medicineman
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Hello george, are you listening:
The Latest Bad News from Baghdad: Is Success Not Possible?
Reuters reports today:
Gunmen in Iraqi police uniforms rounded up as many as 100 men at a government building in central Baghdad on Tuesday, in what may be the biggest mass kidnap seen in a city becoming used to such violence.
It bore the hallmarks of sectarian militias operating under cover of the security forces, although senior officials and witnesses differed over how far minority Sunnis were the target.
Other reports place the number of the abuducted up to 150. NPR reports that the nation's education minister has shut down colleges and universities, explaining that there is not enough security for the schools to function. It was unclear if this suspension was temporary or longer. But there seems to be the possibility that higher education in Iraq has been killed. The New York Times reports:
A few hours after the incident, a spokesman for the interior ministry went on national television to report that arrest warrants had been issued for five senior police commanders with responsibilities in the area.
Flashback to yesterday, when President Bush was asked by a reporter about his morning meeting with former Secretary of State James Baker and members of Baker's Iraq Study Group, which will soon be releasing a report on possible alternative strategies for the United States in Iraq. Bush said:
And so we had a really good discussion. I'm not sure what the report is going to say. I'm looking forward to seeing it. I believe this: I believe that it's important for us to succeed in Iraq, not only for our security, but for the security of the Middle East, and that I'm looking forward to interesting ideas. In the meantime, General Pete Pace is leading investigations within the Pentagon as to how to reach our goal, which is success, a government which can sustain, govern, and defend itself, and will serve as an ally in this war on terror.
But as today's horrific event shows, success may not be possible. Right now the Bush administration is supporting a Shia-dominated government in Iraq that cannot control Shia death squads. The United States has helped trained a police force that is infiltrated by various militias and riddled with officers loyal to their tribes and sects and not the government. (And police trainees are regularly targeted by insurgents. Three dozen police recruits were killed by two suicide bombings on Sunday.) The United States has trained hundreds of thousands of Iraqi troops unable and/or unwilling to fight. A month ago, the interior minister was forced to suspend an entire police brigade of 800 or so officers because it was linked to death squad activity. Was this progress (we're rooting out the bad apples) or another sign of failure (we've trained and equipped murderers)?
There is an ugly possibility the Baker commission has to confront: Iraq may be lost already--at least in the sense that the US government may not be able to stop the sectarian violence that is now the number-one problem (as opposed to violence orchestrated by anti-American jihadists). If that is the case, what recommendation could Baker come up with? More important, could Bush contend with--let alone acknowledge--such a reality?
Posted by David Corn at 10:48 AM http://www.bushlies.com/ - 49k - - 49k -
The Latest Bad News from Baghdad: Is Success Not Possible?
Reuters reports today:
Gunmen in Iraqi police uniforms rounded up as many as 100 men at a government building in central Baghdad on Tuesday, in what may be the biggest mass kidnap seen in a city becoming used to such violence.
It bore the hallmarks of sectarian militias operating under cover of the security forces, although senior officials and witnesses differed over how far minority Sunnis were the target.
Other reports place the number of the abuducted up to 150. NPR reports that the nation's education minister has shut down colleges and universities, explaining that there is not enough security for the schools to function. It was unclear if this suspension was temporary or longer. But there seems to be the possibility that higher education in Iraq has been killed. The New York Times reports:
A few hours after the incident, a spokesman for the interior ministry went on national television to report that arrest warrants had been issued for five senior police commanders with responsibilities in the area.
Flashback to yesterday, when President Bush was asked by a reporter about his morning meeting with former Secretary of State James Baker and members of Baker's Iraq Study Group, which will soon be releasing a report on possible alternative strategies for the United States in Iraq. Bush said:
And so we had a really good discussion. I'm not sure what the report is going to say. I'm looking forward to seeing it. I believe this: I believe that it's important for us to succeed in Iraq, not only for our security, but for the security of the Middle East, and that I'm looking forward to interesting ideas. In the meantime, General Pete Pace is leading investigations within the Pentagon as to how to reach our goal, which is success, a government which can sustain, govern, and defend itself, and will serve as an ally in this war on terror.
But as today's horrific event shows, success may not be possible. Right now the Bush administration is supporting a Shia-dominated government in Iraq that cannot control Shia death squads. The United States has helped trained a police force that is infiltrated by various militias and riddled with officers loyal to their tribes and sects and not the government. (And police trainees are regularly targeted by insurgents. Three dozen police recruits were killed by two suicide bombings on Sunday.) The United States has trained hundreds of thousands of Iraqi troops unable and/or unwilling to fight. A month ago, the interior minister was forced to suspend an entire police brigade of 800 or so officers because it was linked to death squad activity. Was this progress (we're rooting out the bad apples) or another sign of failure (we've trained and equipped murderers)?
There is an ugly possibility the Baker commission has to confront: Iraq may be lost already--at least in the sense that the US government may not be able to stop the sectarian violence that is now the number-one problem (as opposed to violence orchestrated by anti-American jihadists). If that is the case, what recommendation could Baker come up with? More important, could Bush contend with--let alone acknowledge--such a reality?
Posted by David Corn at 10:48 AM http://www.bushlies.com/ - 49k - - 49k -
