Sunni Insurgent Leader Paints Iran as 'Real Enemy'

[4dsc]

Source: Washington post

He wore a pale yellow dress shirt and black-rimmed glasses that lost their tint when he entered the dark lobby of a Baghdad hotel. He drank orange soda and refused a cigarette. His face was tense, but he spoke in a calm, open way about the satisfaction of killing Shiites with his own hands.

Over the course of a 90-minute interview, a leader of an armed Sunni group in western Baghdad described his hatred for Iran and the current Iraqi government, while outlining the dimensions of an armed insurgency that extends well beyond al-Qaeda in Iraq, the organization that U.S. officials routinely identify as their central enemy.

Abu Sarhan, as the 37-year-old insurgent wished to be known, said Iraq's Sunnis are deep into an entrenched and irresolvable civil war against Iranian-backed Shiites. He said the premise of the U.S. military's counterinsurgency strategy -- deploying thousands of soldiers in small outposts in violent neighborhoods -- only inflames the insurgency and prompts attacks against the Americans.

If U.S. forces release Sunni detainees, remove the concrete blast barriers that now cordon off several neighborhoods and improve services in areas neglected by the Shiite-led government, "the attacks will be reduced 95 percent within days," he said. He added that the Americans' insistence on striking Sunni areas "is generating an increasing resistance."



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/13/AR2007071301792.html?nav=hcmodule&sub=AR

[jody]

1. Saudi backed Sunni versus Iranian backed Shiites. That's no place for U.S. troops. n/t

[w13rd0]

2. If the Bush administration...

...is looking to foment conflict with Iran, this certainly illuminates their recent decision to "arm and ally with" Sunni insurgent groups. Someone really should take some time to discuss the concept of blowback with them.

[acmavm]

3. Iraq gives me political whiplash. Now we have the

Sunnis, who were the religious sect of Saddam and the guys that everyone wanted out of power, saying that the clowns that we put into power (the Shi'ites) are aligned with Iran. And our government is supporting these puppets with no holds barred. Billions of dollars every month, armaments, American blood, you name it and we'll give it to 'em, no questions (or checks into where the money's going) asked.

BUT, we're thinking about bombing Iran back to the Middle Ages, right? So are we really NOT supporting the puppets in the phony Iraq goverment? How could we be if our bestest buds, the Saudi's support the Sunnis? So much of our Middle Eastern policy has been based on what the Israelis and the Saudis want that we don't really have an American policy, we just have this 'placate our buddies' policy over there. But now I don't know who our buddies are because we have one of the main buds, Israel, calling for the destruction of Iran (with Holy Joe's big mouth leading the call). So, if we try to wipe Iran off the map, what does that do to the fake government we set up in Baghdad? Can they still govern? Will they jump bad and throw a nasty fit if we bomb Iran? Or will they all apply for political asylum? And what will Syria, Lebanon, and all the rest of the regional countries do if we decide to murder another few hundred thousand innocent civilians?

And then there's the main player in the area. Corporate America. They want everybody who might object to a foreign occupation and takeover of the oil fields dead. And our military seems ready to oblige. The 'kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out' theory of warfare has never had a shinier example than the attack and occupation of Iraq. And corporate America, do they give a shit about what Saudi Arabia or Israel want? Or are they just out there playing the game for themselves?

Nice mess you've got us involved in george. And it's not like you weren't warned over and over and over again.