN RAIDS IN IRAQ
BYLINE: By Stephen J. Glain, and Ellen Barry, Globe Staff
FALLUJAH, Iraq - Coalition forces stepped up their counter insurgency campaign yesterday with a multipronged raid on suspected Iraqi insurgents and illegal arms stores. The operation, however, seems to have generated as much antipathy as banned weapons and subversives.
"The US Army came here to liberate us, but now they search us in a disrespectful way," said 45-year-old Kemes Abd Salal, a retired Iraqi Army officer. "They went from being a friend to an enemy in a few days."
Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston Globe
June 22, 2003, Sunday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL/FOREIGN; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 1272 words
HEADLINE: REBUILDING IRAQ;
ON PATROL IN IRAQ: DANGER FILLS THE NIGHT
BYLINE: By Ellen Barry, Globe Staff
Something happened nearly every day last week to members of the division: Early on Tuesday, Private Shawn D. Pahnke died in northwest Baghdad after he was shot in the back during a patrol. On Wednesday, a soldier was killed in a close-range shooting at a petroleum gas distribution plant.
The same day, a First Armored Division soldier opened fire in self-defense on demonstrators outside the Republican Palace, killing two Iraqis. On Thursday, an attack by a rocket-propelled grenade killed Specialist Paul T. Nakamura as he transported an injured soldier south of Baghdad.
In interviews in different parts of Baghdad, numerous soldiers said they were beginning to feel like "soft targets" as they drove or walked through neighborhoods - an unfamiliar feeling for those who witnessed the army's overwhelming power in combat operations this spring.
The number of attacks reported to the public - generally when a soldier is killed - amounts to only a fraction of the potshots and grenade attacks that take place every night, several said.
'Guerrilla' War Acknowledged
New Commander Cites Problems
By Vernon Loeb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 17, 2003; Page A01
The statements by Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, in his first Pentagon briefing since taking charge of the U.S. Central Command last week, were in sharp contrast with earlier statements by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
The U.S. military's new commander in Iraq acknowledged for the first time yesterday that American troops are engaged in a "classical guerrilla-type" war against remnants of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and said Baathist attacks are growing in organization and sophistication.
In addition to the guerrilla campaign being waged by the Baathists, he cited a resurgence of Ansar al-Islam, a fundamentalist group the State Department says is tied to al Qaeda, and the appearance of either al Qaeda or al Qaeda "look-alike" fighters on the battlefield.
Abizaid's remarks were in sharp contrast to those of Rumsfeld, his boss, who insisted from the same lectern 21/2 weeks ago that the U.S. military was not involved in a guerrilla war and who said as recently as Sunday on ABC News that the fighting in Iraq did not fit the definition of guerrilla war.
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