The Washington Post reports that the Iraqi government has placed restrictions on U.S. forces that have “startled American commanders and raised concerns about the safety of their troops.” These restrictions include an end of joint patrols in Baghdad and an end to running resupply convoys during daylight hours. The Post obtains an email from Maj. Gen. Daniel P. Bolger, commander of the Baghdad division:
These kind of restrictions are not unlike the self-imposed caveats that have “neutered” some of our NATO allies in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, Arnaud de Borchgrave quoted Gen. John Craddock, the outgoing Supreme Allied Commander Europe, as saying that such caveats “increase the risk to every service member deployed in Afghanistan and bring increased risk to mission success.” Similar restrictions would almost certainly pose similar risks in Iraq — to the troops and the mission. President Obama must make sure that U.S.commanders have the authority to protect their own forces, and he campaigned on a promise to do just that — to maintain a “strike force” in Iraq that would, in his words, “remain as basic force protection, to engage in counter-terrorism, and to continue the training of Iraqi security forces.”
