April 13, 2004, Creating tomorrow's terrorists today...
File this one under just bad ideas: the United States military has assembled a 2500 strong force, backed with tanks and heavy artillery, for a direct assault on militias and other forces loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.
I understand the military's desire for some kind of a decisive victory. But winning such a battle will just piss off Shiites... even Shiites not already backing or supportive of Sadr, and that already seems to be quite a few.
The heavy-handed attacks in Fallujah and Sadr's revolt and other factors have already made April the bloodiest month of the war (83 American troops killed so far)... oh-- and its not even the 14th yet. Plus, Grozny and Cali arrive in the Tigris-Euphrates, as kidnappings have become... a factor.
I will phrase it this way: 83 dead over just 2 weeks projects to over 2,000 dead American troops a year. The last time anything like those numbers occurred was during the Vietnam War, and while the Gulf War II casualty count is around 1% of that of Vietnam so far, the trajectory at the moment is not going in a good direction.
So, amidst this... disorderly situation? The President AGAIN TODAY vowed to maintain the June 30th sovereignty transfer, even as at his press conference he acknowledge he had no idea who or what sovereignty would be transferred to. Well, come on-- that's not the President's department. With Iraq, as with 9-11, the economy, and everything else in the United States... the buck stops somewhere else.
Comments
Attacking Najaf would probably create a new September 11 once a month. Juan Cole (http://www.juancole.com/) calls it a Shi'ite Vatican, and he should know, as a prof of ME history and author of a book about them.
I hope surrounding the city is just a bit of really hard bargaining.
Posted by Linkmeister at April 14, 2004 03:55 AM
Come on -- your allegation that Bush said or even indicated that he had no idea who the new Iraqi government will be is just false -- it's just short of a lie, at best. The government has not been finalized and announced, but I think you and all the others who parrot this falsehood are capable of identifying the very good reasons for not divulging much if anything about the the new Iraqi government until it is finalized or nearly so. You may honestly believe that W has not given it much thought and has not been working on it, but that is not a very well-informed belief, is it? You read things other than the headlines and lead articles in the popular media, right?
Posted by bw at April 16, 2004 01:00 PM
bw--
I sincerely hope you are correct-- honestly. I would like to believe nothing more than our government has carefully thought about this, and has a concrete plan in mind for the future of Iraq, and its simply "too dangerous to disclose it now". Of course, I suppose, since the fact that such planning would be entirely inconsistent with everything else the Bush Administration has done on this (or numerous other issues) does not seem to bother you-- so perhaps it shouldn't bother me.
I will just say that when the President shows us that he DESERVES some slack, I will cut him some. Seeing, however, that there is a REASON Jesus Christ is his favorite political philosopher, i,e, everything the President says is ex cathedra, and, seeing as God Himself is in direct communication with him, Mr. Bush is incapable of error, OF COURSE he cannot even think of anything he regrets. (Perhaps he should ask some 9-11 widows, or kids who lost their mommies or daddies in Iraq thanks to his decision to have that war).
Posted by the talking dog at April 16, 2004 01:38 PM
Do the words yeah, right mean anything to you?
Mr. Negroponte said the issue of authority over American and other foreign forces would almost certainly have to be addressed by the Security Council resolution sought by the United States and intended to confer legitimacy on the new government. As a practical matter, Mr. Negroponte said the government that would take control on June 30 could not be in charge of its own security because there were not enough Iraqi security forces. In addition, he said, its status as an unelected "caretaker government" should preclude its ability to make laws; that, he said, should be left until an elected government is installed next year.
I love that "installed."
Now, unless you belong to the school of thought which holds that it's a positive virtue for administrations and their appointees to refuse to honestly advise Congress in return for their consent (and certainly that's the zeitgeist of the current party in power) either they got no plan, or they're planning to put someone in they don't currently care to cop to.
If you feel that it's dishonest or disingenuous to point that out, perhaps you should meditate on the functions and operation of a constitutional democracy.
Count yourself lucky, at that, because the Iraqis have no current use for that particular bit of information.
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