7 April 2008
If we wait for the Iraqi Army and police to “stand up”, we may be there forever. During the fight against Shiite militias in Basra, over a thousand police and Iraqi soldiers abandoned their posts and refused to fight. This figure includes dozens of officers plus two senior field commanders. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki added 10,000 recruits from local Shiite tribes into his armed forces an act which angered Sunni tribes. It seems to me that our occupation of Iraq and the poor control that the Iraqi government has, is leading to the refusal of some Iraqis to take up arms against their own people.
Security in Iraq was better for a while in Baghdad following the “surge” but there were sporadic attacks in other major cities before Basra exploded. Moktada al-Sadr is the radical cleric who leads the Mahdi Army militia. There is fighting again in the Sadr City part of Baghdad and al-Sadr has called for a million Iraqis to march to the Shiite holy city of Najaf to protest what he called the American occupation. Maliki directed the Basra operation, which was poorly planned and executed. One of the top field commanders that defected did not believe the Iraqi security forces would be able to protect him against threats to his life received for his involvement in the assault. Most of the government troops were just recently out of basic training and not prepared for such an assault.
I’m tired of hearing McCain tell the American people how successful the “surge” is when the situation in Baghdad is going to hell in a handbasket. The Green Zone has been under rocket attack for a week and yesterday three soldiers were killed and about 30 wounded, some critically. Mr. McCain it this the way you measure success?
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