Iraqi Governing Council President Killed in Attack

Terrorists strike again – lets see if this gets the Prisoner ‘Torture’ beat-up off the front pages. Most probably not – the Terrorists, their clerics and their western media smell blood. I hate to be an armchair general, particularly as I only made Major, but surely the incident smacks of amateurism.
Witnesses said a convoy of five white Nissan vehicles was passing through the Harthiya neighborhood toward a checkpoint into the Green Zone, where U.S. authority and the Governing Council have their headquarters, when a red Volkswagen Brazil sped up to the convoy and exploded.
Surely someone is responsible for the Governing Council’s mobile security; surely someone looked at the problem and considered any vehicle broaching or approaching the convoy en-route must be a threat; surely someone thought an armoured vehicle fore and aft of the convoy with appropriate ‘Don’t approach or we will treat you as a suicide bomber” signage would have helped. Particularly if offending vehicles took a strike from a 120mm smooth bore if they got too near. Surely ‘someone’ is looking for a new career somewhere. This is a war after all. It is not a lesson in Human Rights – terrorists who blow up innocents have abandoned any claim to Human Rights. Smart after the event? No. Every Army in the civilized world has manuals on how to protect convoys. If it’s not safe to drive around the country, and it seems that is the case, then at least make it safe for the leaders. Full-on ‘Protect the US President’ or Blair, or Howard should be afforded the Governing Council. I warn you, the terrorists, aided and abetted by the media, are currently winning the war and if we don’t pull together and support the Coalition, even when they are imperfect, then a dark curtain will come down over the Middle East and no-one will be game enough to try and draw the curtains again. They will be back to the 12 Century and we will have fed their zeal and they will keep on killing us. You will hear it on the streets of Bahgdad, through the Middle East, the African continent, the sub continent and in the Mosques in Indonesia. The West is weak – lets attack again. Kill the infidel. Update: Read the Professor’s latest post dealing with the media’s support of the Terrorists. Sickening!

3 comments

  • Kev,

    I don’t think the Americans can be blamed for the failure of the security arrangements.

    At the relevant press conference, General Kimmitt (hat-tip Oxblog) explained the situation as follows:

    As for security that we provide, since the Governing Council has been formed, the coalition provides financial assistance for security, we provide body armor, weapons for personal security details, vehicles, in some cases armored vehicles. We offer close protection service training — six-week courses back to back. That’s approximately 200 individual personal security members of various GC members have gone through the courses. We offer a refresher course for these PSDs. Approximately 40 personal security service members from various GCs — for various Governing Council personal security details have gone through the program.

    Mr. Salim’s security detail consists primarily of family members, which is the case with a number of the GC security details. He’s chosen to rely on cousins and nephews, which was his choice. And unfortunately, our records show that none of his personal security detail members ever participated in any of our training programs. Again, his choice. We make the resources available, we make the training available, but it’s up to the individual GC members and the security details if they want to participate in it.

    However, knowing the nature of things, nothing will stop the usual suspects crowing about yet another American failure.

  • I stuck to the ‘Someone’ because it was a grey area and I’m definitely NOT one to crow about another American failure – I know how hard it can be. I posted the item last night when the news first came through and the soldier in me noted a gigantic stuff-up had occurred.

    Clearly they still have much to learn. Relying on untrained relatives because nepotism is still the go is not smart. I hope they learn from this.

    Kimmitt’s response smacks of professionalism and I like that. Over to the Iraqis

  • Correction: I?ve just noted from the transcript presented by OxBlog that the details of Mr. Salim?s security arrangements which I quoted in my previous post on this thread were given by the official accompanying General Kimmitt, a Mr Senor, not General Kimmitt himself. I don?t want mislead people like Alan Ramsey!