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February 08, 2007
Good NPR Piece On The Surge
Actually, Capt. Petersen and Charlie Company have been positioned out from the main base in the middle of a sectarian warzone for a couple of weeks.
Kaus wrote this was inspiring. It is -- the good-humored aw-shucks attitude Petersen maintains amidst bombs and bullets is inspiring.
But I'm not inspired. Inspired by Petersen and his men? Definitely. Inspired by the scumbags he's working with/trying to defend? Not so much.
I expected this clip to make me a little more optimistic about Iraq. I'm not sure I give a good goddamn about Iraq anymore, and I definitely don't want Capt. Petersen and his men dying for these people.
Charlie Company is linked up with an Iraqi Army unit, which is located in the building next door. The Iraqi police are supposed to be part of the mix, but so far there is no cooperation with them.
Peterson's soldiers don't trust the predominantly Shiite Iraqi troops — privately they complain they are arrogant to the locals, and the American soldiers worry about militia infiltration.
They've watched as Iraqi forces have deliberately skipped houses they were supposed to search on patrol. On one occasion, Charlie Company went in afterward. They found 12 kidnap victims.
From this clip, I gather there can be no peace unless Moqtada al-Sadr is killed. But I also gather that Moqtada al-Sadr is now extraodinarily popular -- and possibly the most influential political figure among the Shiites. So there is no answer -- we can't kill him, and we'll never have peace while he's alive.
I just don't know if victory as we have become accustomed to defining it is actually even possible anymore. Or what the diminished version of victory might look like. Obviously, we can't side with the Sunnis against the Shiites -- not only would we be taking the minority's side against a majority, but I'll be damned if any American soldiers are going to be used protecting the Sunni scumbags who murder them.
And defeating the Sunni insurgents only means doing al-Sadr's toughest work for him -- defeating their fighters so his thugs can go on to rape, butcher, and ethnically cleanse their noncombatant women, children, and old men. "Winning" just seems to mean delivering Iraq in a better-functioning state to al-Sadr and his Iranian masters.
Unless there is a serious assault on the Sadrists, which, somehow, is greeted by the great majority of Iraqis rather than serving as the pretext for further terrorism and attacks on US troops, I don't know how this is winnable any more.
posted by Ace at
04:22 AM
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