The Pentagon held another blogger roundtable today, this time with Brigadier General Kevin Bergner, chief of staff for Strategic Effects at MNF-I. General Bergner opened with a statement about “the vicious attack that took place today on the al Askari Mosque in Samarra. It really is, in every aspect, an affront to the values and dignity of people from all religions…it is further proof of the enemies indiscriminate violence and the depths to which they will go to incite hatred.” Berger reports that, so far at least, “there is restraint…there have been some peaceful gatherings, but nothing that’s out of the normal atmospherics.” General Petreaus and Ambassador Crocker met today with Iraqi prime minister Maliki, and Bergner said that Maliki has “has announced a curfew, deployed additional security forces to Samarra, and announced an investigative commission to determine what happened.” Bergner was not totally disheartened by the event, though, or perhaps he was just looking for a silver lining when he said that there was “a very strong sense that this was galvanizing Iraq’s leaders–they were very unified in condemning the attack, they were very unified in calling for restraint, and they were very unified in their commitment to one another and making sure that this did not somehow disrupt or split the political leadership. So if there’s anything we can hope for that might come out of something as vicious and tragic as this attack, it might be a galvanizing of the Iraqi leadership.” In other news, Bergner reported that Coalition forces “have now significantly increased the pressure on al Qaeda and are now going places where they have not had us operating” in the past. He pointed to a raid in South Baghdad two days ago in which the 4th Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division discovered “an IED cache that was clearly an important part of [al Qaeda’s] operating base.” Also, about 10 days ago in Fallujah, Coalition forces raided a truck bomb factory, the general said, that “was also an important and well developed support base for al Qaeda.” The general reported that last night Coalition forces “took out…the military emir of Mosul,” and soldiers from the 82nd Airborne had just this morning “located a mortar cell, detained six people, along with a complete 120mm mortar system, a complete 82mm mortar system, and then three 60mm mortar systems, along with the people, and the van, and all the other paraphernalia associated with it.” Bergner said all this indicated that the Coalition was applying “a significant level of pressure that’s now taking away the elements that these extremist forces have been using to operate against us.” As far as Coalition casualties, Bergner stressed that the key was “the result of the operations that we’re increasingly involved in, and what do we see in terms of effects that those are having on the enemy….taking down five complete mortar systems, and their van, and their ammunition, that’s an enormous blow to the indirect fire network here….when we’re taking those kinds of targets out and we’re removing that kind of capability, that’s a pretty good signal to us that our operations are being effective and that we’re having the necessary result.” Finally, speaking to morale, Bergner said “these guys are all over it, and they have tremendous morale, but I’m not going to tell you there aren’t soldiers out there that are struggling. This is hard…but my experience with the guys I’ve been riding with has been really good.
