Some Iraqis’ believe that a massive bloodletting is inevitable
NYT: …Listen to Iraqis engaged in the fight, and you realize they are far from exhausted by the war. Many say this is only the beginning…
Caught in the middle of the civil war are the Americans. To Iraq’s factions, they are the weakest of all the armed groups in one crucial respect: their will is ebbing and their time here is limited. That leaves Iraqis more motivated than ever to cling to their weapons, preparing for what many see as an inevitable plunge into the abyss…
As long as I have known him, Mr. Qaisi has rejected the idea that the Sunni Arabs are the minority in this country. To him and many other Sunni Arabs, the borders of Iraq do not delineate the boundaries of the war. The conflict is set, instead, against the backdrop of the entire Islamic world, in which demography and history have always favored the Sunnis. That sense of entitlement is fed by the notion that Iraq’s Shiite Arabs are just proxies for Iran’s Persian rulers.
For the Shiites, who make up 60 percent of Iraqis, the unalloyed hostility of the Sunni Arabs only reinforces a centuries-old sense of victimhood. So the Shiite militias grow, stoking vengeance. Through force of arms, and backed by the Americans and Iran, the religious Shiites intend to dominate the country entirely, taking what they believe was stripped from them when their revered leader Hussein was murdered in the desert of seventh-century Mesopotamia…The belief of the Shiites that they must consolidate power through force of arms is tethered to ever-present suspicions of an impending betrayal by the Americans. Though the Americans have helped institute the representative system of government that the Shiites now dominate, they have failed to eliminate memories of how the first President Bush allowed Saddam Hussein to slaughter rebelling Shiites in 1991. Shiite leaders are all too aware, as well, of America’s hostility toward Iran, the seat of Shiite power, and of its close alliances with Sunni Arab nations, especially Saudi Arabia.
“One day we’ll find that we’ve returned back to 1917,” said Sheik Muhammad Bakr Khamis al-Suhail, a respected Shiite neighborhood leader in Baghdad, referring to the installation here of a Sunni Arab monarchy by the British after World War I. “The pressure of the Arab countries on the American administration might push the Americans to choose the Sunni Arabs.”
Sitting in the cool recesses of his home, the white-robed sheik said he was a moderate, a supporter of democracy. It is for people like him that the Americans have fought this war. But the solution he proposes is not one the Americans would easily embrace.
“In the history of Iraq, more than 7,000 years, there have always been strong leaders,” he said. “We need strong rulers or dictators like Franco, Hitler, even Mubarak. We need a strong dictator, and a fair one at the same time, to kill all extremists, Sunni and Shiite.”
If a civil war with “massive bloodletting” will happen anyways than why do you think they can form a government that respects minority rights?
How will a regional civil war help with the fuel prices in the short term!
And will not Iran have the upper hand!
And do you want Iran to control that much oil?
So we should stay there like Bush wants because of the oil? That’s what you are implying. If the GOP has their way, we’ll be there forever.
Caroline
Hillary and John Kerry should have thought about this before they voted for the war!
Or read the NEI report that said this would happen!
I do not agree how we got in but level heads better think a way out this problem.
If gas prices go up another dollar you will see a lot of suffering in our Country and around the world!
As I said I support close to Biden’s Idea of recognizing the different regions and pulling back as support!
A pull out with no plan will only make it into a bigger problem!
There you go again. You can’t even get a real government. There will be no government as long as a civil war is raging. Do you somehow think we can “solve” this problem? They don’t trust us and when they see us building billion dollar embassies that have all the luxuries while the average people have nothing-well, that’s a PR disaster and the insurgency will continue to expand. It’s too late for what you have proposed. It would have worked 2-2/12 years ago but it’s time has passed.
This article, I think, makes the following case:
1) Partitions won’t work unless the US military stands between the groups, which is no different a situation than we have now, and Americans won’t tolerate those kinds of US casualties.
2) If Americans “pull out” from between the groups, they will fight, partitions or not.
This article says it’s “game on” over there.
Caroline Thank you for pointing out why I cant stand the Democrat party. You said”They don’t trust us and when they see us building billion dollar embassies that have all the luxuries while the average people have nothing-well. Tell that to the Democrats who live in mansions and tell us to bleed til it hurts to help the poor. Tell that to Bill Clinton who will stick all of us including the poor for rent in a high priced NYC office building while he babbles on about the poor. How can I trust the Democrat party when it is full of hypocrites.$400 hair cut would go a ways to feed a poor family.
Mike,
I knew it!! You can use that crap but no one else can right? LOL! So you have to be poor to understand poverty? Don’t you think people should be paid? You are living proof as to why the Republic party is collapsing. It’s okay to have all these things as long as your cronies are the ones collecting the checks!
Mike: So are Republicans doing the exact same things but (honestly) declaring “I don’t give a damn about poor people” more to your liking?
Is that your definition of moral superiority?
Does the fact that Democrats, being human, don’t walk their talk 100% of the time (in your mind) invalidate their goals and values?
Left Hook. Republicans are doing the same thing. They preach with their hands out and pocket whatever is given and look for change on the ground and when it comes to giving they plead deaf and dumb. Both parties need a house cleaning that cleans out the corrupt and hypocritic elements that make voting a choice between two evils to a choice between whats best for our country.And no all politicians crawl on their bellies like the snakes they are.They do this because we allow them to.I just ran a site that gives the sell outs on campaign promises to actual votes and its sickening to see how many elected officials have abandoned their campaign promises.
Mike: So in your earlier post you meant to say:
“Caroline Thank you for pointing out why I cant stand the Democratic or Republican parties…Tell that to the Democrats and Republicans who live in mansions…How can I trust the Democratic or Republican parties when both are full of hypocrites.”
Right?
Left Hook No I meant what I said because of the purity portrayed of the Democratic Party by its constituents.I believe this is a true statement to the democrats:What is a parking ticket to a Democrat is a felony to a Republican.Reverse it and its a true statement to Republicans. Until both parties constituents see the offense as a felony we will never change.
Left Hook,
See I was right wasn’t I? LOL
After reading this article, it looks like redepolying troups to shut down the border and to train Iraqi forces is the best option.
The US should just get out of the way and let them kill each other.