« Press Release from Institute for War and Peace Reporting | Home | "My Name is Rachel Corrie": handing out more flyers »
October 26, 2006
Invaluable Advice: If Only We Had Done This in 2003
[ From Judith: This is another way of looking at it. "Bleeding Kansas" is cited in the comments. ]
Here's Ralph Peters with some invaluable advice about Iraq:
The first thing we need to do is to kill Muqtada al-Sadr, who's now a greater threat to our strategic goals than Osama bin Laden.I've been saying exactly the same thing for years. They should have taken the bull by the horns and faced down the mob then. Since we have left him alone, the situation has deteriorated massively and he is at the heart of many of our problems, and Iraq's.We should've killed him in 2003, when he first embarked upon his murder campaign. But our leaders were afraid of provoking riots.
Back then, the tumult might've lasted a week. Now we'll face a serious uprising. So be it. When you put off paying war's price, you pay compound interest in blood.
We must kill - not capture - Muqtada, then kill every gunman who comes out in the streets to avenge him.
Peters also points out the obvious about the Maliki Government and its effect on Iraq.
I lost faith in our engagement in Iraq last week. I can pinpoint the moment. It came when I heard that Maliki had demanded - successfully - that our military release a just-captured deputy of Muqtada al-Sadr who was running death squads.As a former intelligence officer, that told me two things: First, Iraq's prime minister is betting on Muqtada to prevail, not us. Second, Muqtada, not the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is now the most powerful man in Iraq...
Our soldiers and Marines are dying to protect a government whose members are scrambling to ally themselves with sectarian militias and insurgent factions. President Bush needs to face reality. The Maliki government is a failure.
There's still a chance, if a slight one, that we can achieve a few of our goals in Iraq - if we let our troops make war, not love. But if our own leaders are unwilling to fight, it's time to leave and let Iraqis fight each other.
Our president owes Iraq's treacherous prime minister nothing. Get tough, or get out.
Alcibiades | 10/26/06 at 11:45 PM | Categories: - Iraq
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.keshertalk.com/cgi-bin/mtb.cgi/5774
Blogs which link to Invaluable Advice: If Only We Had Done This in 2003:
» Nation-building and good intentions from Kesher Talk
Cal Thomas interviews Condi Rice, who tries to make the case for a Palestinian State, based on the universal appeal of freedom and prosperity: . . . . you can look at any opinion poll in the Palestinian territories and... [Read More]
Tracked on October 30, 2006 02:56 AM
Comments
Amen. I don't think Mailiki is treacherous, though, just weak. We have certainly been sending him mixed signals so why shouldn't he cover his ass? But it would be better if he were strong. Like Karzai.
Maliki is like Olmert. Bush does not have much to work with these days.
Judith | October 27, 2006 12:26 AM
I don't think we know enough about him yet to know whether he is like Olmert, or far worse than Olmert. These people are his political allies, after all.
alcibiades ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.keshertalk.com/nav-commenters.gif)
| October 27, 2006 12:53 AM
About Maliki, see for example this comment at Bill Roggio's Fourth Rail
alcibiades | October 27, 2006 01:10 AM
Assassinate Al-Sadr Jr a good idea? I really question that.
Sadr's influence derives from the fact that his father was a respected Shiite imam assassinated by Saddam, but his power and financing, most assuredly, derives from forces on the other side of the Iran-Iraq border.
If it wasn't Al-Sadr Jr. leading the forces of dysfunction on the Shiite side of the "resistance", it would be someone else. To end the Mahdi Army's mayhem will require stopping the flow of resources from Tehran and nothing less.
Lynne | October 27, 2006 09:27 AM
