Posted on 10/17/2010 5:43:56 AM PDT by Son House
Edited on 10/17/2010 6:45:55 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Hundreds of members of the Awakening Councils, a collection of United States-allied Sunni sheiks and their militia forces, have quit or been dismissed from their positions in the past few months, the New York Times reported Saturday.
Iraqi government officials say that the fighters, known as Sahwa, have left as a result of an intensive recruiting campaign by the Sunni insurgency and rejoined Al Qaeda. Many have extensive knowledge of the U.S. military, the Times said, adding that it is possible that thousands of the fighters who are working for the government are simultaneously assisting the insurgency.
I'm going to defer to the FReeper who is in Anbar Province where the Awakening Councils began, until I have more information.
***What Patraeus had achieved, Obama has undone. ***
Absolutely!
bflr
Thanks Son House. Obama’s fault.
As I understand it, Iraqi Sunnis consider themselves to be vastly superior to Iraqi Shiites and Kurds. A permanent American force is required to make the Sunnis to serve under the American-installed Shiite-Kurd government. If American power ever recedes, Sunnis will seek to regain the domination of Iraq they previously had under Saddam.
And even more superior to infidels, but it didn't keep them from working with Petraeus, did it?
We must wrap up Afghanistan within the year to be able to send Petraeus to Iraq. (next Obama sound bite)
Actually, at this time, it's the Iran-funded Shia militant groups who are poised to take Iraq if we should ever fade away.
The US will have a presence here in Iraq for the foreseeable future, though.
Yep, Obama ended the war. Back to promoting Obamacare...
Barack Obama ends the war in Iraq. ‘Now it’s time to turn the page’
US president delivers on key election promise and thanks troops for ‘job well done’ – but cautions against triumphalism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/01/obama-formally-ends-iraq-war
They’re looking out for their own future.
Wasnt Saddam a Sunni? Holding power over the larger Shia population by force & terror?
I dont know if they can ever work together long enough to attack a common enemy. Instead it sounds like they are too busy fighting each other.
As I understand it, the division is more racial than religious. Kurds are religiously Sunni, but racially distinct from the rest of Iraqi Sunnis. The Iraqi race-group called "Sunni" considers itself to be racially superior to all the other Iraqi races. Foreign races are another matter.
As I understand it, Iraqi Shiites already dominate the current government and have ethnically cleansed the Sunnis from Bagdad. All Iraqi Shiites are pro-Iranian. Is this not true?
Where’s the button? Get our people out of there, and I’ll push it. Waste all of those pissants and let God sort them out!
Not at all. If anything, there are more Sunnis in Baghdad than there are Shiites. The Shiites dominate the southern cities such as Basra, Najaf and Nasariyah. Baghdad is a mix of everyone, including Christians.
And NO, not all Iraqi Shiites are pro-Iranian. All pro-Iranian types here are Shia, but I personally know many Shiites who don't want any government here that resembles that of Iran's. These people all lived in a secular society for decades and they still lean very much that way. That's why Allawi got the most votes in the March elections - he campaigned on secular government principles.
There are a lot of the pro-Iranian scum here and most of them follow that vermin Muqtada al Sadr. But the majority of Iraqis despise his militant tactics and just want peace.
Yes, and lots of Sunnis held favored positions in the government, although there were a couple of high-ranking Shiites and one Christian as well. Saddam wasn't particularly religious.
Holding power over the larger Shia population by force & terror?
After the Shia attempted to overthrow the slimebag in 1991 and failed, yes, he and his thugs did take revenge in many ways.
Instead it sounds like they are too busy fighting each other.
There are certainly power struggles and Muqtada al Sadr's minions are defintely a HUGE problem, but the Sunnis and the Shiites aren't fighting each other as much as the media would have you believe.
However, things have been deteriorating here since March when Iraq held elections but up to now has failed to seat its government. That's where the squabbles are - not so much among the people.
Iraq has recently announced that it is now working on seating the government and al Qaeda has threatened to do everything it can to prevent that.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. *Sigh*
>>There are a lot of the pro-Iranian scum here and most of them follow that vermin Muqtada al Sadr.
Boy, there’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. I still can’t help but think he should have been taken out 7-8 years ago.
That would be Mookie al Sadr’s gang, would it not? Haven’t heard much about him of late.
The way folks survive in these horribly violent cultures is to create systems where they can ‘jump’ to the winning side. When a winner’s established, - people rush to that side... it’s called something like inshallah ...
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