PressCoverage

all you can say to this is just... wow...

U.S. Arming Sunnis in Iraq to Battle Old Qaeda Allies

BAGHDAD, June 10 — With the four-month-old increase in American troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders are turning to another strategy that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups that have promised to fight militants linked with Al Qaeda who have been their allies in the past.

American commanders say they have successfully tested the strategy in Anbar Province west of Baghdad and have held talks with Sunni groups in at least four areas of central and north-central Iraq where the insurgency has been strong. In some cases, the American commanders say, the Sunni groups are suspected of involvement in past attacks on American troops or of having links to such groups. Some of these groups, they say, have been provided, usually through Iraqi military units allied with the Americans, with arms, ammunition, cash, fuel and supplies.

American officers who have engaged in what they call outreach to the Sunni groups say many of them have had past links to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia but grew disillusioned with the Islamic militants’ extremist tactics, particularly suicide bombings that have killed thousands of Iraqi civilians. In exchange for American backing, these officials say, the Sunni groups have agreed to fight Al Qaeda and halt attacks on American units. Commanders who have undertaken these negotiations say that in some cases, Sunni groups have agreed to alert American troops to the location of roadside bombs and other lethal booby traps.

But critics of the strategy, including some American officers, say it could amount to the Americans’ arming both sides in a future civil war.

PressCoverage

who made this decision? Cheney? Lute?... i'll say Cheney...

would someone please stop Palpatine?

DarrylS

Palpatine cannot be stopped, he is on a mission from god, this sounds like one of those decisions we make now but in 10 years it may kick us in the ass, and there will those who will say WTF did we do that for?? A civil war in Iraq will invariably create more dissension and instability, in a very unstable region and probably draw in its neighbors. What a freaking mess this is turning out to be.

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"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

Real World

Please tell us what is so "wow" about it?

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

Patters

What a dreadful mess. We're arming religious nuts on both sides. They may be better than Al Qaeda, but they have deep and serious divisions with the Shiite majority. We completely blew it by writing off the Baathists, who were the only ones philosophically capable of righting the situation, as awful as they were.

maverick4

Once the Sunnis help establish some sort of order in the country, their first item of business will be to drive the Americans out.

wistahpatsfan

STOP IT!...YOU'RE KILLIN ME!