Force Cannot Calm Iraq Flashpoints - UN Envoy

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=4928276

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - With U.S. troops threatening Sunni insurgents in Falluja and Shi'ite rebels in Najaf, a U.N. envoy said force could not solve Iraq's problems.

"I think that there is always a better solution than shooting your way into anywhere," Lakhdar Brahimi said of the standoffs in Iraq's flashpoint cities.

A few families who had fled fierce fighting in Falluja earlier this month walked back into the battle-scarred city on Saturday, hours after Iraq's U.S. administrator warned that "major hostilities could resume at short notice."

Paul Bremer said "armed bands" in Falluja must give up their weapons and "submit to national authority" if a shaky cease-fire negotiated with civic leaders was to last.

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[LittleApple81]

1. NNNOLHI: I love your thoughtful posts. Did you see Koppel shared your

opinion about Bush*'s attitude about coffins?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1464701
Thanks for all your work to keep us informed!

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Gee, I love the smell of quagmire in the morning

not.

Too bad, W doesn't listen to focus groups. We tried to tell him. I even called the WH. But no... Dim Son and all his friends had all the answers. They knew better than the rest of us, because they had the intelligence that us peons weren't allowed to see. It was going to be a cakewalk. The Iraqis would be throwing flowers not bombs. So far they're batting a thousand.

[bfusco]

3. Brahimi is right

We are fighting a fire with gasoline and ensuing military action will on lead to devastation, loss of life and drive more Iraqis into the ranks of insurgents. Unfortunately I don't think these warnings are going to be heeded when Cheney making remarks like:

"Such an enemy cannot be deterred, cannot be contained, cannot be appeased, or negotiated with," he said. "It can only be destroyed. And that is the business at hand."

Just like the Israel was able to do with the Palestinians, the British with the Irish, Russians with Chechnya or French with Algeria? Just like we would decapitate the regime with shock and awe and have cheering Iraqis in the streets? That fat, ugly, lying, crash cart, evil chicken hawk slime ball makes me sick.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

4. Well, duh. Sun Tsu knew that 5000 years ago. The UN just

learned this?

[Warren Stuart]

5. Red (White and Blue) Dawn

Red Dawn, perhaps one of the improbable concepts ever to play on a movie screen, yet it tapped into something very fundamental.

Ask any wingnut about their top ten movies and Red Dawn is sure to be up there. And yet this is the situation in Iraq, we are not fighting terrorists or dead-enders. We are up against people protecting their homes.

The only way we will get these "armed bands" to give up their wepons is when we pry them from their cold dead fingers. "Submit to a national authority"? If you saw the movie, then you know what the answer to that question is.