Iraq's Besieged Sunnis Now Looking to U.S.

[ECH1969]

Two years ago, doctor Riyadh Adhadh cursed the U.S. soldiers who had overrun his homeland, toppled the Sunni-dominated government and tormented prisoners at Abu Ghraib. A member of the city council, he loudly demanded that American troops leave Baghdad. Last week, his Sunni Arab neighborhood under attack by Shiite militiamen, Adhadh found himself huddled over the telephone in panic, begging the U.S. Embassy to send American soldiers.

The moment of bitter irony for the 52-year-old father of six is emblematic of a sharp shift in Iraqi opinion. Three years after the March 2003 invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein, with the threat of civil war looming, leaders of a nervous Sunni Arab minority have started to drop demands for an immediate U.S. withdrawal.

"We've changed our ideas," Adhadh said. Iraq's current government, dominated by Shiites, has been "abusing people more than the Americans," he said. "Iraqi security is the responsibility of the Americans. They have established this type of government — this will be written in history. We are living in a jungle."

"When the Americans entered Iraq, the Shia helped them a lot, and the Sunnis stood against them," said Alaa Makki, a senior leader in the Iraqi Islamic Party, the main Sunni party. But "the Sunnis are now accepting the American political direction. It's not suitable for the Americans to leave. Everything they have arranged during the past three years would be destroyed."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-sunnis5mar05,0,5927382.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[DavidDvorkin]

1. We definitely need to take sides in an Iraqi civil war

Specifically, we need to side with the Sunnis. Help them gain the upper hand and dominate the country. Perhaps we can help install a brutal, murderous Sunni strongman as dictator. Then, with the country at peace, we can finally leave.

Mission accomplished.

[demosincebirth]

2. Thats probably what will end up happening.

But a brutal dictator friendly to the U.S.

[KC21304]

3. That would be Saddam Hussien. l980's model.

[MadisonProgressive]

18. Surely Saddam would cooperate at this point! Put him back in!

On edit: Just want you to know that this was said with tongue firmly planted in cheek!

[daleo]

4. Then the thousands of dead U.S. troops and 10's of 1000s of Iraqis

Can just pop back to life, and Bush can say "no harm, no foul".

[DavidDvorkin]

14. He would, too

[0007]

9. It is their country and it is their civil war. We DO NOT need

to take a side. How would we have felt if some country interfered with our civil war?

I think you're kidding anyway!

[DavidDvorkin]

15. Yes, I was kidding

Making a bitter joke about installing a dictator just like Saddam, but with a different name.

[wellst0nev0ter]

17. But-But Flat-Earth Friedman Says We Need To Help The Shia

massacre the Sunnis:

That will become clear in the next few months as we see just what kind of minority the Sunnis in Iraq intend to be. If they come around, a decent outcome in Iraq is still possible, and we should stay to help build it. If they won't, then we are wasting our time. We should arm the Shi’ites and Kurds and leave the Sunnis of Iraq to reap the wind. We must not throw more good American lives after good American lives for people who hate others more than they love their own children.

http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2005/october-2005/iraq_communities_61005.shtml

[bemildred]

5. No they aren't. What bullshit. nt

[Disturbed]

6. The Sunnis screwed up.

They should have denounced al Q immediately when it became evident that the most terrorist attacks came from that group. This would have given them some credibilty with the Shi'ites and Kurds. Now they are being decimated by Shi'ite and Iranian backed Death Squads. The Golden Dome Mosque destruction was blamed on the Sunnis without any evidence of their involment and many Sunni Mosques have been destroyed and Sunnis have been attacked, injured or killed. The situation in Iraq is getting worse not better. Those Elections touted by the Neo Fascist Regime of Bush as grand democratic breakthroughs mean little to most Iraqis.

[bemildred]

12. This is propaganda.

It is the US that wants to make league with the Sunni to offset the rise of the Shi'ia.

[VegasWolf]

7. What bullshit! Americans to the rescue huh? nt

[ECH1969]

8. The Shia are going to butcher the Sunnis

The Sunnis made their bed with AQ over the past two years and now they are going to pay the price.

[Yupster]

10. Not to brag, but for the last two years

I've been saying that if the Sunnis don't like things with us there, wait until we leave.

The Sunnis worst nightmare is the US gone and the Shi-ite militias sweeping through the Sunni Triangle sending the surviving Sunni population hurtling toward the Syrian border.

Toward the end of WWII, German soldiers had a little bit of dry humor... "Enjoy the war because the peace will be horrible."

[Yupster]

11. Not to brag, but for the last two years

I've been saying that if the Sunnis don't like things with us there, wait until we leave.

The Sunnis worst nightmare is the US gone and the Shi-ite militias sweeping through the Sunni Triangle sending the surviving Sunni population hurtling toward the Syrian border.

Toward the end of WWII, German soldiers had a little bit of dry humor... "Enjoy the war because the peace will be horrible."

[Warren Stupidity]

13. Ah I see our ministry of psyops is busy again. nt.

[Roland99]

16. "Iraqi security is the responsibility of the Americans"

Uhh...no it isn't. At least not totally.

It's been almost 3 years since the initial invasion and well over 2 years that Iraqi security forces have been undergoing training to replace American...er...coalition forces.

It's time Iraqis stood up for themselves.



Trouble is, that's likely going to mean an all-out civil war that will one day result in a more solid Iraqi government.



But, there will still be tensions for decades to come.