“Dannatt effect” spreads to US generals?

Well, what did I say here just seven hours ago?

But maybe Dannatt’s action was also directed toward encouraging his US counterparts to have a bit more spine in their dealings with their political “masters”? That would be interesting, now, wouldn’t it?

So then, we had the US military spokesman in Baghdad, Maj.-Gen. William Caldwell saying [BBC] publicly and forthrightly that Operation Forward Together– Gen. George Casey’s recent and much-acclaimed project to “flood the zone” in Baghdad with US troops in order to pacify the city prior to the US election– “ has not met our overall expectations of sustaining a reduction in… violence.”
The NYT’s Michael Luo has more Caldwell:

In an unusually gloomy assessment, General Caldwell called the spike in attacks “disheartening” and added that the American military was “working closely with the government of Iraq to determine how to best refocus our efforts.”
It is unclear, however, what other options might be available to American military commanders if their current efforts fail…
In a worrisome development, General Caldwell revealed Thursday that American troops had to return last week to Dora, a troubled southern Baghdad neighborhood that had been a showcase of the new security plan and was one of the first areas to be cleared.
A key concern from the outset of the stepped-up patrols in the capital was the difficulty of holding onto areas after they had been cleared. In other troubled areas of the country that American forces have sought to “clear and hold,” like towns along the Euphrates River corridor from west of Baghdad to the Syrian border, military officials have struggled to deal with insurgents simply melting away prior to the arrival of troops, only to return stronger than ever after focused military offensives have been completed. [Very sneaky of them, eh? ~HC]
In Baghdad, the military has been observing a marked increase recently in sectarian attacks in so-called cleared areas, General Caldwell said, noting that insurgents were “punching back hard.”
“They’re trying to get back into those areas,” he said. “We’re constantly going back in and doing clearing operations again.”
General Caldwell also raised the possibility that insurgents have intentionally increased their attacks in recent weeks as a way of influencing political events in the United States.
“We also realize that there is a midterm election that’s taking place in the United States and that the extremist elements understand the power of the media; that if they can in fact produce additional casualties, that in fact is recognized and discussed in the press because everybody would like not to see anybody get killed in these operations, but that does occur,” he said.
By almost any measure, the situation in the capital is in a downward spiral. Last month, General Caldwell said in a briefing that suicide attacks were at an all-time high. October is also on track to be the third-deadliest month of the conflict for the American military, with a large portion of the deaths occurring in Baghdad.
The military on Thursday announced the deaths of two more American troops — a Marine in Anbar province from “enemy action” and a soldier north of Balad from a roadside bomb — bringing the month’s total to at least 72.
American commanders had predicted a spike in violence during Ramadan, but previous Ramadans have been nowhere near as deadly for American troops as October has been so far.
Deaths in Baghdad specifically have leaped this month. Anbar province also continues to be deadly for American troops who are trying to root out Sunni insurgents there.
On Thursday, dozens of black-clad gunmen, toting assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, paraded down a main street in Ramadi, one of the most troublesome cities in Anbar province for American troops. They waved banners identifying them as members of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella group for insurgents. The council had recently announced the creation of an Islamic state in the area, independent of the Iraqi government.

Right. Just in case it hasn’t been clear to JWN readers yet: The two parts of Iraq with the highest current levels of violence are the two areas with the highest concentration of US military operations…
Does anybody out there still claim the US has any valid claim whatsoever to be the power that “fixes” what has been broken in Iraq?
… Anyway, I did think it was worth noting the (relative) courage of Gen. Caldwell in speaking so forthrightly in public. However, from my long study of the US military I am 100 percent convinced that he would not have done this without getting explicit instructions to do so from his commanding officer, Gen. George Casey, the commanding officer in Iraq, and also quite possibly from Casey’s boss, Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of Centcom.
In which case, it would have been considerably more gutsy and effective if one of those two more senior generals had personally delivered the same kind of “brutally honest” assessment that, instead, they had their flack Gen. Caldwell deliver. In Britain, remember, it was the army’s very top officer, Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, who delivered the bad news in public last week.
That was considerably gutsier.
Reuters meanwhile has reported that Gen. Casey had a yet lower-level flack deliver this message today:

“General Casey has ordered a review of Operation Together Forward. U.S. casualties are a grave concern but that is not driving the review,” Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Garver said.
“The enemy is adapting and we have to make changes,” he told Reuters. “This is a constant review process.” He said that General George Casey, who commands the 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq ordered the review last week…

Bottom line: Britain’s Dannatt still wins the “Speaking Truth to Power” medal for bravery, hands down.