{"id":224,"date":"2007-01-10T10:15:13","date_gmt":"2007-01-10T15:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=224"},"modified":"2007-02-27T22:02:02","modified_gmt":"2007-02-28T03:02:02","slug":"which-way-forward-in-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=224","title":{"rendered":"Which Way Forward in Iraq?"},"content":{"rendered":"
The preview of the Iraq Policy R<\/title>The <em><a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=222\">preview<\/a><\/em> of the Iraq Policy Review seemed to indicate that the Bush administration was thinking of the new “Way Forward” in Iraq as consistent with efforts to woo Sunni political forces into government, even as the US tried to isolate Muqtada al-Sadr and crackdown on the Shiite militias of Sadr City.\u00c2\u00a0 Here is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/01\/06\/AR2007010601489_pf.html\"> the preview<\/a> from the<em> Washington Post<\/em>‘s<em> <\/em>Robin Wright:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The centerpiece of the political plan is the creation of <strong>a \tnational reconciliation government that would bring together the two main \tShiite parties with the two largest Kurdish parties and the Sunni Iraqi \tIslamic Party<\/strong>, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials. The goal is \tto marginalize Moqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the largest and most powerful \tShiite militia and head of a group that has 30 seats in parliament and five \tcabinet posts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But it seems as though the “Way Forward” may actually mark more of a shift.\u00c2\u00a0 And that shift may have already begun.<\/p>\n<p>I have in mind the operation, initiated by US forces, to take control of Haifa Street.\u00c2\u00a0 Here is the <em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/01\/07\/AR2007010700221_pf.html\"> Washington Post<\/a><\/em> report:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The fighting in the area began four days ago, when Iraqi soldiers killed \t30 insurgents after uncovering what was described as an unauthorized \tcheckpoint, according to a Defense Ministry spokesman. Pearson said Iraqi \tarmy commanders asked for U.S. assistance after insurgents killed several \tIraqi soldiers two days ago.<\/p>\n<p>At 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, about 400 U.S. troops from the Stryker Brigade \trolled toward Haifa Street, meeting up with Iraqi army units along the way.<\/p>\n<p>They arrived about 5:30 a.m. In the pre-dawn darkness, the joint forces \ttook control of the buildings surrounding Tallil Square, a key target of the \toperation.<\/p>\n<p>“We showed up in their living room for breakfast,” Pearson said. About 7 \ta.m., the trouble began. “As soon as the sun came up, the insurgents began \tshooting,” he said.<\/p>\n<p>“We started taking it from all sides,” [Sgt. Israel] Schaeffer recalled.<\/p>\n<p>From rooftops and doorways, the gunmen fired AK-47 assault rifles and \tmachine guns. Snipers also were targeting the U.S. and Iraqi soldiers. U.S. \tsoldiers started firing back with 50-caliber machine guns mounted on their \tStryker armored vehicles. They used TOW missiles and Mark-19 grenade \tlaunchers. The F-15 fighter jets strafed rooftops with cannons, while the \tApaches fired Hellfire missiles. But the insurgents kept fighting.<\/p>\n<p>“They were able to coordinate mortars at us. They were able to execute \twell-aimed shots from the cover of buildings,” said Capt. Robert Callaghan, \twho was coordinating air support for the operation. “There were mortar \trounds that went off close to our vehicle. It was difficult to concentrate \ton my job.”<\/p>\n<p>Schaeffer was surprised. He was accustomed to the hit-and-run tactics \tthat the insurgents typically have used over the past few months.<\/p>\n<p>“We fired a TOW missile into a building,” he said. “A few minutes later \twe started taking fire again from the building. Normally, that would have \tpretty much ended the whole engagement. They were fighting pretty \tpersistently.”<\/p>\n<p>“The terrain was in their favor,” he added. “It is about as defensible a \tterrain as you can get.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Sounds like urban counter-insurgency.\u00c2\u00a0 In a Sunni neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>Are Sunni political leaders–especially the ones the Bush administration are supposedly courting–on board with the new “way forward”?<\/p>\n<p>Not so much.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In a statement, the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party described the 50 killed as \t“innocent citizens.” It asserted that Sunnis on Haifa Street were “under \tsiege” by Shiite militias backed by the Iraqi army.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Iraqi_Islamic_Party\">Iraqi Islamic Party<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Isn’t that the party–led by <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/americas\/6172103.stm\">White House visitor<\/a> and Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi that was supposed to form the Sunni backbone of the <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/middle_east\/6172983.stm\">new “moderate” government<\/a> the Bush administration was trying to promote to beat back Sadr?<\/p>\n<p>Add, on top of that, the fact that the military brass is <a href=\"http:\/\/in.today.reuters.com\/News\/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-01-08T023203Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-282578-2.xml\"> backing off from a confrontation with Sadr himself<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Odierno said U.S. forces would leave dealing with Sadr to Iraqi \tauthorities. “I’m not sure we take him down,” he said.<\/p>\n<p>“There are some extreme elements (of the Mehdi Army) … and we will go \tafter them. I will allow the government to decide whether (Sadr) is part of \tit or not. He is currently working within the political system.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What does it all add up to?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=217\">The Shiite Option<\/a> after all?<\/p>\n<p>Too early to tell.\u00c2\u00a0 Stay tuned.<\/p>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The preview of the Iraq Policy RThe preview of the Iraq Policy Review seemed to indicate that the Bush administration was thinking of the new “Way Forward” in Iraq as consistent with efforts to woo Sunni political forces into government, even as the US tried to isolate Muqtada al-Sadr and crackdown on the Shiite militias […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}