Combat Studies Institute: On Point II

Yesterday morning Effwit saw in the print edition of the WaPo that the Army's Combat Studies Institute was going to release a nifty new report on the history of the Iraq War dealing with the crucial period from the "Mission Accomplished" milestone up to the Iraqi elections in January 2005.

He got online and scouted around the Combined Arms Center website and saw an announcement of the report. The page said that it would be available June 30 -- but lo and behold -- the link to the pdf was live. It is a 720 page monster -- but is full of good stuff. A veritable catalog of fuck-ups on our side while the insurgency was getting rolling.

A sample:

The problems created by lack of staff and other resources should have surprised no one. When the CFLCC staff redeployed out of Iraq in May and June 2003, it took with it the Army's main IO assets, including the Joint Psychological Operations Task Force (JPOTF) that had been created for the initial invasion. Thus, once DOD and CENTCOM established CJTF-7, Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez and his staff had no theater-strategic and operational-level PSYOP resources and had to rely on support from the IO units within the US Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (USACAPOC) located at Fort Bragg. This delayed and complicated the provision of high-level technical support, making it almost impos­sible to quickly or effectively react to insurgent IO. According to the SAMS study, "What this meant in practical terms for the CJTF-7 was that it could not produce its own operational-level PSYOP products locally and tactical units had to rely upon their assigned tactical PSYOP orga­nizations for more and more support."

Also, yesterday brought the release of Seymour Hersh's new piece on the covert war against Iran. Preparing the Battlefield: The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.

Effwit hasn't gotten to the Hersh piece yet , but he figured that you might want to know about it.

Peloponnesian Blowback

To a meme.

Rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Present an image of martial discord from whatever period or situation you'd like.


Rule 1: Selil Blog. Thanks, resurrecting & tenured One(s?). Honored We are.

Rule 2: 7 things 'bout pickled Selves. Caution to the wind...

1. Was once an eagle scout spanked by a Marxist-Leninist Mormon Melchizedek. Joseph Smith, Joseph Stalin - what the diff. A scout leader once bore down on me for eating hot dogs directly out of the package - 'twas an unchristian abomination as munching on uncooked hot dogs was an act of cannibalism.

2. Once stood within 4 unobstructed feet of Arafat, within 5 obstructed feet of George Clooney (he was surrounded by an obstructing firewall of 6 foot tall Russian prostitutes shuttled in to Les Caves des Roy in Saint Tropez from Cannes' La Chunga Bar so to better cover their heady Cote d'Azur overheads of gimpy Russian pimps and exorbitant room rates at the Hotel Martinez (where they co-dwelled with mothers, grandmothers and toddling children) )- and to boot, once stood in a suddenly de-constructing situation, caught weirdly aware of the fact that I was wearing Björn Borg boxer shorts while drinking with Börje Salming (who also hawks a line of trés chère metrosexual men's underwear).

3. Father of daughters. Not father to any sons as far as made aware. Never spanked anything but a chest poking drunk but that mighty butt-smack silenced a sticky-floored beer hall for a full 5 seconds and brought tears to a grown man's Tuborg'd eyes.

5. Eat plain oatmeal (uncooked) with cold milk every morning and have done so for over 20 years. During such time, have never eaten a hotel breakfast even though well over a thousand hotel nights have been notched up - once asleep sleep is jealously relished.

6. Enjoy lifting weights and swimming in oceans but am far from being as strong, fast, or enduring as invested efforts in such activities should have reasonably left one endowed.

7. Been told repeatedly I make the world's best dry martini. Sometimes it's true - as when I give them away for free.

Rule 3: Tagging: Been regularly following a slurry of blogs via RSS on our latest mobile gizmo during the SMC hiatus; all of the blogs listed on That Shortbus and many of those crowded under Rhizomatic Graffiti.

So who to tag? Howz'boutz:

• Self-professed neocon and pro-victory Donald Douglas over at American Power 'cause he deplorably deplores ad hominems.
• Ex-NASA wizkid Ken Andersson over at Shockfront (formerly of Anything They Say) 'cause he's a heck of a stargazer and such an effing bleeding heart of a savant at that.
• Exploring the Heart of Asia, formerly Afghanistanica, 'cause we declared him as having written our favorite post of the year (we were quaffing M1's world's best silver bullets at the time of coronation)
• An available staffer over at Alternate Brain.
• Antoine Fafard. He knows how to pace his posting.
• Roguely Stated for their occasional drive-bys .
• Kings of War. Something about 'em.
  

Rule 4: Inform tagged - doing & near done

Rule 5: Post image of martial discord - Lysistrate; Blowback (see pic above)

Awoke

No doubt - We have been tagged. In this deadly game of tag, We are most sure of the rules, but We will nonetheless arrogantly slack for I am meatball of one and oft effwit at that.

If it doesn´t immediately endanger Us We will ignore it - or at least We will silently sidestep it.*

We be meatball.

*mt