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August 8, 2005
On 'Disagreeing about Iraq'
Topics: Iraq"McQ" has a interesting piece at The Libertarian Blog on a few of the political-"speaks" involved in the discourse on our presence in Iraq and where it's going:
"Condi Rice is of the opinion that the insurgency in Iraq is losing steam.I wonder how fast the "insurgency" (Saddamites and foreign jihadists - Steven Vincent) would last if Joseph Biden and his fellow liberals got solidly behind the war effort and made it clear that American troops have the support of the their nation, and it's predident, and are staying until the job is done and the Saddamites get behind the political process and join the new Iraq to build a better country for all Iraqis!"It's a lot easier to see the violence and suicide bombing than to see the rather quiet political progress that's going on in parallel," Rice said "If you think about how to defeat an insurgency, you defeat it not just militarily but politically," she said, adding that she believes the insurgents are "losing steam" politically.I agree ... partially. But as we've covered a number of times, there are the insurgents and then there are the terrorists, and for whatever reason, they seem to be continually lumped together into this "insurgent" ball.The insurgents represent those groups, primarily Sunnis, who are dedicated to getting the US out of Iraq. They are not necessarily dedicated to destroying the new and emerging government in Iraq. It is they who may be losing steam politically.
On the other hand, the terrorists, as represented by foreign al Queda operatives and Ba'athist sympathizers, don't care a bit about the politics of the situation. They obviously don't care if they are popularly supported (as evidenced by their habit of blowing up Iraqis) and they'll not stop until they're successful in destroying any emerging democratic instutions in Iraq.
So, while the insurgents may indeed be losing steam politically, that won't necessarily stop the violence or even dampen the level of violence (at least in short bursts). But, should the insurgents see enough progress politically (i.e. the Sunnis are a major part of any government) and feel comfortable enough that US troops are going to withdraw relatively soon, we may see an easing of that insurgency. However, the terrorism will continue unabated and absolutely unconcerned with the politics of the situation. That leaves the US and Iraqi forces with little choice but to root them out and kill them." Continue reading...
As to an 'on-the-ground' assessment of what's been going on with those Saddamites and the jihadis, especially with the issue of the increase in sophistication and availability of the bombs, a good measure of the activity there, particularly via the influence of Syria and Iran, I asked an Iraqi in Babylon that's a keen observer of the matter. Here are excerpts from his emailed response:
Dear Richard, As to your question regarding the "Why" the Iranian govt. is supplying bombs to the Sunni insurgents to kill American forces. Mainly, Iran wants to weaken the Iraqi Government - they know well (especially for the last 2 months) that the current 'elected' government is no more enjoying their dream (Iran's). They know well of the awakening of Iraqi people who surely are going to stand together by side of the liberal represented by Ayad Alawy the ex. Prime minister , the independents represented by Mahdi Al-Hafez, other Sunni parties & National reconciliation represented by Dr. Jabur together with other liberal parties like Iraqi communist party.Perhaps the most relative point (to this post) here is that there are factors in the overall equation that are beyond the somewhat narrower scope of what Joseph Biden, Generals McCaffery, Casey, and Vines, and Condi Rice have addressed, at least as reveiwed in McQ's excellent post and the subsequent well thought out comments from commentors. It's like pumping water out of a pond being fed by an ocean. We need to stop the ocean of jihadists, money, and weapons coming in from Syria and Iran, before we can dry up the pond in Iraq. This takes us right back to McQ's post, in which he says that it would be quite refreshing "to see some actual political leadership in which the left joins the right in saying, resolutely, that we're not going anywhere until Iraq has a functioning government which can take care of itself in the security realm."All these parts would unbalance the current political equation.
Further, Iranian policy has a thread with the Lebanese Hizballah represented by the idiot Nasrallah. Thus those special strong new bombs are Iranian locally made bombs. By the way even other attacking rockets used in Lebanon are in a way or another made in Iran. Nasrallah is only expert in wrapping his turban taking care of his beard and the special lock of his hair to overlook out of his turban.That is how such bombs travel from Iran by some of their highways people. Then bombs are conveyed to Syria. Here is the basic cell for the terrorists. These are the first lots when, after experimenting such bombs on some targets and proved successful, however they come to a certain agreement. No need to get Iranian made bomb, since raw materials are available in Lebanon & Syria when the know-how by now is available in South Lebanon. Thus bombs can be easily transported to Syria.
Through Syria ahead to Alqaim at the Syrian-Iraqi borders, the charge is to be delivered to Hadeetha, a city close to Syrian borders where current attempts are run now for clearing those insurgents.
So there is no real cooperation between those sides. The real cause behind is interest and l guess the main interest is money. That is my view point. (Sabah Jasim - Babylon Iraq)
In the event that such leadership and it's fallout of support for success in Iraq did in fact occur, AND the administration made it clear that it would no longer tolerate the support of terrorism in Iraq by Syria and Iran - to the extent of cross-border bombing, then we'd perhaps see the begining of the end of the Sadammites and jihadis, and the true begining of a new nation called Iraq.
Posted by Hyscience at August 8, 2005 12:48 PM
Articles Related to Iraq:
- Costs Of Illegal Aliens Approaching Cost Of War In Iraq - Apr 22, 2008
- Iraq Today: By The Numbers - Apr 08, 2008
- WSJ: 'The Petraeus Effect' - Apr 08, 2008
- Report: 'Saddam Transferred WMDs To Syria' - Apr 07, 2008
- Iraqi Christians: Exodus, Ethnic Cleansing and Identity Annihilation - Apr 07, 2008
- Defeatacrats And Surrender-Media Screwed Again - This Time By Sadr Surrender - Apr 07, 2008
- Al-Qaeda Terrorist Leader Arrested SW of Mosul By Iraqi Police; Name Witheld - Mar 29, 2008
- More WaPo Shameful Shrills For The Enemy - Mar 29, 2008
- Michael Yon On Iraq - Mar 28, 2008
- Obama Wrong On Al-Qaeda In Iraq And Iran Connection - Mar 19, 2008
