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That depends on if you buy the military's belief that AQI is the primary insurgent group in Iraq.

There is a debate about this.

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:41 AM

Interesting piece. I'd read several posts from Yglesias and others mentioning the piece, but didn't follow their links.

The author's explanation of Anbar strikes me as particularly interesting. Clearly, we've spent money to buy friends there. But we didn't just start buying friends this past winter? If all it takes is cash, why didn't the insurgency get bought off long ago? IMHO, the evidence for a tribal backlash against AQI oppression seems much stronger.

# posted by

Ariel David Adesnik : 10:02 AM

Google: 82nd Airborne, elementary school, Fallujah. See also Operation al-Fajr. We bought a lot of enemies in Anbar we didn't need to buy. These people wanted payback.

AQI is obviously a real phenomenon and the tribes and Sunni insurgent groups had a reaction to it. However, AQI also benefited quite a bit from American inflation. There is also a basic tribal dynamic at work: certain tribes lined up with AQI, and this provoked a natural counter-reaction amongst their enemies. This Macleans article is instructive.

I assume you also read Abu Aardvark. If not, you really have some catching up to do.

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:37 PM

Is AQI permenantly or temporarily crippled? This group is in for the long haul and knows that you have to lose a few battles to win the war.

Iraq is now owned by the US. It is our own version of the West Bank only 10 times bigger.

The US has everything to loses and nothing to gain from being in that country!

Danny L. McDaniel
Lafayette, Indiana

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:55 PM

In an article written by Rep. Roger F. Wicker October 15, 2007 after his Iraq visit said

There is no doubt that long-standing hatred among Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds has made achieving national reconciliation a difficult goal. While the national government has been slow to come together, I am optimistic that positive steps are being taken to move those efforts forward.

Is this guy one of " Can You Tell a Sunni From a Shiite? Wonder?

Just to say to Roger F. Wickerm, what he said it's not what his country man who worked in Iraq and for nearly 2 years in Baghdad plus three months in the Shia holy city of Najaf when US went in Iraq Robert Ford said:

I've worked in the Arab World for almost 20 years. There are two forces at work in the Arab World now: those who want more freedom of choice and religious fundamentalists who want to shut choice off.

I have not in my 2+ years here yet met an Iraqi who thinks this would be a good idea. They want to stay a single country and they have had one for the past 85 years. They also want to get their security situation under control, they want to have safe streets and a growing economy.

By Iraqi Love Iraq

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:52 PM

Just out of interest, do those Iraqis Bob Ford spoke to include Kurds from the KRG, where it is illegal to fly the Iraqi national flag?

# posted by

Anonymous : 6:34 AM

Ask him.
He is as same as his country man who were elected to congress by his continuances and supported by them, when he visited Iraq he talks to all of these:

1-Qatar “ heard from national leaders in Qatar and Jordan”

2-Jordan “heard from national leaders in Qatar and Jordan “

3-in Baghdad talking with U.S. military personnel

4-Iraq's neighbors are opposed to an immediate withdrawal of U.S. personnel.

Where are the Iraqis? Why this team of Congressmen who believes in democracy “From The People To The People” ignored 25 Millions Iraqi when they went to spread democracy in Iraq he spoke to all of the around but not Iraqi, what’s that mean then?

open the door for Iran to expand its influence throughout the region.

While talking about “AQI” we got sick and tierd from this talk, Oh yah did Roger F. Wicker knows that Ali Khaminie personally announces that Iran helped US in Afghanistan and Iraq?

What about those terrorist groups Bader Militia (The Drill Militia) and Dawa’a groups were created and financed by Iranians back more than 20 years ago, are they American friend or the creator lover?

Iraqi love Iraq

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:22 PM

David,
Is it "AQI" some how miss reported/manipulated as retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez spoke before the Military Reporters and Editors Association he chastised the media’s reporting on the war in Iraq.

He said that parent media organizations have political agendas that shape how the news is reported. He seemed to become angry, saying: "What is clear to me is that you are perpetuating the corrosive partisan politics that is destroying our country and killing our service members who are at war. My assessment is that your profession, to some, has strayed from these ethical standards and allowed external agendas to manipulate what the American public sees on TV, reads in newspapers and what they see on the Web," Sanchez said.

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:22 PM

Al Qaeda?

“We’ve treated the Arab world as a collection of big gas stations,” the retired general said. “Our message to them is: Guys, keep your pumps open, prices low, be nice to the Israelis and you can do whatever you want out back. Osama and 9/11 is the distilled essence that represents everything going on out back.”
http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/10/15/roundtableDebatesEnergyIssues

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:35 AM

Oh God, please do not quote Tom Friedman ever again.

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:58 AM

So maybe 10% of the insurgency is "crippled?" Big whoop.

# posted by

Ralph Hitchens : 3:51 PM

Tequila has it right. Let's pat ourselves on the back for delivering serious blows to maybe 10 percent of the insurgency.

# posted by

Ralph Hitchens : 4:14 PM

Ralph Hitchens.

The other 90% don't seem to be as capable as the 10% you miss so much.

Certainly, the bad actors' bad acting is down by far more than 10%.

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# posted by

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