February 24, 2007
AS THEY STAND UP WE CAN STAND DOWN:
Shiite Protests Send Message (ROBERT H. REID, 2/24/07, AP)
Thousands of Shiites on Saturday protested the U.S. detention of the son of Iraq's most powerful Shiite politician, and the country's Kurdish president deplored the "uncivilized" behavior of the American soldiers responsible.The real message of the demonstrations: Don't push the Shiites too far either over concessions to the Sunnis or ties to Iran .
The surge makes sense for Iraqis only to the extent that it targets the Sunni. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 24, 2007 5:37 PM
Great headline.
The battle-cry entombs THE FORMER IRAQ, and gee-willikers, we never saw it coming, are our faces red!
Let us now begin to ask the crucial question. What does the final victory look life. The first principle of war is objective. Before we can plan anything, we must know what is we are trying to accomplish. Do we want to shatter the jailhouse into self-destroying fragments? Do we desire the reformation of its remnants into the contents of civilization?
We need to look at the possibilities for the future. Stability, the way things were before, is not one of them. We should join oj in rooting for the Sheites, not for any preference for their faction over the other, but by way of welcoming the confusion, with hope for a better future.
Posted by: Lou Gots at February 24, 2007 11:09 PMOur goal for Iraq is the same as our goal for everyone, consensual government and a regime of liberty. But that doesn't mean everyone has to consent. You get rid of those who don't.
Posted by: oj at February 25, 2007 7:17 AM