Every report I can get from the folks on the ground in Iraq indicates that there has been a sudden shift in the environment of the battlefield.While many of the native Iraqi are uneducated, they’re not stupid. They do know who it is that is trying to build schools for their children and who it is that is trying to blow up those schools with their kids in them. Lately, there have been numerous occasions where hundreds of once hostile Sunni have turned on al Qaeda, ceased resistance, and are seeking to join government security forces and begging the Americans to protect them from both al Qaeda and Shiite militias.Field commanders are cautious. They know that if the Shiite dominated government in Baghdad stays vengeful for decades of past suffering at the hands of Sunni Baathists, the reconciliation will fail. Thus, many American officers and officials are doing all they can to urge ministries to start distributing at least some of the wealth of Iraq’s $80 a barrel oil revenues to Anbar and Diyala before the Sunni revert back to insurgency.br /br /This is a great opportunity. Let’s hope that there’s enough wisdom in Baghdad to exploit it and that our congress doesn’t deliberately sabotage it.
Opportunity is knocking
October 30th, 2007It’s Good News
October 25th, 2007Oh, my gosh! There’s good news from the battlefield! Almost all reports from the folks in Iraq state that there has been a sudden shift in the pulse of battlefield. Sometimes without much warning thousands of once disgruntled Sunni have turned on al Qaeda, ceased resistance, and are flocking to join government security forces and begging the Americans to stop both al Qaeda and Shiite militias. Commanders in the field are cautious. They know that if the Shiite dominated government in Baghdad stays vengeful for decades of past suffering at the hands of Sunni Baathists, the reconciliation will fail. So our officers are desperately pressuring ministries to start distributing the vast wealth of Iraq’s $80 a barrel oil revenues to Anbar and Diyala before the Sunni revert back to insurgency. Opportunity is knocking. Fortunately, we have the right people in Iraq to help all this happen—unless they are sabotaged by our congress. The brilliance of our army and marines officers has not been fully appreciated by our nation. These officers, mainly from majors to Colonels, have PhDs and MAs, and are literally, all at once, trying to defeat al Qaeda gangs and Shiite militias, rebuild government facilities, arbitrate tribal feuds, repair utilities and train Iraqi army and police. Talk about multi-tasking. I hope that our government will support this great opportunity–however, they seem more focused on angering Turkey.
