Three Iraqi cattle herders were killed today after wandering into the middle of a U.S.-Iraqi mortar training exercise north of Baghdad.
U.S. troops were conducting a live-fire training exercise with Iraqi forces near Taji, a city about 12 miles north of Baghdad, when the three men walked onto the artillery range, a military spokesman said. An 11-year-old boy was also injured in the incident. He was evacuated to a U.S. military hospital where he is in stable condition.
The incident comes as the U.S. military shifts its primary role in Iraq from combat to training Iraqi security forces with exercises like these.
In the latest saga of a debate that has been raging since Vietnam, the Pentagon will no longer be releasing figures on how many militants have been killed fighting American forces in Afghanistan.
This move reflects a shift in strategy, similar to what we saw in Iraq, where soldiers are now concentrating on protecting the Afghan people rather than finding and wiping out insurgents. Now the military will only release general estimates. “We send the wrong message if all we talk about is the number of insurgents killed. It doesn’t demonstrate anything about whether we have made progress,” Navy Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, who decided on the new policy, told the Los Angeles Times.
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Jessica Harbin/Medill
Governor Pat Quinn made a surprise visit to Iraq this weekend, visiting Illinoisan troops at bases around the country.
On Sunday, Quinn held a town hall meeting at Tallil Air Base, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, which has a large concentration of members of the Illinois National Guard.
Describing his trip, Quinn said he “received a lot of sympathy” from troops who had followed his rise to governorship after the shambles of former Governor Rod Blagojevich earlier this year. He also indicted that troops were very curious about the educational opportunities for them after they return home.
Compared to his visit in 2004, Quinn said he was impressed with the increased security and stabilization of the country overall. Known for attending the funerals of service members killed in combat, Quinn said the major changes that have taken place in Iraq since his previous visit prove that their lives weren’t given in vain.
“I was in awe, really, of the men and women here,” Quinn told reporters via conference call from Kuwait. “I think it’s important that the governor of the fifth-largest state in the Union personally thank special Illinoisans. They are the best of the best, and I said at every gathering I was at that ‘you are the pride of our nation.’ ”
Quinn was joined by the governors of Missouri, Minnesota, Nevada and Texas.
Throughout the war in Iraq, comparisons have been drawn between the current occupation and America’s military intervention in Vietnam. As troops withdrew from Baghdad, blogger George Berkin referred back to this comparison once more.
Berkin says believes a withdrawal from Iraq will be completely different than the American withdrawal from Vietnam because:
- “…in Iraq, unlike in Vietnam, the U.S. will depart having won the military conflict. A powerful dictator was overthrown, the cities have been secured, and the insurgents are not in control in Iraq.”
- The US learned from its mistakes in Vietnam and has since improved the way the military trains local police forces.
- Iraq has a larger size and greater potential wealth to play to its favor, unlike Vietnam. Berkin said in his article, “For all the blood and treasure invested in South Vietnam, it was (and is) a small and poor country, and police forces were underfunded.”
- Berkin says the task faced by the local security forces in Iraq is very different than the task faced by South Vietnamese forces. He stated, “In the Vietnam War, the South Vietnamese faced an enormous army. For the North Vietnamese to gain control of all of Vietnam, it was simply a matter of overrunning what remained of the decimated South Vietnamese forces. The battle for an independent South Vietnam was a standoff when the Americans bolstered the weak South Vietnamese army. When the U.S. left, North Vietnam’s advantage in forces was overwhelming.” Whereas in Iraq, security forces face pockets of resistance and attempting to “quell violence aimed at pitting factions in Iraq – Shiite, Sunni and Kurds – against each other.”
See full article: Iraq and Vietnam