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...
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.
achieve against attempting break easier enemy intimidate people soft targets trying
Going against soft targets is probably an easier way to achieve what the enemy is trying to achieve. He's attempting to intimidate the people of Iraq, and he's attempting to try to break the will of the coalition, ... He will be unsuccessful in both.
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.
soldiers
another day for the soldiers of the coalition.
areas battalion couple hundred members methodical transfer turned understand
Some areas are being turned over to this organization in a methodical matter. We understand a couple hundred of these prospective battalion members are going through a transfer of authority.
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,
soldier
That soldier said: 'There are some things going on here that I can't live with'.
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,
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.
ammunition amount attack confirm continues house intelligence prior safe saw stored strike whatever
What we saw at the strike location, what we had prior to that attack and all of our post-strike intelligence continues to confirm that that was a safe house with a significant amount of ammunition being stored for whatever reason,
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.
command control full level officers senior series skill
You're going to need generals. You're going to need full colonels. You're going to need senior officers to command and control those organizations. Obviously, that is not a skill level that you can get in a series of weeks,
bad parties people
There may have been some kind of celebration, ... Bad people have celebrations too. Bad people have parties too.