Saturday, October 22, 2005
Military RhetIraq: Maj. Gen. Webster
Who: Maj. Gen. William G. Webster Jr. (Commander of US forces in Baghdad)
Source: U.S. Department of Defense
Quotes: From News Briefing on 10/21/2005
Whereas we had one battalion of the Iraqi Army defending the polling stations in Baghdad in January, we now have 18 battalions that were not only securing the elections in Baghdad, but are conducting day-to-day fighting operations against the insurgents.
... the attack levels ebb and flow. Generally, since last spring, they have been increasing at the rate of about one to two attacks a day, to the point where in August there were 27 attacks a day in Baghdad by the enemy, 28 attacks a day in September. And just last week it was still about 28 attacks a day until the few days prior to the referendum, when it spiked at about 53 and 54 attacks for the two days prior to the referendum.
... only about 15 percent of these attacks are successful. And that is, by "successful," we say the enemy is successful if he causes damage or if he injures somebody.
So while the number of attacks has risen steadily, their effectiveness has declined. And we attribute that mostly to the fact that we are killing and capturing a number of Iraqi insurgents, and we are disrupting their ability to conduct these operations.
Q --- how long it will take for the Iraqi army and security forces to have a logistics system that will allow it to sustain itself?
GEN. WEBSTER: First of all, they're making do now with contract support, so there is limited ability now for their logistics system to operate if they stay in place. When you look at how difficult a logistics system can be, if we're talking about an army that can pick up and move and go out to the borders to defend the country and be able to sustain operations out in the open for a long period of time, it's probably going to be a year and a half, two years, before that system is mature enough to operate on its own.
Source: U.S. Department of Defense
Quotes: From News Briefing on 10/21/2005
Whereas we had one battalion of the Iraqi Army defending the polling stations in Baghdad in January, we now have 18 battalions that were not only securing the elections in Baghdad, but are conducting day-to-day fighting operations against the insurgents.
... the attack levels ebb and flow. Generally, since last spring, they have been increasing at the rate of about one to two attacks a day, to the point where in August there were 27 attacks a day in Baghdad by the enemy, 28 attacks a day in September. And just last week it was still about 28 attacks a day until the few days prior to the referendum, when it spiked at about 53 and 54 attacks for the two days prior to the referendum.
... only about 15 percent of these attacks are successful. And that is, by "successful," we say the enemy is successful if he causes damage or if he injures somebody.
So while the number of attacks has risen steadily, their effectiveness has declined. And we attribute that mostly to the fact that we are killing and capturing a number of Iraqi insurgents, and we are disrupting their ability to conduct these operations.
Q --- how long it will take for the Iraqi army and security forces to have a logistics system that will allow it to sustain itself?
GEN. WEBSTER: First of all, they're making do now with contract support, so there is limited ability now for their logistics system to operate if they stay in place. When you look at how difficult a logistics system can be, if we're talking about an army that can pick up and move and go out to the borders to defend the country and be able to sustain operations out in the open for a long period of time, it's probably going to be a year and a half, two years, before that system is mature enough to operate on its own.
