Iraq: Leave Or Be Forced Out

[SHRED]

All Bush has done is strengthened the fanatics, to the world's peril.
Bush needs to be on trial for crimes against humanity.

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Iraq: Leave Or Be Forced Out
Gareth Porter
October 17, 2006

Gareth Porter is a historian and national security policy analyst. His latest book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam was published in June 2005.

~snippet~

Sadr is confident that, once the Shiite government has gotten everything it can out of the United States to strengthen Shiite forces, they can defeat the Sunnis by military force. As Moqtada al-Sadr’s spokesman Mustafa Yaqoubi told The Washington Post last month, the “other forces” would not “have the capability to match us.” Yaqoubi also made it clear that Sadr’s Mahdi army intends to force the United States out of Iraq. “If we leave the decision to , they will not leave,” he said, “To get the occupiers to leave, need some sacrifice.”

~snippet~

The reason for the Bush administration’s inattention to the sectarian violence is simple: Focusing on that issue conflicted with the main interest of the Pentagon in building up overwhelmingly Shiite security force to fight the Sunni insurgency. In 2005 and even in 2006, the U.S. command used some of the most notorious Shiite sectarian paramilitary forces, who were known to be guilty of widespread torture of Sunnis, like the Wolf Brigade, to maintain control of Sunni cities like Ramadi.

The Bush administration has no strategy for Iraq except to keep strengthening official Shiite-controlled paramilitary forces of the Iraqi government. The assumption is that Shiite security forces will constrain the larger rogue elements and Shiite militias. But of course, from February through July of this year, in the crucial period of transition to much larger civil war, Iraqi security forces stood aside while Shiites and Sunnis carried out massacres of each other.

FULL ARTICLE:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/17/iraq_leave_or_be_forced_out.php

[MannyGoldstein]

1. The Israelis Told Them

"Ehud Barak, the former Israeli Prime Minister, who supported the Bush Administration’s invasion of Iraq, took it upon himself at this point to privately warn Vice-President Dick Cheney that America had lost in Iraq; according to an American close to Barak, he said that Israel “had learned that there’s no way to win an occupation.” The only issue, Barak told Cheney, “was choosing the size of your humiliation.” Cheney did not respond to Barak’s assessment."

http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/29094

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Cheney did not respond

Because Barak is just another general with battlefield experience, so obviously he knows far less about war than the Dickster.

[Demeter]

3. The Shiites Weren't Born Yesterday

They will be the only winners in this fiasco if there is no policy change. Iraqis would be better off with 3 separate nations--at least the enemy would be well-defined and recognizable!

[kenny blankenship]

4. At this point, or soon, Bush may be WANTING the Democrats to force him out

before the Shia milita begin to attack us in strength the way much smaller Sunni militia have.
It may be that even Bush has seen the writing on the wall now, but is hesitating to look for a way to blame Democrats for the worst foreign policy blunder in US history.