Who are the bloggers in your neighborhood? A friend just tipped me off to a great resource listing the active bloggers based in and around my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA, pghbloggers.org. It has been a little bit embarrassing as a blogger to know so little about the state of Melissa Hart’s (R-PA) re-election bid or the real fallout from the wild pay-hike scandal that embarrassed our state lege this past year. No longer!
Some of these guys offer commentary that clearly deserves a wider recognition. Take Fester at Fester’s Place, an insatiable data hound who takes the time to support most posts with a hefty amount of relevant info. Here Fester counterpoints the fantasy-based warplanning that came in vogue with our present batch of leaders:
I have been a supporter of a deliberate, and fairly rapid withdrawal of US forces from Iraq because I do not believe that the US can accomplish its political goals in the country. The best counter-argument to this position has been that US forces are the only buffer forces that prevent the current bloodshed of 100+ civilians killed per day in the past couple of months from getting worse.
However I read this Knight Ridder report concerning Baghdad:
There are about 8,000 American soldiers in Baghdad, said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a top U.S. spokesman in Iraq.
“They can’t be everywhere all the time in a city of over 7 million people,” he said.
I had been operating under the assumption that the Baghdad force numbered six or so brigades with supporting elements, leading to 30,000-40,000 US uniformed personnel in the capital and its immediate suburbs. I was wrong. If there are only 8,000 US soldiers in the capital, this is a force that is tactically, and operationally insignificant as a presence force, and who can only serve as a rapid counterattack force. This is a force ratio half of that maintained by the Pittsburgh Police Department (900 officers, 330,000 people).
[…] Therefore, I believe that the argument that apres les etats unis le deluge is an invalid argument. The deluge is already here.
When you put it that way…Anyhow, I have added Fester’s Place to the blogroll and I encourage you guys to head over there and check it out, including and especially if you disagree with him.
How about your own area? If you have any useful guides to local blogging, drop them in the comments and I will append them to the bottom of the post.
[Update] NC Blogs in North Carolina.Brewed Fresh Daily in Ohio.
srv
This has to be wrong. Nobody could possibly be that stupid. People keep referring to Baghdad as the “key” to Iraq, and how critical controlling Baghdad is. 8000 troops? Tell us this is a joke.
RSA
Here’s one from my area, North Carolina, with links to the Triangle: ncblogs.com/. (I blog elsewhere, though.)
fester
I’m not sure if this is a joke or not. I am going on what Knight Ridder/McClatchy Group Newspapers (when does the sale finalize??) is reporting… MNF-Iraq is reporting that Task Force Baghdad is the 4th ID plus supporting elements (4 4th ID brigades, a brigade of the 101st Air Assault and ???) which is where I was working from an assumption of roughly 6 brigades and supporting units.
A couple of things could be going on here —
1) Knight Ridder is wrong big time
2) Knight Ridder is right, and MNF-I is right — 8,000 troops (~2+ brigades) in Baghdad city limits, the other 3 or 4 brigades in Baghdad’s suburbs covering the FOBs
3) Knight Ridder is mostly right and MNF-I is mostly right — 8,000 combat troops and 20-25,000 non-combatant troops are in Baghdad and we have an issue on terminology
4) Knight Ridder is right and there really is only two brigades with attachments in Baghdad.
I am leaning strongly towards #2 and #4 because of the recent press reports on Operation Forward Together (see Wash. Times for instance) suggest a troop strength of 7,200 US soldiers involved in Op. Forward Together, which was basically a large presence mission with some aggressive raiding in Sadr City.
bobzilla
For Ohio, the compendium sitye is brewedfreshdaily.com/
DougJ
Melissa Hart? I loved her as Sabrina the Teenage Witch. The years have not been kind, however.
One of my local blogs has footage of her mangling the stem cell debate
Krista
Anything involving The Hoff is never wrong.
DougJ
Amen, sister.
Krista
Now, if we could get The Hoff and Shatner on one show…?
Perfection.
GOP4Me
Oh, really?
Krista
That was so wrong, it’s right. Thanks, GOP4Me!
Zifnab
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
For everyone who’s a big U2 fan, I thought you’d get a kick out of this.
Off Colfax
I’m not sure about a Mile High blogroll for those of us in the rarified air of Colorado, but I do know that we gather at least twice a year at some randomly-chosen-by-dart-on-map bar.
And for those that happen to be in the area on August 26, check out the details here.
Who knows. Maybe we can watch Jeff G. destroy his liver again.
Cyrus
Errr, maybe this is old news to everyone but me, but… they’re really calling the Baghdad security effort “Operation Forward Together”? Does that remind anyone else of “Together, we can do better?”
For those dead-enders in the 30 percent of the American population who actually still like Bush, and the much smaller fraction willing to say so out loud, please take note: the Iraq War is now borrowing vapid, inspiring-as-mud, piss-off-their-own-partisan slogans from the Democratic Party. That is all.
And, Doug, did you call that Rochester, NY blog local? Cool. I went to college there.
Barry
In one of the articles, it was mentioned that the US was putting the last reserves from Kuwait into Baghdad. I was never able to find articles with actual numbers, though.
Now, there are probably tens of thousands of Iraqi Army and Interior Ministry troops in Baghdad, but the latter are part of the problem (Shiite death squads). And attempts by the US Army to oppose Interior Ministry terrorists would lead to immediate conflict with Shiite militias – all that they’d have to do is to attack supply lines to put a hurting on US troops.
Barry
IMHO, Bush’s plan is clear – the war is lost, but he won’t acknowledge it; he’ll keep it burning until 2009, and hand it over to the next president.
Jim Allen
Massachusetts (general): dir.blogflux.com/state/massachusetts.html
Massachusetts (lefty): leftyblogs.com/massachusetts/
fester
Barry — my understanding of the reserves in Kuwait after the 1st Armored Div. brigade got sent to Ramadi was an armored calvary squadron (~900 guys), an artillery battalion (~700 guys) and assorted smaller units that can attach themselves. There are also most likely units that are either cycling into or out of Iraq that are in Kuwait, and I have seen nothing to indicate that they are moving to Baghdad now… although I would not be surprised if the deployment schedules get played with to keep units in country longer and to get the units going into Iraq there a little bit earlier… I just have not seen anything there yet.
So the movement of US troops from Kuwait to Baghdad looks to be about 1,500-1,800, and press reports are indicating another 1,000 or so MPs are deploying to Baghdad from other areas of the country, as well as at least a single Stryker Battalion so that gets us up to about 3,300 soldiers and throw in another 700 for support and that is the 4,000 reinformcements that are being reported on right now.
InsultComicDog
We have so many bloggers in Philadelphia it never was a problem… Atrios and MyDD and All Spin Zone are the first that come to mind… and there are many local ones that they link to.
Barry
What can 4,000 soldier secure, in a huge city, when they can’t just cordon off areas and block *all* movement?
ding
re: your link – I just found another political blog
Thanks!!