I like this article a lot. What it demonstrates is that US strategy is having some success. The Sunnis are beginning to realize what a huge mistake they made agreeing to work with Al Qaeda, and some of them have actually come to the conclusion that they need to work through the political process or they will be slaughtered by the Shia militias.
If we actually get the political OK to go after the militias, we could broker a cease-fire between the parties. Al Qaeda is still a wild-card, but they always will be. I think this is our last offer of help to the Iraqi government and if it doesn't pan out, we'll probably bail in short order. If that happens, Iraq could turn into a meat-grinder with Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia all getting into the conflict. Bad news. On 1/15/07, Gruss wrote: > > One morning a few weeks ago I sat in a car talking to Rami, a > thick-necked former Republican Guard commando who now procures arms > for his fellow Sunni insurgents. > > Rami was explaining how the insurgency had changed since the first > heady days after the US invasion. "I used to attack the Americans when > that was the jihad. Now there is no jihad. Go around and see in > Adhamiya [the notorious Sunni insurgent area] - all the commanders are > sitting sipping coffee; it's only the young kids that are fighting > now, and they are not fighting Americans any more, they are just > killing Shia. There are kids carrying two guns each and they roam the > streets looking for their prey. They will kill for anything, for a > gun, for a car and all can be dressed up as jihad." > [snip] > > He told me that one of his main suppliers had been an interpreter > working for the US army in Baghdad. "He had a deal with an American > officer. We bought brand new AKs and ammunition from them." He claimed > the American officer, whom he had never met but he believed was a > captain serving at Baghdad airport, had even helped to divert a > truckload of weapons as soon as it was driven over the border from > Jordan. > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1989397,00.html > -- --------------- Robert Munn www.funkymojo.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:224750 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
