Tag Archives: Bing West

Lots of blame to go around on Benghazigate

Posted on October 28, 2012 | Comments Off on Lots of blame to go around on Benghazigate

“Why did the National Security Council watch passively for seven hours while our ambassador and three other Americans died?”

Why, indeed? The Liar President couldn’t have let them die without help from all concerned, including the “workplace violence” (i.e. Fort Hood jihadi massacre) Pentagon. The Joint Chiefs of Staff  should resign, now!

UPDATE:  Fox News and the Christian Science Monitor are on the case. As Instapundit says: Remember, no one died in Watergate.

MORE: From military writer Bing West in National Review: “Fighter jets could have been at Benghazi in an hour; the commandos inside three hours,” Mr. West wrote.

“If the attackers were a mob, as intelligence reported, then an F-18 [Navy fighter jet] in afterburner, roaring like a lion, would unnerve them. This procedure was applied often in the Iraq and Afghanistan [campaigns]. Conversely, if the attackers were terrorists, then the U.S. commandos would eliminate them. But no forces were dispatched from Sigonella [Italy].”

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Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, Scribbles, The War, Troops

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Almost, but not quite, in Iraq

Posted on August 12, 2008 | Comments Off on Almost, but not quite, in Iraq

One more very good reason not to vote for Baby Barry. He’d just throw it all away:

"The Iraqis aren’t yet confident enough to stand entirely on their own; al Qaeda’s savagery still imposes too much fear, while Iran is training terrorists next door. In counterinsurgency, the people must know they are protected. Gen. Petraeus has proven that intimidation can be defeated by placing American soldiers among the population."

Worth the read, from fav author Bing West. 

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Posted in Afghanistan, Iraq, Library, The War, Troops

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Imbalance

Posted on June 1, 2008 | Comments Off on Imbalance

"The U.S. military has more combat aircraft and pilots than infantry squads," Bing West in 2005’s No True Glory.

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Posted in Afghanistan, Iraq, The War, Troops

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Yon and West: reporting on Iraq

Posted on June 1, 2008 | Comments Off on Yon and West: reporting on Iraq

Michael Yon’s book "Moment of Truth in Iraq" is being praised unstintingly. I liked it. Yon stepped into a gap in coverage and filled it. He shows, quite well, why, as he puts it, Iraqi boys want to grow up to be American soldiers and marines. But he also shows that we have always had too little "paint to cover this barn," and the proposed troop drawdowns are unconscionable when our warriors are still in contact in Mosul and elsewhere.

But Yon’s rather thin book (triple-spaced to make it seem longer) can’t touch Bing West’s "No True Glory," which I am finishing, about the 2004 fights for Fallujah. It’s not only twice as long as Yon’s, but reflects more work. It does tackle less ground but has many more named sources and quotes and is, altogether the better book. West even quotes some marines who are now in legal trouble for things they did in 2004. But I’ll go on contributing my few dollars to Yon’s efforts. He’s got the tougher and, possibly, more important job: bringing the news from the front lines that the MSM rarely touches.

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Posted in Library

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Army strong is strained

Posted on April 8, 2007 | Comments Off on Army strong is strained

"…consider for a moment the peculiar lack of tanks and armored Humvees in the Fort Hood motor pools. An acute and worsening equipment shortage has robbed soldiers of stateside training opportunities and decimated the readiness of units that have not gone to Iraq or Afghanistan."

A lengthy look at the strains–including three years needed to replace shot-down helicopters–that the Army is going through. Clearly, improvements are needed across the board.

Meanwhile, even as the surge shows some results, there are many contradictions at play in Iraq:

"If the insurgents are to be defeated, it will have to be by local tough guys in town after town, as happened in the American West in the 1870s. These guys will likely be more ruthless than we would like. But if we don’t let them establish some control—and give them help in maintaining it—any strategies for phased withdrawals or grand political bargains or international constabularies will be irrelevant."

Via The Elephant Bar

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Posted in The War, Troops

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Trust

Posted on March 4, 2007 | Comments Off on Trust

Bing West at the Small Wars Journal offers insight from a recent trip to Iraq:

"Trust will decide this war. We know the essence of the problem: Whether the Iraqi central government and security forces are led by deceivers who tell us they believe in a stable federation with power-sharing, while they abet sectarian division. In my most recent visit, there was the pervasive, open acknowledgement by the police, IA and the residents that they trusted the Americans, but not each other."

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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops

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Fixes and folly

Posted on December 15, 2006 | Comments Off on Fixes and folly

The two best ideas of the Iraq Study Group’s 79 recommendations are being implemented, according to Bing West, a Vietnam veteran and former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration. Namely, vastly increasing the number of American advisers with the Iraqi army (which CENTCOM press releases said before the report was released was already underway), and turning that army over to the new Iraqi government by late spring. The latter because former CENTCOM commander Gen. John P. Abizaid has told Congress that Iraqi PM Maliki will, by February, take care of the main threat of civil war, Mookie Sadr and his murderous militia.

Meanwhile, the most ridiculous ideas, it is generally agreed, are the ones about negotiating with the dictators of Iran and Syria to help stabilize the situation–as if they wanted the first successful Arab democracy on their borders. So, naturally, that is what Sen. Kerry has set out to do. He is flaunting federal law and White House policy to go visit Baby Assad in Damascus to chat it up. Not too surprising, since Kerry flaunted federal law and Nixon White House policy in the early 1970s to go to Paris to meet with the North Vietnamese.

The scuttlebutt is that the Paris trip cost Kerry, who was still a Navy reserve officer, a dishonorable discharge, which President Carter later fixed. But we can’t be sure until Big John releases his military records, which he has consistently refused to do. At least he’s no longer in the military, so he hasn’t that part to worry about. And, so far at least, he doesn’t plan to go to Iran.

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Posted in Iraq, The War

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