[Attacking Moqtada al-Sadr] would have been extremely foolish. The U.S. would have been inserting itself into a part of Iraq that we don't know very well—the south—and taking sides against what is probably the most popular mass movement in Shi'ite Iraq. But the Petraeus battle plan apparently includes an anti-Sadrist move, which may mean a spurt of violence as widespread and vicious as the worst of the Sunni insurgency. Is that why the general wants a "pause" in the U.S. withdrawal this summer?
What could possibly be the rationale for this? Perhaps it is that Sadr's Mahdi Army is the most potent force opposed to long-term U.S. bases in Iraq—and that a permanent presence has been the Bush Administration's true goal in this war. I suspect the central question in Iraq now is not whether things will get better but whether the drive for a long-term, neocolonialist presence will make the situation irretrievably worse.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Fear and Trembling
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Actually, southern Iraq has access to the waterways into the Persian Gulf, Kuwait and beyond. All of which places the the US interest there in a sensitive and unreachable position. Unless there will be an escalation in war activities from the waterways, where they have been present for years even before the Iraq war.
The US does not just build one of the most sophisticated embassies in Iraq to win architectural awards, or boost real estate value. This administration indeed forced its way into a defenseless nation to settle for the long term...Hmm,, where else have we experienced squatter's rights?!
The sadness in all of this is everyone is still being told and sold--and people are still buying it too--this is a war of morality and bringing democracy to a nation under siege. When will voters wake up and exercise their right to ask hard questions and expect descent answers? Until then this will be the beginning of a series of future imposition and occupation. Thoughts anyone?
Thanks for a nice platform for dialogue.
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