The “Awakening†militias flourishing among Iraq’s Sunni population — and organized and bankrolled by the U.S. military to fight al-Qaida insurgents — are largely credited with the striking security gains made in the past year.
But the groups are fighting among themselves, too, over tribal loyalties and territory. And they could at some point pose a potent threat to the central Shiite-led government, which refuses to recognize them.
According to a New York Times article: “The Americans are haunted by the possibility that Iraq could go the way of Afghanistan, where Americans initially bought the loyalty of tribal leaders only to have some of them gravitate back to the Taliban when the money stopped.â€
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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Finally it was reported what I said sometime ago, that the Sunnis were the one more responsible for Al-Qaeda being on the run. Bit sadly also the possibility that once the main enemy is no longer a threat they may turn back to those they see as the secondary enemy. But thank God for blessings of the reduction in killings, it gives the U.S. the chance to change tactic. Declare a success and move toward redeployment, that would make the Iraqis and the American public both content.
I was reading in Al Jazeera English:
Iraqi fighters display new weapons
Foreign forces in Iraq are hoping that a much heralded drop in violence in Iraq will continue into the new year.
However, in exclusive images obtained by Al Jazeera, fighters from the Islamic Front for Resistance in Iraq (Jami) say they are biding their time and training hard with an array of new weapons in order to drive foreign forces out as soon as possible.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BDCB9BD8-4375-4C12-8CA0-5BB1D10350A5.htm
Many wild cards there!
Bush said that when the Iraqis stand up we’ll stand down. Well, they are standing up against America.
We have 800 bases in foreign countries. Every country we invade we occupy for ever. This includes Germany, the former Yugoslavia, Italy, Japan and will include Iraq. This isn’t for American security, this is for worldwide intimidation.
Let’s pull them all out and bring them home. It’s not our job to police the world.
I don’t care what they do as long as we are not there anymore. If we stabilize the place and they still cannot make a deal we need to stand down and let them fight it out. We cannot stay there at 200 billion a year forever.
Supporting the troops means supporting you local Sunni militia, too. The surge has elements which make sense, but apparently it’s mainly founded on bribery.
Another article of gigantic bed-wetting proportions from the New York Times. It’s a wonder that the journalists of the NYT can stand the stench of their urine-soaked bed sheets long enough to write a story.
There are so many YoMama Bin Journalists at the NYT, it’s not a wonder they haven’t been added to the terrorist watch list.
“The Americans are haunted by the possibility that Iraq could go the way of Afghanistan, where Americans initially bought the loyalty of tribal leaders only to have some of them gravitate back to the Taliban when the money stopped.”
Ah for Cretin’s sake NYT, pull your yellow journalistic stained underwear out of your ass and try not to draw forgone conclusions on something that hasn’t even happened yet in Iraq. There is no Taliban in Iraq and there aren’t any journalists left at the NYT either.
Put away the pipe!
U.S. troops should seal off the Saudi border, to keep Al-Quida out, and let the Iraqis settle their own affairs.
We need to work with them, not against them..that was one of the major mistakes of this war, that we put all the militia and police force out of work, so we had a whole bunch of disgrundled men who were armed to the teeth and no way to make a living and support their families… it’s no wonder they became insurgents.Working with Al-Sahwa may be the best solution to getting the Iraqis to stand up so we can begin the process of standing down. Let’s not make the same mistake twice. We need to be very careful not to alienate them.
Let’s pull them all out and bring them home. It’s not our job to police the world.
Posted by: Doug | December 26, 2007 at 02:49 AM
RON PAUL 2008 !!!
I NEVER agreed with this senseless, stupid war…but we need to stay and try to finsih what we started. To pull our troops out now would be the untimate in irresposibility..we owe it to the Iraqis not to abandon them now.
“Another article of gigantic bed-wetting proportions from the New York Times. It’s a wonder that the journalists of the NYT can stand the stench of their urine-soaked bed sheets long enough to write a story.”
Yea; like all those articles the NYT ran as cheerleaders for the Bush invasion in the first place!
The ultimate irresponsibility is to bankrupt this country, trying to manage the affairs of another!Afghanistan, was a big factor in the decline of Russia. Iraq is becoming our Afghanistan.
Afghanistan IS our Afghanistan. Too many fingers in too many pies. Why don’t we concentrate on our OWN country for a while? Defend OUR borders?
Good idea…but too late. We’re too deep in the Middle East quagmire to bail now. We should at least try to stabilize the area before we leave them to the same fate we left the Cambodians.What an expensive tragedy this has been for both us and the Iraqis.
Mary – we deposed the Siahanouk government which led to the killing fields in Cambodia; we have now deposed the Hussein regime in Iraq. It seems that we never learn the Law of Unintended Consequences.
“”"I NEVER agreed with this senseless, stupid war…but we need to stay and try to finsih what we started. To pull our troops out now would be the untimate in irresposibility..we owe it to the Iraqis not to abandon them now.”"”
I am of the same view but my patience is running out. After 7 years of this, it is time to make or break. We are not going to stay there forever and the Iraqis had better get used to the idea that they are going to have to handle their own affairs and soon.
Good point kev. Looking back in time – what did the extra 5 years in VietNam accomplish? The ARVN folded just like the ARI likely will.
I’ve been saying this for four years at least, and it remains true:
When the United States leaves Iraq, be it next year or five years from now or tomorrow afternoon, it’s reasonable to expect a bloodbath. The internal differences between the factions that make up the artificial borders that created Iraq are far deeper than any nation — regardless of religious loyalties — can ever expect to impose on that portion of the planet.
That the arrogant twice-born moron George WMD Bush decided to stir up the hornets’ nest should not justify continuing his self-righteous “crusade,” even if there’s a modicum of morality to consider such as Colin Powell’s “Pottery Barn rule.” “You break it, you own it,” certainly has some moral legitmacy… provided the people and nation we broke really want us to own it.
Most Iraqis simply want us out of the store. They’ll clean up the mess we created, and they’ll probably harbor resentment, but nothing America has done in the Middle East has or is expected to work.
The first rule of getting out of a hole is to stop digging. The Republic Party, on the other hand, simply wants more shovels.
“It seems that we never learn the Law of Unintended Consequences.”
I disagree Mary.
Oh not about bush. They have probably had to install outlet protectors and corner cushions in the White House for him.
But Cheney, and Wolfowitz, and Rumsfeld and those behind them? They knew very well what they were doing. Iraq was not meant to be liberated. It was meant to be made a client state of the US.
And…… we should pay attention to the NYT for exactly WHY ???