The next Iraqi or American official to be asked about "civil war" might want to reply by asking the journalist who, precisely, is fighting whom, and why Iraqi security officers of all backgrounds continue to risk their lives for the elected Baghdad government. The truth is that the enemies of Mr. Maliki's government are terrorists and thugs. Mr. Bush could help give Mr. Maliki the confidence he needs for the tough fight ahead -- first against the Sunni terrorists, then against the Shiite revenge killers -- by assuring him that U.S. policy will be based on this fact.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Iraqi Leadership and "Civil War"
From where we sit, we find ourselves compelled by the insightful analysis in today's WSJ "Review and Outlook." With several MSM outlets affirming "civil war" in Iraq, we'll go with the more nuanced and comprehensive view of the situation epitomized in this closing paragraph:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
With all the talks of civil war and about the US trying to help the Iraqi's fight for their own country, has anyone put serious thought into letting Iraq be three seperate countries? There seem to be a level of enmity between the Sunnii's and Shiite's and the Kurds aren't doing so great either. Has anyone put any serious level of thought into the idea that maybe Iraq might work better as three seperate divisions? I know the quick answer is no because they'd probably just attack each other more because there would be nothing stopping them from such action but it does pose an interesting thought.
Hensel:
On this blog, yes there has been serious discussion. In the White House, no there hasn't been serious discussion. And there won't be. So there ain't much point in debating it until Bush is out of office.
In the meantime, you can wonder what could have been. Partition is Iraq's only hope, and it would be a slim hope. Partition is fraught with all sorts of difficulties. Without a wall (as in a physical "partition" between the Palestinians and Israel), the warlording will continue.
SWNID and others are right. It's not a civil war. It's more like gang warfare. The commoners are trying not to get blown up on the way to the bread store. It's mogadishu style warlording. It's a tribal culture that thrives on the power of belonging to that tribe and attempting to eliminate other competing tribes.
Translated to the 21st century (since most of the tribes are now indistinguishable by their appearance and clothing and geography), it's Sunni versus Shia versus Kurd.
Except for the whole verses Kurds part. The are perfectly happy to stay in the north in peace. They're not activily going south and killing sunnis and shias. As for spliting the country into three...I do not see it happening and working.
What they need to do is drop another 200K GI's in the AO and knock out this gang warfare. We went in shallow and stayed away from the Powell doctrine throughout the invasion, its time we go back to it and take care of buisness.
And on another note, why do people feel they must let me know how they feel about the war whenever I'm traveling in uniform. No one ever does this when I'm in civilian clothing. And to be honest, telling a buck sergant you don't support the war isn't going to stop it, sorry to break it to you.
thanks for the thoughts
Guy Named Courtney: Whether you're in or out of uniform, we appreciate your service more than you can know. The enormous sacrifices made by uniformed military personnel for the good of the citizens of the United States and people everywhere deserve our deepest gratitude all the time.
Guy named Courtney: I second SWNID's expression of gratitude. At the same time, I understand your frustration. I suppose the answer to your question is that we civilians feel as though the only people connected to the war effort who will listen to us are those--like you--that we have direct access to. Thanks for listening, even though you're not really in a position to do much about our concerns. Perhaps if we all paused for a moment and took a deep breath, you wouldn't have to play the role of a therapist and could, instead, get back to what you've been trained to do.
Thank you, you have no idea a show of support means to me.
Post a Comment