SocraticGadfly: So much for the Anbar Awakening

April 19, 2008

So much for the Anbar Awakening

All that has awakened, among Sunni Muslims in Anbar and elsewhere in Iraq, in the longer term is a new round of intra-Sunni violence, which will surely only intensify now that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s “assault” against Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army in Basra has flopped, plus subsequent Iraqi Army desertions as U.S. forces tried to cordon off Shi’a areas of Baghdad.
A vicious civil war is now being fought within Iraq’s Sunni Arab community between al-Qa’ida in Iraq and al-Sahwa (the Awakening Council) while other groups continue to attack American forces. In Baghdad on a single day the head of al-Sahwa in the southern district of Dora was killed in his car by gunmen and seven others died by bombs and bullets in al-Adhamiya district.

U.S. spokesmen speak of a “spike” in violence in recent weeks but in reality security in Sunni and Shia parts of Iraq has been deteriorating since January. The official daily death toll of civilians reached a low of 20 killed a day in that month and has since more than doubled to 41 a day in March. The US and the Iraqi government are now facing a war on two fronts.

Not “spike,” but “surge” in violence, Mr. Gen. David Petraeus. This is something we cannot “win.” Be honest. Your puppetmaster/idol is leaving office in nine months from tomorrow anyway.

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