Uprisings Force U.S. to Rethink Strategy in Iraq

[kskiska]

BAGHDAD, April 17 -- In the space of two weeks, a fierce insurgency in Iraq has isolated the U.S.-appointed civilian government and stopped the American-financed reconstruction effort, as contractors hunker down against waves of ambushes and kidnappings, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.

The events have also pressured U.S. forces to vastly expand their area of operations within Iraq, while triggering a partial collapse of the new Iraqi security services designed to gradually replace them.

The crisis, which has stirred support for the insurgents across both Sunni and Shiite communities, has also inflamed tensions between Arabs and Kurds.

U.S. officials said they are reconsidering initial assessments that the uprisings might be contained as essentially military confrontations in Fallujah, where Marines continue their siege of a chronically volatile city, and Najaf, where the militant Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has taken refuge in the shadow of a shrine.

"The Fallujah problem and the Sadr problem are having a wider impact than we expected," a senior U.S. official involved in Iraq policy said. In Baghdad and Washington, officials had initially concluded that addressing those problems would not engender much anger among ordinary Iraqis. "Sadr's people and the people of Fallujah were seen as isolated and lacking broad support among Iraqis," the official added.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20690-2004Apr17.html

[hedda_foil]

1. If the WaPo goes this far ....

Can you imagine just how terrible the situation really is?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. That sound you hear?

That is the sound of DC buttholes slamming tightly shut. The error of their ways is starting to sink in. Considering some of the reports, a case is starting to be made for the possibility that rock-bottom morale is eroding good order and discipline in the ranks.

[LittleApple81]

4. Oh, boy... what an image... all those buttholes. n/t

[snippy]

15. One of these images?

WARNING this link provides a GRAPHIC explanation of the mosaic.
http://www.artofresistance.org/bush_mosaic/index.html

[0007]

16. .. all those buttholes slamming shut at the same must be deafening?

I can't imagine an image of such, but I hear the sound!

[LittleApple81]

3. Well, the article says they are using children now. Bad. Bad. the

soldiers are already shooting anything that moves. Now they have more justification to do this.

[Submariner]

5. Okay, I'm now convinced

I was supposed to go into Nasiriyah to get the power plant up and running, and the triple pay incentive almost hooked me. I am now so glad I turned it down.

[JoFerret]

6. More from the article.

The fighting has clearly widened the chasm between the government appointed by the U.S. administration and Iraqi society. In Baghdad, ambulances and hospitals that report to the Ministry of Health took in the wounded from Fallujah but then spirited them to smaller, private hospitals and homes amid rumors that U.S. soldiers were sweeping through major medical centers arresting the injured.

"We must protect them -- we must," said Riad Mohammed Saleh, a receptionist at a public hospital in the capital's Yarmouk district. "We figure they are regular citizens."

The extent of popular support for the resistance is unclear. But in nationwide surveys taken before the sieges of Fallujah and Najaf, a growing percentage of Iraqis said they saw the U.S. forces as occupiers, not liberators. The standing of the Americans was particularly low in the restive towns of Fallujah and Ramadi.

[JoFerret]

7. Bush the uniter yet again

Consider this line from the article:
<<The insurgency also appears to be generating new alliances -- and tensions -- among the major sectarian and ethnic groups in Iraq. >>

[cliss]

8. So what are their options?

Bush would like for us to believe that the current uprisings are nothing more than few radical Iraqis, maybe 10 or 12. Last week, he said they were "a tiny minority in Iraq". Of course, when violence flares up in practically every city, it's a little harder to explain.

A huge amount of the administration's push for war rests on the the notion that the vast majority of Iraqis are accepting of the Americans coming in. If it is seen that the majority rejects the occupiers, then it changes our role completely.

We have gone from the "friendly liberator" to the gun-toting aggressor.

So what are their options now?

a) Move in with more force and aggression. Blatantly mow down women, children and elderly within the spray of the machine gun. Make it clear that this is what they get for being rebellious. We should expect to be there for another 20 years.

b) Try to negotiate with the resistance fighters. They will ask for the US to leave all cities. They want to run their own country. I don't believe this is in the US negotiating plan, so there is no middle ground. It won't be, "you only occupy 1/2 of our cities".

c) Try to diminish their presence which is so obnoxious to the Iraqis. Have foreign troops in the forefront and have the US hover in the background, just in case. Have UN forces with the blue helmets appear. Again, this will be seen as a defeat and I don't think the Rumsfeld will go along with this. He's said it many times, "We don't need the UN".

My hunch: they will go with option a). The British provide ample historical experience for what happened. Blair can fill Bush in on the details. They occupied Iraq for a number of years, and after thousands of casualties, they packed up and went home in 1920.

[MidwestMomma]

17. One solution would be to acknowledge the power of the clerics

and other religious leaders. From what I've read, they are the ones negotiating the release of hostages, with Sadr, etc...

These are educated people who probably have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done to negogiate an end to the uprisings. And like it or not, the people listen to them. Of course, we don't agree with their religious beliefs so we can not allow them any power or influence.

But for the sake of our troops, the coalition troops and the Iraqi people, I hope a truce of some sort can be negogiated to end the killings and violence. The longer it goes on, the more inflamed each side gets which results in even more people on each side advocating and abetting the violence.

[DrBB]

9. A sentence worth dwelling on...

"Sadr's people and the people of Fallujah were seen as isolated and lacking broad support among Iraqis," the official added.

The official, a certified moran, went on to explain that it is perfectly understandable for responsible military officials and policy makers to base their policy on complete ignorance of things that ordinary people with an internet connection and a reasonable degree of curiosity have known for weeks....

Okay, I added that last bit. But what's really frightening here--it's one thing for them to tell the public their line about al Sadr being an "isolated thug"; it's fairly terrifying to find out they actually believed their own propaganda.

I also admire the use of the exculpatory passive voice: "were seen as." Yes, they were. By irresponsible idiots like you and the people you work for.

[burrowowl]

10. Maladministration to rethink strategy?

What strategy?!?

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Important, page-one article, telling D.C. things are bad --

[teryang]

12. Yes, things are bad

Ground lines of communication to our forces threatened, with the possibility of reversing the tactical position of the American ground forces gained by the unjustified and ill considered invasion.

The marines are negotiating. Think about it. The marines are negotiating. A strategic reserve of ground forces is not available. The only military options are politically unthinkable. Gotta get through the November election. Can't have 300 deaths a month. The repuke position is getting desperate.

[TahitiNut]

14. Isn't it interesting that Saddam had nothing near these difficulties.

Despite our claims of 'liberating' the Iraqis from the tyrrany of Saddam Hussein, Saddam required nothing even approaching either the kind of personal protection or internal military force the US needs. Under Saddam, the UN was very active in Iraq, only withdrawing when the US threatened their safety, not Saddam. Saddam never found it necessary to disarm the populace, to the point that militias were very common in Iraq. (Members of the current IGC had their own militias.) Well, we sure are showing them what 'democracy' is all about, huh? :puke:

[teryang]

20. Point well taken

It's called national self determination. It's the opposite of imperialism. No matter what may be said about authoritarianism, Iraqis simply don't support American objectives in the middle east and they never will.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

13. Did the NeoCons EVER have a strategy?

[snippy]

18. Of course they did. Kill and conquer.

This strategy also appeals to the TheoCons.

[deepcover]

19. stratego

"we will be greeted with flowers and dancing in the streets"