Discussion: Sunni Militant Group Vows To March On Baghdad

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Discussion for article #223852

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We should leave 30,000 troops in Iraq.

-John McCain

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Biden had the right idea back in 2006-divide Iraq into Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish entities. It’s sad that Sunnis and Shiites are unable to live together, but that seems to be the reality. Not in Syria, not in Iraq. Occasionally in Lebanon, but they seem to always be one incident away from sliding backwards.

Our “friends” the Saudis need to stoop arming these jihadists just to block Iran, because they are as big a menace, if not bigger. To those who want the US involved, I ask, “On the side of the corrupt, incompetent, dictatorial Maliki, who is in the pockets of Iran or the wild-eyed Al Qaeda guys?” Because that is the choice here. The Kurds seem capable of taking care of themselves.

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Perhaps the al-Maliki government could re-hire Baghdad Bob to provide the press with updates on the military situation.

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There is not enough retribution that could be visited upon the heads of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush & Co. - Many many mistakes were made - but one of the most colossal was the lack of a plan to put things back together - early on someone said “you break it - you own it” - and it certainly did get tossed up and ‘broken’ (in some way it was already broken - but it was made far, far worse) and there should have been a comprehensive plan to prepare for / fix the mess that was created. You don’t just carpet bomb a nation into massive state of ruin and then think they will rebuild themselves into something different from what they were.

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James Fallows predicted this in November of 2002. He said if you took out Saddam, Iraq would likely devolve into chaos that we and the world might have to deal with for years or decades, and asked if we were up for that.

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I have to agree. Removing Saddam pretty much guaranteed a civil war. When we stuck our fat noses into the mix, we had an obligation to do what we could to prevent it, but we didn’t care.

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And they all laughed at Joe Biden when he said Iraq should be divided into 3 separate countries. . .

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Anybody notice that these Sunni militants are the same freedom fighters that John McCain and others wanted us to go to war to support against Assad? Does anyone else think it awkward that if we engage these insurgents militarily it will make us de facto allies of the Syrian regime?

What a mess. All I can say is thank you Mr. President for not putting us at war in Syria on the same side as these people. And to Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, are you happy now?

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Two words: Saddam’s Revenge.

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I couldn’t help but read that headline as “Sunni Militants Vow to Make Themselves Airstrike Targets.”

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Yep, - moar surge.

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You’re over-thinking it dude. Don’t worry about picking sides and who’s who (too hard to distinguish them anyway). Just go in there and start bombing. That’s produced good results in the past.

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Has Iraq even thanked us yet for improving their country so much? /snark

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George Bush and Dick Cheney should be dropped in to work out a deal with the Sunnis

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just figure out who will give us the oil - and you will have your answer

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Let me join the chorus: Biden was right. Iraq never made sense as a single state. Clearly the Shiites and Sunnis won’t live a state dominated by the other, and the Kurds want nothing to do with either of them. Agree on the borders and split the country in three. I know the neighbors don’t want an independent Kurdistan giving ideas to their own Kurds, but the time has come to say tough. The potential problems aren’t as bad as the actual ones.

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“I am not against all wars I am just against dumb wars.” Barack Obama on the Iraq War. Now the GOP is trying to blame a person who did what he could to keep GOP from starting that dumb war for the GOP starting that dumb war. This was not only predictable but predicted.

Everything that is and has happened in Iraq since the invasion, including the extra bloodletting by American soldiers in the surge done for the single reason of delaying the breakup of Iraq and takeover of some sections by terrorists until Bush could get out of town was not only predictable but in fact was predicted by those of us who opposed the Iraq War from the beginning.

About 10 years ago I wrote an essay, titled “The Predictable and the Predicted” citing the comments of Pat Buchannan who called those of us opposed to the Iraq War as “The coalition of the intelligent.” The Essay also stated what is happening now would happen to Iraq if America did not have a Marshall Plan for Iraq costing over a trillion and immediately triple its troops and plan to stay for 20 years.

That is the moment Bush invaded Iraq America was left with a single choice: DRAFT or LOSE. That is to have enough troops to secure Iraq’s borders to keep out terrorists and provide security for Iraq’s everyday people so they could carry out their everyday lives and build the institutions necessary for a unified democracy America would need a DRAFT. But a DRAFT would have cost the GOP power forever, so to hang onto power the GOP choice to lose the war slowly so Bush could get out of town and someone else could be blamed. But a DRAFT was only the beginning of what would be needed; to win in Iraq Bush would have needed to raise taxes to fund a Marshall plan to bribe/convince the population to choose a western style unified nation instead of other choices.

Like I predicted Bush and the GOP chose to try and hang onto power by slowing Iraq’s implosion until they could blame someone else, someone who had the good sense to oppose the Iraq War from the beginning.

Now here is my prediction for Iraq: Iran will move in and take what it wants. Likely the Turks will have to move in and take other sections in the north that it does not want. This will leave a Sunni center that will be a home to terrorists. This is the result of Bush’s dumb war that was not only predictable but predicted 10 years ago by those of us opposed to the war from the beginning.

In short the invassion of Iraq by the GOP will leave America poorer, weaker, less secrue and its enemies stronger and richer than had Bush never invaded and as predicted the GOP will try and blame those of us who opposed the war from the beginning

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If it took a true dictator like Saddam Hussein to keep all three religious / ethnic factions together in one nation while keeping Islamic extremists at bay, how can anyone expect a president from one of the religious factions who has not acted like a president of all the people but as a partisan anti-Sunni hack keep the whole thing together?

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A word of caution: Should we come to the aid of Iraq, we won’t be “greeted with flowers.”

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