Top US officer: al-Qaida in Iraq "devastated"

[Valin]

AP:

ROBERT BURNS
AP National Security Writer

A string of setbacks for al-Qaida's affiliate in Iraq has left the insurgent group "devastated" and struggling to cope with a double whammy of a leadership vacuum and a money squeeze, the top U.S. military officer said Sunday.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he found it particularly encouraging that gains against al-Qaida have been made in operations carried out jointly by U.S. and Iraqi military forces. That makes it more likely, Mullen said, that after U.S. troops leave in 2011 the Iraqi government will be able to handle what remains of al-Qaida's capability to launch terror strikes.

Mullen's remarks echoed an assessment made Friday by Gen. Ray Odierno, the top American commander in Iraq. Odierno told reporters that over the last three months, "we've either picked up or killed 34 out of the top 42 al-Qaida in Iraq leaders." He said the group is trying to reorganize but has "lost connection" with the top-rung al-Qaida leaders who are hiding in western Pakistan.....(Snip)

"I've watched this over an extended period of time where we have just devastated them by removing their leadership" and making it harder for the organization to get financing, Mullen said. "We've watched them struggle in that regard."
Mullen said he could not estimate how much longer al-Qaida will remain a factor inside Iraq. But he expressed confidence that whatever its lifespan, the Iraqi government is showing encouraging signs of being able to contain the group well after the U.S. departs.
"Every single operation" against al-Qaida in recent months "has been Iraqi-U.S. combined, and in fact Iraqi-led for all intents and purposes," he said.

The top two al-Qaida leaders in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, were killed by U.S. and Iraqi forces in April in an operation that both countries described as a major blow to the group. But attacks blamed on al-Qaida in Iraq in May - including a series of bombings and shootings that killed 119 people in a single day - raised questions about the impact of the two leaders' slaying.

Odierno said Friday that in the months leading up to the killing of al-Masri and al-Baghdadi, U.S. and Iraqi forces had managed to "get inside" the terrorist organization and learned a great deal by capturing key leaders involved in the group's financing, planning and recruiting.
The organization has proven resilient and able to change tactics in the past, most notably after its founder, Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a June 2006 U.S. airstrike.

Mullen said he believes there is a connection between recent successes against al-Qaida in Iraq and gains against al-Qaida's senior leadership in Pakistan.
Al-Qaida's No. 3 official, Mustafa al-Yazid, was killed in May along with members of his family in perhaps one of the most severe blows to the terror movement since the U.S. campaign against al-Qaida began in 2001. He apparently was attacked in the tribal regions of western Pakistan where other senior al-Qaida figures, including Osama bin Laden, are believed to be in hiding.

[Pepper]

Valin, did you listen to Michael Yon being interviewed on Lars Larsen today?

 

Pretty sobering.

[Valin]

Valin, did you listen to Michael Yon being interviewed on Lars Larsen today?

 

Pretty sobering.

 

 

No I didn't. Do you happen to have a like? If you don't have a like maybe you have a LINK

[Pepper]

Topics for Mon, June 7 Michael Yon - Reporter/Military - in Thailand

Topics for Mon, June 7 Michael Yon - Reporter/Military - in Thailand

 

I can't find a transcript, Valin. But just found a long, well written Atlantic article. It may have been posted here earlier.

 

It contains background to what he said on Larsen: per Yon, without a change in command, the next 13 months is not pretty. The Taliban does not have to win, it just has to hold on. There will be US casualties. Then the US withdraws.

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/06/michael-yons-war/57483/

 

In the absence of success, Yon believes the military ended his embed to stifle an independent voice and steer coverage to a less experienced, more docile stenographer pool of reporters. "If McChrystal is perceived to fail in Kandahar, the Taliban will just about have us in media checkmate for 2011. This can have tremendous negative consequences and the Taliban leadership fully understands that."

 

Though he has relocated to Thailand to report on the civil unrest there, he still covers Afghanistan from afar and remains critical of General McChrystal's leadership. "Today, I do not trust McChrystal anymore than some people trust the New York Times, Obama or Bush. If McChrystal could be trusted, I would go back to my better life. McChrystal is a great killer but this war is above his head."

 

Some military bloggers believe Yon is lashing out spitefully, and that his words would be tempered and his outlook positive if he were still in-country. Some further suggest that he has simply spent too long in the combat zone, and has lost grip on reality.

 

 

Yon believes the war can still be won, but that a change of command is in order. At this level of warfare, he says, "McChrystal is like a man who has strapped on ice skates for the first time. He might be a great athlete, but he's learning to skate during the Olympics." Yon adds that publicly denouncing the commanding general of a war is not an easy thing for him to do, especially considering it means crossing swords with General Petraeus and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, two men he greatly admires. Indeed, if anyone can turn this war around, Yon believes it is General Petraeus. He concedes such a return to the battlefield is unlikely, and suggests another general whose name fewer people have heard. "General James Mattis from the Marines. I get a good feeling about Mattis but I don't know. General Petraeus is a known entity and he is solid gold."

 

Short of that, Yon's outlook is bleak. "Even if the President commits more forces [next year], they will not be effective until 2012. By that time, more allies likely will have peeled off, requiring us to commit even more forces to cover down. We lost crucial time in building the Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army and so forth, and today we are paying the price. This is not to mention that the Afghan government is sorry at best and criminal at worst."

 

He concludes, "The trajectory of this war leaves a sick feeling in my stomach. It's as if I've watched a space shuttle liftoff while sitting at launch control, with full knowledge that it will abort to the Indian Ocean. We are trying to reach orbit with insufficient fuel."

 

 

Valin, did you listen to Michael Yon being interviewed on Lars Larsen today?

 

Pretty sobering.

 

 

No I didn't. Do you happen to have a like? If you don't have a like maybe you have a LINK

[Valin]

 

Yon believes the war can still be won, but that a change of command is in order. At this level of warfare, he says, "McChrystal is like a man who has strapped on ice skates for the first time. He might be a great athlete, but he's learning to skate during the Olympics." Yon adds that publicly denouncing the commanding general of a war is not an easy thing for him to do, especially considering it means crossing swords with General Petraeus and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, two men he greatly admires. Indeed, if anyone can turn this war around, Yon believes it is General Petraeus. He concedes such a return to the battlefield is unlikely, and suggests another general whose name fewer people have heard. "General James Mattis from the Marines. I get a good feeling about Mattis but I don't know. General Petraeus is a known entity and he is solid gold."

 

With all due respect to Michael Yon....

General Stanley A. McChrystal

 

I would also mention that inside the COIN Community he gets a lot of respect.

[Valin]

Pepper

 

Mudville Gazette: Michael Yon's War