Direckshun
08-26-2008, 07:34 PM
This will likely generate zero interest but whatever.
In case you weren't aware, Iraq has seen steady progress in the past year or two. Civilian casualties are down, sectarian violence has dropped, and fewer and fewer coalition forces are dying out in the field.
A part of the reason behind this is the Surge. But generally accepted to be the more prominent reasons are the disbanding of Al Sadr's armies and, most prominently, the Anbar Awakening.
The Anbar Awakening was a uniting of the Sheikhs in the Sunni parts of Iraq to call off their urban warfare with Shi'ite Iraqis and generally formed their own citizen police force to ensure the security in some of the most dangerous places in the country. Amazingly, the results have far exceeded the expectations of outsiders such as our military, even as the Surge steals all the credit.
And now they demand representation in the civil government.
Well the Awakening is being targeted by the Shi'ite government. Al Maliki's government (predominantly, if not totally, Shi'ite) has reportedly gone to lengths to prevent leaders of the movement from gaining serious positions in the government, and now Iraq's own Defense Ministry is targeting them as an opposition group...
Shit could hit the fan. This political problem that could include yet MORE civil war is far from over.
The most trouble aspect of this is how much the US has tried to get Iraq to incorporate these folks into Iraq's government, and Maliki and the Shi'ite leaders just aren't having it, period. Our influence continues to diminish, as does the idea that with reduced violence comes governmental progress in Iraq.
In case you weren't aware, Iraq has seen steady progress in the past year or two. Civilian casualties are down, sectarian violence has dropped, and fewer and fewer coalition forces are dying out in the field.
A part of the reason behind this is the Surge. But generally accepted to be the more prominent reasons are the disbanding of Al Sadr's armies and, most prominently, the Anbar Awakening.
The Anbar Awakening was a uniting of the Sheikhs in the Sunni parts of Iraq to call off their urban warfare with Shi'ite Iraqis and generally formed their own citizen police force to ensure the security in some of the most dangerous places in the country. Amazingly, the results have far exceeded the expectations of outsiders such as our military, even as the Surge steals all the credit.
And now they demand representation in the civil government.
Well the Awakening is being targeted by the Shi'ite government. Al Maliki's government (predominantly, if not totally, Shi'ite) has reportedly gone to lengths to prevent leaders of the movement from gaining serious positions in the government, and now Iraq's own Defense Ministry is targeting them as an opposition group...
Shit could hit the fan. This political problem that could include yet MORE civil war is far from over.
The most trouble aspect of this is how much the US has tried to get Iraq to incorporate these folks into Iraq's government, and Maliki and the Shi'ite leaders just aren't having it, period. Our influence continues to diminish, as does the idea that with reduced violence comes governmental progress in Iraq.