More Rubble, Less Trouble

Coming soon to a US Iraq policy near you?

What we're seeing here is the "perverse desire to win" of musical fame. Insofar as you want to obtain "victory" in Iraq, it becomes necessary not to devise a strategy to accomplish our goals, which can't be done, but rather to define a set of goals such that they can be accomplished. Hence the appeal of an "80 percent strategy," a.k.a. James Kurth's "Crush the Sunnis" plan. But even if we could make this "work" (which is at least possible though, I would argue, actually pretty unlikely) what would we thereby achieve? Certainly not the Iraqi model of pre-war dreams. Indeed, it seems to me that in this case more rubble would bring more trouble, as the cross-national Sunni Arab majority comes to agree with Osama bin Laden that the United States is waging vicious war against them and theirs and that every good Muslim's duty is to fight back.

12/1/06 9:00AM del.icio.us this incoming links

Comments

Unreal. I would also recommend Krauthammer today. Not only does he provide for us yet another justification for the war (How many has it been? I've lost count), but in doing so, he provides red meat to conspiracy theorists--“We are instead trying to sustain fragile democracies in three strategically important countries—Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon—that form the geographic parentheses around the principal threat to Western interests in the region, the Syria-Iran axis.” Highly informative, whether intentional or not.

Posted by: Pat on December 1, 2006 09:25 AM

Any attempt to pick a side and crush the Sunnis would also risk very real problems with Saudi Arabia. See
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR2006112801277.html.

It's hard not to view this "unofficial" editorial as anything but a warning that the Saudis are not about to sit on the sidelines if their fellow Sunnis are being crushed, by Shiites or anyone else (including the U.S.).

Posted by: peter riggs on December 1, 2006 11:57 AM

After reviewing the Bush/Maliki presser it appears that the only agreement between the two of them was that the US needs to speed up the flow of armaments to the Maliki/Mookie/Shiite/Iranian government in the form of humvees, and helicopters. I can't imagine who is going to pay for this, or who they will be used against.

Posted by: kp on December 1, 2006 12:09 PM

As Peter says the Saudis will have none of this "Crush the Sunnis" - which is likely what the Saudi's told Cheney when they summoned him.

And what of Bin Laden? Taking sides against the Sunnis in Iraq would be a further boon for him. He is afterall, a Sunni himself.

Posted by: Tiparillo on December 1, 2006 12:20 PM

The problem with the 80% strategy is this map:

http://www.stripes.com/mideast/graphics/shiites.html

The Shiites may be the majority in Iraq & Iran, but the Sunnis are dominant nearly everywhere else. Seems like a poor choice to make 90% of the world's Muslims hate us.

Posted by: shala on December 1, 2006 01:23 PM

I mean the problem besides it a being completely and utterly abhorrent thing to do, of course...

Posted by: shala on December 1, 2006 01:35 PM

thank you

Posted by: indir on October 14, 2007 08:29 AM

Thanks
Best regards
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