June 2, 2007
AN INSUFFICIENTLY DEADLY WAR:
Baghdad clashes point to rift in Sunni Arab insurgency: Nationalists battling Al Qaeda in a district of the capital are fed up with indiscriminate bloodletting and extremism. (Ned Parker, Said Rifai and Saif Hameed, June 2, 2007, LA Times)
Fighters allied with Al Qaeda battled Iraqi civilians and a nationalist insurgent group in the Amariya neighborhood of west Baghdad this week, in the latest indication of growing internal strife in Iraq's troubled Sunni Arab community.The clashes in the suburb, home during Saddam Hussein's rule to elite civil servants and military officers, appear to be a spillover from the fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq in the neighboring province of Al Anbar and Baghdad's western suburb of Abu Ghraib. [...]
The neighborhood has become a stronghold for Al Qaeda in Iraq since late 2004, when militants fleeing a U.S. offensive in Fallouja turned the district into their enclave.
Note that what lurks here is the real story of how the military and the Administration mishandled the war. Such a neighborhood should have ceased to exist, and those living in it been killed, before we halted hostilities in Spring 2003. War has become so easy for us that we run the risk of making it too easy on the enemy as well. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 2, 2007 7:29 AM
We never defeated the Sunni decisivly as we tore up through Shite territories to bagdhad as the Sunni faded away into their enclaves following free shopping sprees at Sadaam's arms depots.
I still blame the Turks for back stabbing our plans for the 4th Div. and it turns out Shinseki(sp.)was probably closer in his assesment than we gave him credit for. I hope this will be the last discretionary (pre-emptive) "war" we do on the cheap ... overwhelming force never hurt anyone but the enemy.
Posted by: Genecis at June 2, 2007 9:49 AMIt wasn't just Turkey - Frogistan helped by dangling EU membership....
Posted by: Sandy P at June 2, 2007 10:04 AMTurkey didn't matter, that's military geek talk.
Posted by: oj at June 2, 2007 1:21 PMI disagree. Turkey mattered. The 4ID was supposed to kill a bunch of these people before they were able to scurry away. For instance, Tikrit was supposed to be theirs but other units, responsible for points to the south, had to be sent there. By the time they went through the Suez, disembarked and drove north they had gone to ground.
A big failing was not letting their fellow citizens deal with them quickly enough when we were unable to do so. It is happening slowly now 4 years too late. A lot of the hard core sunni baathists are being run out of the country by militias either acting outside the government or within the army and police units they have essentially taken over.
Shinseki was right if this was the full blown Colonial Office type occupation it appears the state dept wanted vs. the get in/get out approach Rumsfeld obviously preferred. Bush/Rice are to blame for not choosing one or the other. We got the worst of both.
Posted by: JAB at June 2, 2007 6:16 PM