Come on now, guys… He’s only spent four years’ time, 3000 US casualties, and 450 billion tax dollars so far.
Give the guy a fair chance to get things right.
More than enough troops. That is, if it’s combined with a commitment to go offensive on Shia and Sunni militias. Not these swat like raids and security patrols. Not to mention the continued pull backs of troops when they start taking such actions.
Kill Sadr and his top henchman, and sack Sadr city with extreme prejudice, for example. A cleric preaches against the Iraqi government and inflames anti-us troop passions? No more cleric.
[quote]pookie wrote:
Barring that, you need to pick a side to back and crush the other. You want to put back the Sunnis in power and keep Saudi Arabia happy? Or do you prefer backing the Shiites and maybe appeasing Iran while pissing off Israel? I’d probably pick the Sunnis, since they appear to be quite a bit more pussified than the Shiites, and I’d rather deal with a country run by pussies.[/quote]
The Sunnis are like 20% of the population.
Good luck with that.
[quote]Sloth wrote:
Kill Sadr and his top henchman, and sack Sadr city with extreme prejudice, for example. A cleric preaches against the Iraqi government and inflames anti-us troop passions? No more cleric. [/quote]
Actually Sadr is one of the more nationalistic leaders in Iraq. Sadr wants to keep Iraq together. That is clearly in contrast with others in the resistance, who don’t feel any nationalistic urge, or might have more allegiances to Iran than they do to Iraq. In this regard, Sadr’s goals line up with the US goals.
What Sadr does preach is resistance to the US occupation. He also calls the Maliki government a puppet government. That’s why we want to kill him.
Since there are very few voices calling for a unified Iraq, it might not be so smart to kill Sadr. It’s cetainly not so cut and dried. And killing him would probably make the unrest worse, not better.
Israelis ‘train Kurdish forces’
The BBC has obtained evidence that Israelis have been giving military training to Kurds in northern Iraq…
The news will most probably increase tension between the Kurds and Iraq’s Arab population, both Sunnis and Shias, reinforcing fears that the Kurds are pursuing a secessionist agenda.
This would be a serious blow to efforts for national reconciliation at a time when hundreds of Iraqis are killed every month in inter-communal violence…
Report: Former IDF commandos secretly trained Kurdish soldiers
Iraqi newspapers have reported that Israeli soldiers have trained Kurdish troops but the Kurdish authorities deny allowing any Israelis into Iraq.
The Kurds’ political enemies have long accused them of an alliance with Israel while Israel’s critics suspect it wants to use the Kurdish region as a strategic base to get closer to its arch-enemy Iran…
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/765068.html
[quote]Brad61 wrote:
The Sunnis are like 20% of the population.
Good luck with that.[/quote]
They were running the show under Saddam, so it’s not so farfetched.
Of course, the “ruling methods” required would just bring you back to square one with a new dictator… Can’t really keep a “democratic government” in place with 20% support.
Olbermann lays it out…
Olbermann: A Look Backward at the Commander’s Credibility