Juan Cole: U.S. Fights Three Wars in Iraq

[Hissyspit]

http://www.juancole.com/2008/02/us-fights-three-wars-in-iraq.html

Sunday, February 03, 2008
US Fights Three Wars in Iraq

Tom Ricks of WaPo says that the US military sees itself as fighting 3 wars:

1. The war against Arab volunteers ("al-Qaeda")

2. The war against Sunni Arab Iraqi dissidents

3. The war against Shiite militias.

The officers he talks to feel good about the second war, which they feel has petered out as Sunni Iraqis have joined the Awakening Councils. They also think they have made progress against the foreign fighters, which they call "al-Qaeda." But they worry most of all about the third war, against Shiite special groups, which they allege deploy roadside bombs against US troops.

In my view, Washington always vastly overestimated the foreign infiltrators, who are a small group that cannot possibly be responsible for as much of the violence as Bush charges.

Likewise, they underestimate the activeness of the Iraqi Sunni Arabs. While the latter may not be fighting US troops as much in al-Anbar, they are still militant in Diyala, Salahuddin and Ninevah Provinces. And some of the operations blamed on "al-Qaeda" are actually those of local Sunni Arabs instead.

The US military seems to read all uses of explosively formed projectiles as Iranian and Shiite. I don't find that plausible and I see notices of US troops being killed by them in Sunni Arab neighborhoods.

As for the Shiite militias being the most dangerous of all, that would depend on what exactly you were planning to do to the Shiite population. It is certainly the case that the Sadrists could well take over Iraq in the 2009 elections, and that their Mahdi Army would then form the National Guard of Iraq, and that they are hostile to the US.

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[no_hypocrisy]

1. And * will characterize each of the three groups as rogue Iranian agents

who are in Iraq for the sole purpose to challenge our country.

[Hissyspit]

2. .