Meanwhile, Turkish and Iranian Troops Mass on the Border

Meanwhile, Turkish and Iranian Troops Mass on the Border
April 24, 2006: The four month political deadlock, over who will be the new prime minister, has been resolved. A Shia Arab, Jawad al Maliki, is the man. He has 30 days to appoint ministers and get going. The delay has been expensive, as many Sunni factions that are willing to negotiate peace deals, had no one to negotiate with. Until the new government is formed, a lot of people are putting a lot of plans, including reconstruction, on hold. They have to know who they will be dealing with for the next four years.

While Iraqis wait, U.S. troops have been chasing Islamic and Sunni Arab terrorists around. The terrorists have fewer and fewer places to hide. But the constant action has doubled the death rate for American troops (from last month). Several hundred terrorists have been killed or wounded, and several senior al Qaeda and Sunni Arab terrorist leaders were caught. In many ways, the Sunni Arab terrorists are more lethal than the al Qaeda groups. Most of the Sunni Arab groups are remnants of Saddam Hussein's security forces. These fellows have lots of blood on their hands, and fear retribution, either in the form of war crimes trials, or simply revenge from the kin of the many people they killed. Vengeful Kurds and Shia Arabs know exactly who they are looking for, as Saddam's thugs never hid their identities. So the desperate thugs go on killing, in hopes of getting an amnesty deal. But to make a deal, they need someone to deal with. That won't happen until the new government is in place. In the beginning of the year, American commanders held their fire, but then it was decided to keep going with the anti-terrorist operations, as it appeared that the Iraqis were deadlocked on forming a new government. So May will be a bloody month as well.

More @ http://tinyurl.com/qzcvr strategypage

Iraq is dead the vultures are circling the carcass.

One of the reasons given for not finishing Iraq in Gulf War I was the fact that the removal of Saddam and his merry band of cutthroats from power would destabilize the entire region. While I agree that Saddam was a loose cannon he needed removed from power, no good deed goes unpunished. The region is indeed destabilized and I fear will remain so for the foreseeable future.

When/if we do leave Iraq the country will devolve into full civil war and Turkey and Iran may pick off a few tasty tidbits from the carcass of Iraq. Then we'll be left with a rump Iraq run by I'm guessing more fanatics. The Mid-East seems to produce such fanatics at an alarming rate with no end in sight.

Outside of staying in Iraq forever I see no way for the carcass of Iraq to be brought back to life and that could take many years if it happens at all!