BLIND FAITH

IRAQIS HAVE DECIDED Iraq is their country after all. This presents problems for the country that said it would stay in Iraq as long as it takes and not a day longer.  How do you pick a time to leave when a leading Iraqi cleric (Allah’s pick?) says Iraqis would do better if they led the fight you have led so far?  How do you pick a time to leave when Allawi (the former US pick!) says security is worse off than it was under Saddam  Hussein?  Have we been blind to what has been going on or has someone thrown sand in our eyes on this?
NO ONE COULD HAVE FORESEEN these sudden problems of Iraqis taking the fire of freedom and burning the Bush administration with it.  We don’t want the next smoking gun to be a huge explosion in the Green Zone.  The cleric obviously has an agenda as does Allawi.  Maybe the United States could put listening on the President’s agenda.  Whatever “victory” is in that war sundered land must be an Iraqi one.  We are blind if we insist otherwise.

IF THE CALL of Abdul Aziz Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, were not enough concern for the United States, another more contentious cleric Moktada al-Sadr has grown yet more powerful.  His militia the Mahdi Army has not disbanded. al-Sadr has been more than a mote in American eye for some time.  In ways the United States may not see (or is it not officially recognize?), al-Sadr embodies the United States condundrum in Iraq.  Foremost he doesn't accept United States authority. 

STANDING AS A GUERILLA in opposition, al-Sadr also instructs his Mahdi followers to join the local police forces.  The question of who controls Iraqi security and how it will evolve could not be more in focus.  Shiite control of security forces has been blamed for the vengeful torture that recently took place at the Interior Ministry.  The British think a purge of al-Sadr elements in the police is in order before they can withdraw.  Withdrawal for the British is inevitable.
 
WITHDRAWAL BY UNITED STATES forces is already taking place.  Or is the preferred word "redeployed?"  Entire cities and regions have been left to the Iraqis to contend with among themselves.  If we are taking the fight to "the terrorists" over there so we don't have to fight them here, "over there" is growing smaller and more specific.  If things continue at the present pace, at some point we may not be able to see how small "over there" is.

I COULDA BEEN A CONTENDER but The Heretik will leave now leave contending views to others. Ranting Prof discounts the power of the cleric who wants more power in Iraqi hands.  Blogenlust points to Murray Waas on immediate post 9/11 intelligence and asks the question: Putting all cynicism aside, has anything good come of this war?

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READING
THE WAY FORWARD [LA Times] Iraq's Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders have finally found an issue on which they agree: a timetable for the U.S. to leave Iraq. That's fine. They have also agreed it's permissible for insurgents to kill U.S. soldiers. That's dreadful. But it's also the realization of prewar fears that if the aftermath of the invasion went poorly, American troops would be viewed not as liberators but as occupiers.
The politicians did not spell out an exact date for U.S. troops to leave. That may be the reason the White House so far has not linked them to filmmaker Michael Moore, as it did 10 days ago in smearing decorated combat veteran Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) when he called for a immediate withdrawal of troops.

IRAQ, THEN AND NOW [Michael J.W.Stickings/ The Moderate Voice] Allawi is surely onto something. He may overstate the case, and he may have an ax to grind, but abuse is a reality in present-day Iraq -- and I don't mean Abu Ghraib-style abuse. And what concerns me, given this ongoing abuse, is that Iraqis will soon have to govern themselves without the large-scale presence of an occupying power. Are they prepared to do so without sliding back into Saddam-style oppression?

Comments

[blogenfreude]

Don't they understand? Their country is located on top of our oil! Something's gotta' give!