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April 02, 2003
"Iraqi-Americans Want to Fight Saddam"
From this post comes the article 'Iraqi-Americans Want to Fight Saddam':
Exiles said they had not yet been briefed on when or where they might be needed in Iraq. Some of them are former Iraqi soldiers and want to head to the front lines... At the very least, they said, they could be used as translators to help negotiate the surrender of Saddam's Fedayeen militia and Baath party members. About 75 Iraqi-Americans who trained with U.S. forces at a military base in Hungary are now on the ground with coalition troops in Iraq. They're called the Free Iraqi Forces and primarily supporting humanitarian operations. More here. Posted By Lonewacko at April 2, 2003 01:04 AM | TrackBackComments
The WSJ really broke this story months ago, I remember reading it on the front page, and above the fold. Anyone else notice how high quality that paper often is? Its imperfect, everything is, but I find it to be extremely well thought out and it has a lot of critical thought. Very smart rag. Posted by: Ben Noah at April 2, 2003 01:09 AMYes, but, why hasn't this been a major part of our strategy? Why didn't we knock out Iraqi TV earlier on? Why did we continue letting the Iraqis see Saddam hour after hour? The PR component is supposedly a large part of the war, yet most of what we have is millions of leaflets, radio stations, and a small number of natives to help spread our message. Posted by: Lonewacko at April 2, 2003 01:19 AMAgreed. A major error in the war, though still correctable, has been inadequate television broadcast to Iraqis by Iraqis. Frankly, I don't think we clearly understood that people in Iraq get lots of information from TV. Iraq isn't Afghanistan. There are LOTS of TVs in Iraq, not so in Afghanistan. Indeed, anyone who has been in that part of the world knows that television is everywhere...even small villages have one or two sets. However, I'm not at all convinced that the Iraqi exile communities' "official" leaders, like the INC are the right people for a new government. Exiles have to be part of the new government, but it would be a lot better to have some in-country talent, like Karzai in Afghanistan, running the show... Trouble is, there may not be any uncompromised people in Iraq with any government experience...that's going to be problematic, like it was in Germany and Japan...which is why there will be a military governor for a time...just so long as the frickin' UN doesn't run the place it should work out and I don't see us running the place for more than a year...And there will be outfront civilians if Franks is in command. Posted by: R. McLeod at April 2, 2003 01:37 AM"Anyone else notice how high quality that paper often is? Its imperfect, everything is, but I find it to be extremely well thought out and it has a lot of critical thought." Interestingly, and thankfully, the WSJ is the leading newspaper siding with the brass against Rumsfeld and the Washington suits. Posted by: rememberthemaine at April 2, 2003 10:55 AMPost a comment
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