by Jack Lee
Fallujah is in the hands of Al qaeda, according to President Nouri al Maliki and he’s calling on the locals to mount an uprising and drive them out. The problem is, it’s the locals who are uprising against him. al Maliki is a Shiite and this area is mostly Sunni. Since his election he’s treated the Sunni’s poorly, depriving them of positions in government and power sharing.
Under Saddam Hussein Sunni’s did the same thing to Shiites, so apparently nobody in al Maliki’s cabinet learned a thing. Pres. al Maliki is a little man that harbors obvious prejudice towards Sunni’s and would rather defer to the whims of Iran, than do what is right and necessary to broker a lasting peace in his country. He’s ignored U.S. proposals to negotiate with Sunni’s and strike some sort of compromise. But, he was adamant in his position. Now his country is at risk of all out civil war ala Syrian style and the radicals on boths side can’t wait.
(Pictured at left) Sunni fighters carry RPG missile launchers and machine guns as they take up position in Fallujah, Iraq. According to media reports, militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria have taken full control of Fallujah and large areas of Ramadi, two key cities in the western province of Anbar, after government forces cleared out an anti-government Sunni protest camp.
Secretary of State John Kerry earlier said the U.S. won’t send troops to assist Iraq. “This is a fight that belongs to the Iraqis,” Kerry told a news conference in Jerusalem today. Another reason we won’t be sending troops is al Malikia basically kicked us out ahead of our schedule. In turn we left behind hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military vehicles, war supplies and base camp infrastructure.
One could argue, and the military certainly has, that if we had stayed a little longer maybe this current bloodshed could have been avoided. George Will said it right when offered another view, “But, how do you it wouldn’t have happened anyway?” We don’t, but we do know we spent a trillion dollars and lost 4489 soldiers, with 32222 wounded. Wondering if we’ve learned anything?
This is and has been a tribal culture for centuries. The lines on the maps were drawn by white guys (=infidels). We were expecting…?
RHT, you are absolutely right. Iraq was a created nation by Europeans without regard to the desires of indiginous peoples and long standing tribal lands. It’s never been at peace since.