Some random thoughts after reading several of the earlier posts.
Many Shia Iraqi Security Forces members who desire an establishment of the rule of law, which does not currently exist, long for the return of Ayad Allawi, for one example. They think only someone like Ayad Allawi will deal firmly with the terrorist groups and militias.
Consensual institutions will not work in Iraq. It is an all or nothing, top down, might makes right culture. We need to sponsor a strong man and give him the lattitude to deal with issues as he sees fit. There is no other solution. Iraqis will themselves tell you this.
The strong man strategy is what is helping us calm down Fallujah (for details, see the 3/24/08 Washington Post article, “In Fallujah, Peace Through Brute Strength: Iraq City’s Fragile Security Flows From Saddam Era Tactics.” Iraqi’s tell you this is the Iraqi way.
Our rules of engagement are ridiculous, but stem in part from the fact that half the American population wants us to lose so that their Bush hatred can be vindicated.
I don’t like Bush’s sense of what is going on in Iraq. I detest the arrogant stupidity that Bremer demonstrated during the tenure of the coalition provisional authority. I think Rumsfeld did great things for the US military, for example truly empowering our special operations command. But Rumsfeld was too enmeshed in his ideological narrative to be bothered by the facts on the ground.
Don’t blame the British for not continuing to bleed for Basra. Basra is a gangster hellhole. The Iraqi government has let the militias run amok for several years now. Why should the British do their job for them?
Maliki will absolutely not follow through on rooting out the Mahdi Army from Basra. It’s logistically and practically impossible. Sadr’s ceasefires are bullshit. It’s a public pronouncement that has no effect. Sadr has never done anything to reign in the supposedly rogue Mahdi Army special groups.
The US State department won’t let us destroy the Mahdi Militia party, the Sadrist Current, which holds several seats in their parliament, despite very direct involvement in terrorist activity, because this would be a delegitimizing influence on the concept of our support for the fledgling Iraqi “democracy.” The Sadrist Current members were, after all, elected. God forbid we interfere.
It is not American military commanders who consider Sadrist Current parliament members immune from prosecution. Many of them have homes in the Green Zone, living under our protection. We know who they are, and we have just as much proof of their complicity as we do for anyone else whose target package greenlit capture/kill and long term detention. Sadrist Current members enable terrorists who kill American soldiers.
