Comments on Informed Comment: Another Shrine hit, with 6 Dead Mubarak Warns on ...

Rice's "tens of thousands of tactical errors" may ...

2006-04-09T23:21:00.000-04:00

Rice's "tens of thousands of tactical errors" may correspond to the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis that would still be alive today if there was no invasion.

Potent article about al-Sadr. Should be mandatory ...

2006-04-09T23:16:00.000-04:00

Potent article about al-Sadr. Should be mandatory reading for all US news media people. (Bush says he doesn't read the papers so no use urging him.)Almost every mention of al-Sadr is preceded with "firebrand" and "radical". In a country as violent and faction ridden as Iraq is now, who's not a "firebrand" or "radical" in at least someone's eyes.

I think a prefix switch to "popular young leader" might help. Of course if Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rumsfeld are really attempting to make Iraq into a banana republic, the last thing they'd want to emerge is a true leader.

Ner Rosen's article is certainly interesting, but there is an underlying theme that is depressing. None of the people he talks to ever mention the needs of Iraq's people or the role of government - except as related to security. It seems to me that all of the conflict and brutality is about who gets to run the show, not about the show itself.

Its not reassuring to think that when all the dust settles and all the bodies are burried, the last man standing may not have the competence or desire to improve the lives of the twenty million or so Iraqis.

Lately, I have been going around the internet and ...

2006-04-09T21:09:00.000-04:00

Lately, I have been going around the internet and respectable news outlets to find what "respectable" experts feel a good strategy in Iraq might be. I am wondering, since Sunnis feel sidelined, would a Lebanese style democracy work for Iraq where Sunni's and Shia's and ofcourse Kurds share the power (not parliament seats) but actual political, military posts with influence. Lets say 50% for Shias, 35 for Sunnis and 15% for Kurds. Would an arrangement like that help empasse the looming civil war?

Here's a devil's-advocate thought ... if Moqtada i...

2006-04-09T19:28:00.000-04:00

Here's a devil's-advocate thought ... if Moqtada is, as you write in the NY Daily News column, "the only major Shiite leader with credibility among fundamentalist Sunnis" -- and backs Jaafari because the latter has endorsed his platform -- why is the religious Sunni coalition part of an alliance that is demanding Jaafari's withdrawal (apparently preferring a SCIRI prime minister)?

Conversely, is this a factor that you think will eventually cause the religious Sunnis to split away from the Kurds and secular Sunnis in favor of forming a governing alliance with the UIA?

I saw another blog that pointed out the short hand...

2006-04-09T14:20:00.000-04:00

I saw another blog that pointed out the short hand for tactical is military. The bushies want to pretend that it would have all been fine if the military hadn't messed it up. Riiiiight! As if the minds that saw the flowers and candies of a thankful Iraqi public had it all figured out.

Let me weigh in on the perpetual debate over now or later. We need to get out now. There was never any way to have stopped a civil war once we stripped away the only power structure that existed. You can't bottle up that much rage for that long and expect it to just evaporate overnight.

The longer we stay, the more we divert and pervert the settlement process. In spite of the national obsession with fixing and setting 'right', it's time to butt out. It would be nice if that could happen before we make the situation worse by poking a stick at Iran.

If I may add to your excellent article about Sadr ...

2006-04-09T13:39:00.000-04:00

If I may add to your excellent article about Sadr that the American hostility is constantly adding to his appeal and powerbase.

The opposite is true of the Shiia leaders who praise the US, like the double agent Mr Hakim.

If Iraq doest get elections in 4 years time, the landscape will be entirely different. But the current US leadership can only thinks short term.

"[N]ow you have this big food fight between Donald...

2006-04-09T13:23:00.000-04:00

"[N]ow you have this big food fight between Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleeza Rice over her admission that the US has made a thousand tactical errors in Iraq."

Dr. Rice's ideas about the difference between strategy and tactics are amateur and chickenhawkish, so Mr. Rumsfeld need not worry about them a whole lot, and neither need anybody else.

According to the AP account of her performance at Chatham House, the distinction goes like this:

"'I know we've made tactical errors, thousands of them I'm sure . . . [b]ut when you look back in history, what will be judged will be, did you make the right strategic decisions?'''

"She said she remains firmly convinced that it was the right strategic decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq three years ago, and that it required an invasion to do it."

I.e., everthing that has happened since Saddam was deposed has been "tactical" and comparatively unimportant.

It's silly for Rummy to get worked up about that at all, but if he does, he should notice that the dragon lady wasn't just calling him wrong about this or that in particular, she was classifying him and the Pentagon as more or less negligible in general.

Prof. Cole: Have you also seen that Grand Ayatoll...

2006-04-09T11:39:00.000-04:00

Prof. Cole: Have you also seen that Grand Ayatollah Sistani has been escorted out of Najaf for his "safety" because of possible action by al-Sadr in the defense of al-Jaafari?

When you see that mainly all oil in the middle-eas...

2006-04-09T09:31:00.000-04:00

When you see that mainly all oil in the middle-east is under Shi'a control (in Saudi arabia as well than Kuwait, Irak and of course iran), if things are ging nasty between Shi'a Sunni or US-Shi'a (attack on Iran).

Sunni can be affraid to lose their share of petrol-dollars and us to be precipited in the worst economical crisis since 1929.

I suspect, and I'm sure a lot of people in the Mid...

2006-04-09T07:53:00.000-04:00

I suspect, and I'm sure a lot of people in the Middle East suspect that the original US plan, vetoed by Sistani, was to have Chalabi or Allawi play a role similar to Mubarak's in Iraq.

I wonder how Mubarak's statements play in the Middle East where he seems to be one of the few people who can't find anywhere to assign blame on the United States.

Also everytime he, or government officials from Saudi Arabia, Egypt or Jordan speak I wonder to what degree they are speaking for their people. Could Mubarak beat Sadr in a fair election held in Egypt? When these governments speak of their fear of Shiites, is that what their people feel or is that a justification for their cooperation with the United States?