Iraqi bloggers verifies what Kerry has been saying all along

[beachmom]

Sen. Kerry has been saying that Iraq is NOT the center of the War on Terror, and that al Qaeda is not so big a factor there, in spite of the president's rhetoric. Kerry cited intelligence reports that said jihadists are only a small number in Iraq and that only a political solution will end the war between the Sunnis and the Shia.

It's nice to hear the words of an Iraqi who actually lives there echo how small a role al Qaeda plays:

http://ejectiraqikkk.blogspot.com/2006/10/mecca-document-iraqis-choose-mahdis.html

Here, the Kid is making a little fun of some religious leaders and politicians who have issued a "fatwa" to end violence in Iraq -- he thinks it's a shallow move that will change nothing. Then he says this:

Unless the National Reconcillation gimmick targets those who you should really make up your peace with, the blood-soaked Baathists, the backbone of the insurgency, who had their homes and money but now lost it all and are giving Iraqis and Americans a hard time about it, it will be fruitless. al-Qaeda is worthless without their straetgic allies the Baathists, who adopted a more Islamic veil to fit in with the times and bring us all to this sectarain lollapalooza.

So, in the end, this has to do with the usual themes of every war since the beginning of time -- money and power. The Sunnis fighting for the insurgency used to run the place and had a nice life to go along with it, and after the Americans came, they lost everything. If you watched PBS's Frontline last week, you would see that Paul Bremer singlehandedly created the insurgency by his CPA orders #1 and #2 -- deBaathification and the disbandment of the Iraqi Army. Al Qaeda in Iraq is only along for the ride -- they and the insurgents are using each other in an alliance that will most definitely fall apart as soon as an agreement is reached with the Shias and the Americans leave. It is really quite annoying when the president of the United States is trying to prop up al Qaeda in Iraq to a higher status than they could ever dream of achieving. It's a lie and it needs to stop.

[beachmom]

1. And, here is an article about the battle for Baghdad

Kerry's assessments once again are right.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-10-22-baghdad-crossfire_x.htm

The raging battle for Baghdad is looking more like a civil war, even if the U.S. and Iraqi governments avoid using the term. And it is prompting tough questions: Is the Iraqi government up to the job of restoring order? Does the U.S. military need to fundamentally change course to prevail?

snip

"You will never have enough troops to secure a city this big" without reaching a political deal, said Anthony Cordesman, an analyst with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

snip

"To fight these extrajudicial killings effectively, we need to be embedded, almost one to one, with the Iraqi security forces," said Sgt. 1st Class Jeff Nelson, an intelligence analyst with the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, based in Baghdad. "We need to watch their every move."


snip



Capt. Alan Rena co, a fire support officer for another unit, said troops are often asked to hunt down death squads and insurgents — but avoid being overly aggressive — to gather evidence to later a convict a suspect. "We're not trained in this. We're not cops," he said. "We just want them to settle down long enough to get out of here."



Read the whole thing, of course, but our troops are fighting in the middle of a civil war in the WORST set of circumstances. In short, the nightmare that we all feared has come true.

[sandnsea]

2. The Sadr militia is bad too

We need to be careful to remember that everybody has a bias, even in Iraq. The Sadr Shi'ites have contributed significantly to the violence in Iraq and as I recall, were the first to start the fighting. It was quite ironic to me that, those first months, we were fighting the exact same Shi'ites that we were supposedly liberating. The same ones Saddam had fought. There's no good guys and bad guys in Iraq, there's just a bunch of people who hate each other and others who are manipulating that hate for their own ends.

[beachmom]

3. Yes, but al Qaeda is Sunni, and they're the ones Bush talks about

every day, when they are only one small piece of a large and complex war. That Iraqi blogger I cited is Sunni, and he talks about how the Shi'ite militias are actually killing more people than any other group (no idea if that's true).

The Shi'ites supposedly were going to be part of the political process, as urged by al Sistani in the runup to the January '05 elections, but since law and order was NEVER achieved, that completely fell apart, most notably when the shrine in Samara was bombed 2/22/06.

I agree there are no good guys among the fighters in Iraq. The good Iraqis are those holed up in their apartments waiting for the storm to pass, but know that it won't anytime soon.

[TayTay]

4. Read this article in today's LATimes

and despair. Sorry, but it is that bad. I can't even excerpt this one, it has to be read in it's awful entirety.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fg-baghdad23oct23,0,361375.story?coll=la-home-headlines


Remember these words from April 6, 2006 when Sen. Allard of Colorado said Kerry was just spiining in order to take advantage of the political tides in America? Remember part of what Kerry said in rebuttal on the Senate floor?

The fact is it's now a civil war, and our troops can't resolve a civil war. No matter how valiant, and they have been, and no matter how courageous, and they have been, and no matter how skilled and they have been. This is the best military I’ve ever seen. These are the best young men and women I’ve ever met, and it's been my privilege to go to Iraq and meet them. And they are making progress in certain areas, but their progress is set back by the unwillingness of Iraqis to pick up the baton of democracy. You have to compromise.

And the whole reason they think they can sit there and not compromise is because the president's policy is just stay the course, stay the course, stay the course. We have an occasional visit by the secretary state or somebody to suggest they ought to do more. Ambassador Khalilzad is -- ambassador call Khalilzad is a terrific person, skilled. He's doing a terrific job, but he can't do this alone.

So I believe we ought to have a real debate about policy, a policy where they told us it would cost $20 billion to $30 billion. Remember that, colleagues?

Remember Mr. Wolfowitz in front of the committees telling us, oh, the Iraqi oil's going to pay for the war.

Remember them telling us that the soldiers were going to be received like conquering heroes with flowers all across Iraq? And then when looting broke out, remember Mr. Rumsfeld standing and saying that Washington is safer than Baghdad and looting happens?

Remember how they didn't even guard the ammo dumps and our kids started to get blown up with the ammo they could have guarded. No planning was put in place.

Anybody who wants to read about Iraq, go read the book "Cobra II," and you can read an astounding story of negligence and malfeasance, misfeasance with respect to this war, companies over billing us, Halliburton, by billions of dollars.

You want to run down the list of things that are egregious with respect to this war?

I tell you one thing I know well, and I’ll remind the Senator from Colorado, half the names on the wall of that Vietnam Memorial, half the names on that wall became names of the dead after our leaders knew our policy wouldn't work.

Well, our policy isn't working today, and I’m not going to be a United States Senator who adds to the next wall wherever it may be put that honors those who served in Iraq so that once again people point to a bunch of names that are added after we knew something was wrong. We have a bigger responsibility than that.

Sen. John Kerry, April 6, 2006 -- from the Congressional Record.

May God have mercy on our collective soul. What have we done in Iraq?

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[beachmom]

5. Truly devastating, and it would be even without our troops there

That's the most horrible irony of it all. WE created this. We created another Bosnia, but this time there's no one to go in and stop the violence.

[ProSense]

6. Nothing can penetrate

the hearts of the evil warmongers:

They'll continue spewing fear:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2900540&mesg_id=2900540

Iraq will keep getting worse:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2899436&mesg_id=2899436

Bush will continue being a callous ass:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=2457018&mesg_id=2457018

[ProSense]

7. Speaking of fear mongering, check out

the RNC's new ad posted here:

http://www.prospect.org/horsesmouth/2006/10/post_409.html#014078