A great wind is a-puffing through Greater Wingnuttia. Pink little tufted ears are pricked up, tiny teeth & tongues are a-chatter, tender paws are a-slapping the keyboards. Oh, could it be? Yes! Victory in Iraq is nigh! Again!
A battle raged in west Baghdad on Thursday after residents rose up against al-Qaida and called for U.S. military help to end random gunfire that forced people to huddle indoors and threats that kept students from final exams, a member of the district council said.
And then A Dope Named Captain Said:
People power -- the rising of ordinary people of a nation or region in force against oppression -- has toppled more than one dictator in the last generation, or even in the last few years. The phenomenon started with Filipinos forcing an end to the Marcos regime two decades ago, and continued with Poles, Czechs, Georgians, the Lebanese, and others. The people of Palermo even rose up against almost a millenia of terror and crippled the Mafia.
Now it looks like the Sunnis in Iraq may have had enough of terror, too....
Of course, this is one incident in one area, and it would take a brushfire of discontent to drive AQ out of Iraq. Sometimes it only takes one spark to touch off that brushfire, though. In any case, the Sunnis of the region understand that their lives will never return to normal until the terrorists leave -- and they knew who to call to get help with their impromptu battle against AQ.
Uh-huh. A few points:
1. Al Qaeda being in Iraq in force in the first place is a fuckup of the highest order.
2. Al Qaeda appears to be at least as welcome in Iraq to at least some Sunnis as are... American troops. Al Qaeda could not survive in Iraq without some domestic Iraqi support.
3. If Iraqi Sunnis want to kick out AQ, good. But all AQ needs in Iraq is very modest support and then they can continue more or less forever pulling off the occasional spectacular bombing. Which means that AQ can keep sectarian tensions in Iraq at however high a boil or simmer as they wish, indefinitely.
4. AQ will not be eliminated from Iraq without the establishment of a tight internal security regime. If you think you are going to get that and a liberal secular democracy in Iraq, you're high.
5. There's no way the US will ever be able to administer the kind of regime in Iraq necessary to stem Al Qaeda there short of imposing a martial government. The alternative is a local strongman.
6. Iraqi Sunnis don't like the US occupation; this is a lesser of two evils victory, at best. Yay. We're better liked than Al Qaeda. Hooray.
7. There will be no lasting gratitude for ridding Iraq of a menace that we allowed to develop in the first place.
8. This is all very fucked up.
Let me be clear: the organizers, cheerleaders, and enablers of this war have created a nightmare from which there can be no easy awakening. All options are terrible. The least worst outcome now is a catastrophe.
Direct martial rule of Iraq or withdrawal.
Withdrawal is cheaper and easier.
Told you not to do this stupid thing in the first place.
