This solution proposes the pullout of some troops, but not a complete pullout YET.
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The actual Iraq War is over. Much of the battle against insurgents is accomplished. Now our forces are stuck in the middle of a civil war. The insurgents need to be finished off and the civil war ended.
Diplomacy is the key to all of this. The Iraq Study Group Report was passed over by the "decider" as soon as it came out. Bush needed to show that he was in control, and refuses to listen. He has to learn he can't have everything he wants, especially now that Democrats are in control of Congress. Serious negotiations with Iran and Syria must be immediate and unconditional.
The civil war is mind numbing. If the Iraqis could just get along, everyones life would be better. This is not a probable option. This point is where one must decide on whether to increase troops or partially withdraw (completely pulling out is not an option). The military is stretched too thin. Approxamitely half the American soldiers should be pulled out. ASAP. The troops that remain there should play an advisory role. Embedded in Iraqi units, they would train and aid Iraqi soldiers.
U.S. troops should take an advisory role while the government backs down and tries diplomacy. This is not our war any more. Its the Iraqis.
Friday, March 02, 2007
The Solution to Iraq
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4 comments:
I fail to understand why the attacks against civilians are continuously presented as a "civil war"
The overwhelming majority of attacks have been against the Shia community.
Doesn't it take two to tango?
Chas
There has also been plenty of attacks against Sunnis. The Mahdi Army (Al-Sadr's) along with other Shiite militis have forced many Sunnis to leave their homes.
Simmons,
That is definetly the impression you get from the media.
But if you cast your mind back over the last few months all the street market bombings were in Shia areas. The university campus that was bombed twice was Shia.
That is a huge number of casualties in the Shia community.
Against all that there was 1 (one) bombing of a Sunni mosque.
I know it is distasteful to play a "numbers game" with the corpses of innocent victims but it does seem to me to be relevant in view of the current direction of US policy.
It is extremely hard and frustrating to get reliable stats on the ethnic/religious breakdown of casualties .. and there have been the victims of death squads some of whom may be Sunni.
Even allowing for all that I am still convinced that the overwhelming majority of attacks have been against the Shia.
What is remarkable and seemingly unacknowledged is the restraint shown by the Shia community in the face of such an onslaught.
I am sure there have been some Shia attacks on the Sunni but if you make any effort at all to analyse the numbers you will come to the same conclusion. Not a civil war but an attempt by Al-Queda infuenced Sunni extremists at ethnic cleansing.
I'm not saying that the Mahdi army is not a problem but I would say that most Shia militia are primarily defensive in nature and exist as a reult of US and Iraqi Gov failure to provide security.
Consequently the shift of US and Iraqi Gov focus toward Shia militias is hard to understand.
When you fail to identify the proble correctly your solution is likely to be wrong as well.
Chas
Maybe you're right about the media. There is only so much you can learn without going there.
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