Great Article on the Sunni/Shia Situation - New England Patriots Forums

***IcyPatriot*** · 11-09-2006, 12:44 AM

http://globalpolitician.com/articled...8&cid=2&sid=38

Like I have said before ... Rumsfeld's decision to disban the police and military after the war ended...when we took Baghdad .... was one of the biggest blunders ever in American history. Bush, Rumsfeld were played like idiots by the Shia/Iran .... such fools.

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The Shiites in Iraq are increasingly concerned that US support is shifting towards the Iraqi Sunni. I don't know what else the Shiites would expect after their own failure to govern the country and their failure to reign in on Shiite militias and death squads (namely the Iranian controlled Badr militia of Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim's and the Mehdi militia of Moqtada Al-Sadr).

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The security plan of Baghdad was a set-up against the Sunni population from the outset. The US and Iraqi military went into Baghdad Sunni neighborhoods first (as directed in the Shiite government plan of Iraq?s Shiite Prime Minster Maliki) and disarmed them down to one AK-47 for personal protection. Once the US and Iraqi military left the neighborhood, the Shiite militias entered, dragging civilians from their vehicles, homes and businesses and beat them, kidnapped them and killed many of them. The Sunnis were in effect defenseless.

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The police service is packed with Mehdi and Badr militia members. Most of my own cadets right now have Mehdi militia membership cards in their wallets. It's the only safe way to travel in Baghdad to prevent yourself from being mistaken as Sunni and being beaten, kidnapped or killed.

Al-Sadr and Hakim strongly encourage their people to join the police forces because it is easy to enter and they get access to do their militia duty in police service uniforms, using police service vehicles and, most importantly, have access to police service weapons.

Many Sunni ranking leaders of the police service were recently terminated by the Ministry of Interior with their termination papers stating they are terminated due to their former membership and loyalty to former leader Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party. Of course, the replacements in the ranks are Shiite ethnic. This is the perfect way to weed out the Sunnis and replace them with Shiites... and of course, those who are militia loyalist.

***DarrylS*** · 11-09-2006, 03:34 AM

Not to minimize this article, but it was one of a series of blunders that followed this invasion... Paul Bremer for example was ill prepared and working at cross purposes with the brass who were leading the troops. It is obvious that we did not have enough troops from the onset, and now that will probably never happen. Our inability to understand the longstanding divisions between the Kurds, Shias and Sunnis and what this means in their daily life. Our inability to make the infrastructure better than it was prior to the invasion, on and on have said before and will say again that as long as wars are fought in DC, by those who choose to be swayed by public opinion they will look like this or like Viet Nam did. Wars have to be fought by the generals and leaders on the ground with the resources needed to fight them.

***IcyPatriot*** · 11-09-2006, 12:46 PM

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Originally Posted by GJAJ15

Not to minimize this article, but it was one of a series of blunders that followed this invasion... Paul Bremer for example was ill prepared and working at cross purposes with the brass who were leading the troops. It is obvious that we did not have enough troops from the onset, and now that will probably never happen. Our inability to understand the longstanding divisions between the Kurds, Shias and Sunnis and what this means in their daily life. Our inability to make the infrastructure better than it was prior to the invasion, on and on have said before and will say again that as long as wars are fought in DC, by those who choose to be swayed by public opinion they will look like this or like Viet Nam did. Wars have to be fought by the generals and leaders on the ground with the resources needed to fight them.

Good post...I think our academic institutions had plenty of qualified people to offer opinion pre-war...they were snubbed like the Generals were.

So I asked a question yesterday in a public discussion....why can't our Secretary of Defense be mandated to come from our military ranks only? Why can't we alter our laws for this?

In some ways ... Rumsfeld IMO can be viewed as a traitor by not looking out for the best interests of America....IMO it would be a more natural fit for a man/woman who already has laid their life on the line for our country.

Bush/Rumsfeld/Cheney will never admit it...but they were duped in the intelligence area.