{"id":24560,"date":"2014-11-18T08:12:45","date_gmt":"2014-11-18T16:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=24560"},"modified":"2014-11-18T08:12:56","modified_gmt":"2014-11-18T16:12:56","slug":"how-many-islamic-state-fighters-are-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2014\/11\/18\/how-many-islamic-state-fighters-are-there\/","title":{"rendered":"How Many ISIS Fighters Are There?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why was I reminded of Vietnam on Saturday when Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Iraq to \u201cget a firsthand look at the situation in Iraq, receive briefings, and get better sense of how the campaign is progressing\u201d against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL?<\/p>\n

For years as the Vietnam quagmire deepened, U.S. political and military leaders flew off to Vietnam and were treated to a snow job by Gen. William Westmoreland, the commander there. Many would come back glowing about how the war was \u201cprogressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dempsey might have been better served if someone had shown him Patrick Cockburn\u2019s article<\/a> in the Independent entitled \u201cWar with Isis: Islamic militants have an army of 200,000, claims senior Kurdish leader.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff of Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, told Cockburn that “I am talking about hundreds of thousands of fighters because they are able to mobilize Arab young men in the territory they have taken.”<\/p>\n

Hussein estimated that Isis rules about one-third of Iraq and one-third of Syria with a population from 10 million to 12 million over an area of 250,000 square kilometers, roughly the size Great Britain, giving the jihadists a large pool of potential fighters to recruit.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While the Kurdish estimate may be high \u2013 it certainly exceeds \u201cthe tens of thousands,\u201d maybe 20,000 to 30,000 that many Western analysts have claimed \u2013 the possibility that the Islamic State\u2019s insurgency is bigger than believed could explain its startling success in overrunning the Iraqi Army around Mosul last summer and achieving surprising success against the well-regarded Kurdish pesh merga forces, too.<\/p>\n

So, on his flight back to Washington, Dempsey will have time to ponder whether he has the courage to pass on this discouraging word to President Barack Obama about ISIS or whether he will put on the rose-colored glasses like an earlier generation of commanders did about Vietnam, where Westmoreland insisted that the number of enemy Vietnamese in South Vietnam could not go above 299,000.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, those obstinate Vietnamese Communists would not observe that artificial, politically inspired limit. Westmoreland was aware of the troubling reality but knew that acknowledging it would have undesired consequences in the United States where many Americans were souring on the war.<\/p>\n

The inconvenient truth finally became abundantly clear during the Tet offensive in late January and early February 1968, but still the misbegotten war went on, and on, ultimately claiming some 58,000 U.S. lives and millions of Vietnamese.<\/p>\n

Westmoreland\u2019s gamesmanship with the numbers was known to some CIA officials \u2013 first and foremost, a very bright and courageous analyst named Sam Adams \u2013 but CIA Director Richard Helms silenced them out of fear of political retribution. \u201cMy responsibility is to protect the Agency,\u201d Helms told them, \u201cand I cannot do that if we get into a pissing match with a U.S. Army at war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s CIA Director John Brennan is similarly at pains to protect the Agency on a number of fronts. Is he likely to tell the truth about ISIS if it means the prospects for a renewed war in Iraq and a new war in Syria are especially grim? If not, are there no Sam Adamses left at the CIA?<\/p>\n

Honest Analysts?<\/b><\/p>\n

Honest intelligence analysts played a key role in the November 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, \u201cIran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities,\u201d which helped thwart Bush\/Cheney plans to apply Iraqi-type \u201cshock and awe\u201d to Iran during their last year in office. The NIE concluded, unanimously and \u201cwith high confidence,\u201d that Iran had stopped working on a nuclear weapon in late 2003.<\/p>\n

In his memoir, Decision Points<\/a><\/i>, President George W. Bush called the NIE\u2019s findings \u201ceye-popping.\u201d He openly bemoaned how the estimate deprived him of the military option, writing \u201cHow could I possibly explain using the military to destroy the nuclear facilities of a country the intelligence community said had no active nuclear weapons program?”<\/p>\n

The NIE on Iran was issued seven years ago. One has to hope that a few honest analysts on the Near East have survived the CIA directorships of Michael Hayden, Leon Panetta, David Petraeus and John Brennan and have the courage to tell the truth about ISIS \u2013 including how U.S. military intervention now is swelling ISIS\u2019s ranks, much as the Bush\/Cheney invasion of Iraq in 2003 created the conditions for the group\u2019s birth, then called “Al-Qaeda in Iraq.”<\/p>\n

If honest intelligence analysts are silenced, as Sam Adams was 47 years ago, they need to plumb their consciences and see if they have the guts to make public both the undercounting of enemy forces AND the fillip given to their multiplication by further U.S. military involvement.<\/p>\n

Though having worked within the system to get the real enemy troop estimates to senior U.S. officials, Sam Adams went to an early, remorse-filled death, unable to overcome the thought of what might well have happened to shorten the war if he had broken with the CIA\u2019s demands for secrecy and made the actual enemy numbers public.<\/p>\n

Possibly, the armed conflict might have ended in 1968. Or, to put it another way, the Vietnam Memorial in Washington would have no need for a western wall since there would be no names to chisel into the granite.<\/p>\n

If Gen. Dempsey decides to ape Westmoreland and dissemble about the realistic obstacles to military success against the Islamic State fighters and about the counterproductive effects of U.S. intervention, well, our country will need a new Sam Adams willing, this time, to blast the truth into the open.<\/p>\n

Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence<\/b><\/p>\n

Sam Adams\u2019s memory is invoked each year as Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence make their annual award for integrity. SAAII is a movement of former CIA colleagues of former intelligence analyst Sam Adams, together with others who hold up his example as a model for those in intelligence who would aspire to the courage to speak truth to power.<\/p>\n

SAAII confers an award each year to a member of the intelligence community or related professions who exemplifies Sam Adam\u2019s courage, persistence and devotion to truth – no matter the consequences.<\/p>\n

It was Adams who discovered in 1967 that there were more than a half-million Vietnamese Communists under arms – roughly twice the number that the U.S. command in Saigon would admit to, lest Americans learn that claims of \u201cprogress\u201d were bogus.<\/p>\n

Gen. Westmoreland had put an artificial limit on the number Army intelligence was allowed to carry on its books. And his deputy, Gen. Creighton Abrams, specifically warned Washington that the press would have a field day if Adam\u2019s numbers were released, and that this would weaken the war effort.<\/p>\n

A SECRET\/EYES ONLY cable from Abrams on Aug. 20, 1967, stated: \u201cWe have been projecting an image of success over recent months,” and cautioned that if the higher figures became public, “all available caveats and explanations will not prevent the press from drawing an erroneous and gloomy conclusion.”<\/p>\n

The Communist countrywide offensive during Tet made it clear that the generals had been lying and that Sam Adams\u2019s \u201chigher figures\u201d were correct. Senior intelligence officials were aware of the deception, but lacked the courage to stand up to Westmoreland. Sadly, Sam Adams remained reluctant to go \u201coutside channels.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few weeks after Tet, however, former Pentagon official Daniel Ellsberg rose to the occasion. Ellsberg learned that Westmoreland was asking for 206,000 more troops to widen the war into Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam – right up to the border with China, and perhaps beyond.<\/p>\n

Someone else promptly leaked to the New York Times<\/i> Westmoreland\u2019s troop request, emboldening Ellsberg to do likewise with Sam Adams\u2019 story. Ellsberg had come to the view that leaking truth about a deceitful war would be \u201ca patriotic and constructive act.\u201d It was his first unauthorized disclosure. On March 19, 1968, the Times<\/i> published a stinging story based on Adams\u2019s figures.<\/p>\n

On March 25, President Lyndon Johnson complained to a small gathering, \u201cThe leaks to the New York Times<\/i> hurt us. … We have no support for the war. This is caused by the 206,000 troop request [by Westmoreland] and the leaks. \u2026 I would have given Westy the 206,000 men.\u201d<\/p>\n

On March 31, 1968, Johnson introduced a bombing pause, opted for negotiations, and announced that he would not run for another term in November.<\/p>\n

Sam Adams continued to press for honesty and accountability but stayed \u201cinside channels\u201d – and failed. He died at 55 of a heart attack, nagged by the thought that, had he not let himself be diddled, many lives might have been saved. His story is told in War of Numbers<\/i>, published posthumously.<\/p>\n

Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. Co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), he served as an Army infantry\/intelligence officer and then as a CIA analyst from the administration of John Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. He is also co-founder of Sam Associates for Integrity in Intelligence.<\/i><\/p>\n

Reprinted with permission from Consortium News<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why was I reminded of Vietnam on Saturday when Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Iraq to \u201cget a firsthand look at the situation in Iraq, receive briefings, and get better sense of how the campaign is progressing\u201d against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL? For years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-24560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24560"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24563,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24560\/revisions\/24563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24560"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=24560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}