Mark Kimmitt
Mark Kimmitt
Mark Traecey Patrick Kimmittwas the 16th Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, serving under George W. Bush from August 2008 to January 2009. Prior to joining the State Department, he was a Brigadier General in the United States Army, and served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East. Kimmitt has also served as Deputy Director for Strategy and Plans for the United States Central Command, and Deputy Director for Operations/Chief Military Spokesman for Coalition Forces in...
attack attempting couple enemy intimidate iraqi last military people rather seen soft starting weeks
We have said for the last couple of weeks that we have seen the enemy starting to attack soft targets, Iraqi targets, rather than military targets, ... He is attempting to intimidate the people of Iraq. He will not succeed.
iraqi people suspect
I suspect that most Iraqi people were as horrified,
decision headlong marines rush
I think there was a well-thought-out decision on part of the Marines that let's not rush headlong into there. There may be ambushes set up,
city control plan precise rush
We are not going to do a pell-mell rush into the city. It's going to be deliberate, it will be precise and it will be overwhelming. We will not rush in to make things worse. We will plan our way through this and we will reestablish control of that city and we will pacify that city.
activities clear continue evidence ground happened midnight night saw somewhat wedding
Day after day after day as we continue to get more evidence in ... it is pretty clear to us that what happened that night -- from after midnight to about 0400 -- that the activities that we saw on the ground were somewhat inconsistent with a wedding party,
continue marine minds number though tremendous turned weapons
The negotiations, the discussions in the minds of the Marine commanders, continue to proceed, even though we did not see a tremendous number of weapons turned in today,
coalition drove shots toward vehicle warning
After the warning shots were neglected, the individuals got into their vehicle and drove toward the coalition base,
country create damage few number people takes
It takes a very few number of people in the country to create the kind of damage we are seeing,
hunted
They will be hunted down. They will be captured,
soldier
That soldier said: 'There are some things going on here that I can't live with'.
soldiers
another day for the soldiers of the coalition.
bad parties people
There may have been some kind of celebration, ... Bad people have celebrations too. Bad people have parties too.
attacks change civilians continues number rise soft targets
the number of attacks on soft targets and civilians continues to rise ... we think this is a change on the part of the enemy.
attempt break coalition fired forces groups inherent perhaps retain rogue surprise
It would not surprise us if there may be an attempt or two by perhaps some rogue groups that may not want to live up to this commitment, ... They may attempt to break this cease-fire. They will find that the coalition forces retain the right, the inherent right, to self-defense, and if they are fired at, they will respond.