Juan Cole's blog: Green Zone to be attacked en masse.

[IntiRaymi]

http://www.juancole.com/

....Another friend, a Sunni sheikh of the Shammar tribe noted to me that thousands of former officers are prepared to assault the Green Zone. It is no longer a matter of can they do it, they are only mulling over the timing. The breach of the Green Zone security the other day was a test of their ability to get in, and not a real attempt at a coup, though it is reported as such. Every Iraqi I talk to says unambiguously that the resistance attached to the former regime would take out the Shiite militias with barely a fight, but that the resistance will not commit wholesale revenge against the Shiite population. They just want to get rid of the "carpet baggers" from Iran. '

...

Things are going just swimmingly, huh?

[NMDemDist2]

1. i wondered about that Green Zone attack being a test of our security

:cry:

[iconoclastic cat]

2. We are all damned. nt

[oblivious]

3. It would make the perfect headquarters for a nasty dictatorship.

[RedEarth]

4. I read that earlier this morning and just got sick thinking of the

utter disaster this administration has created. It's completely beyond belief........the consequences of their stupidity and arrogance will be with us for generations.

[Ghost Dog]

5. I'll take the fifth (rec).

Saw this coming since (before) the beginning. But then, I'm a(n international) cheese-eating European.

With a deep sense of History.

Go figure :end irony:

[understandinglife]

6. Inevitable.

No doubting Juan's got the sources.

Recommended.

[DemReadingDU]

15. It is all very ominous

and this from Pat Lang...

Now, you have to ask yourself why the President, the VP and Rice are all going to be in "the region" in the same week. Something brewing? Something about to happen? What could it be?
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2006/11/enemies_everywh.html

[IndyOp]

7. I'd like to second Congressmember Maxine Waters now --

During the week or so before the election she said that Congress should call an emergency session to evaluate Iraq.

Mrs. Speaker-Elect Pelosi --- NOW, PLEASE.

Amazing how much Juan knows when we TALKS TO THE IRAQIs -- UNLIKE ANY OF THE GOD-DAMNED PUNDITS in the corporate media who only talk to other pundits.

It is an outrageous insult to the Iraqis that we DEBATE EACH OTHER about what should happen next.

Once again, I am ashamed.

[jimshoes]

8. Note to whomever is in charge of this mess,

If this takes place and there is a bloodbath in the green zone, where loss of life is measured in the thousands, the obvious first question is going to be, "Who let this happen and why". I wouldn't want to be the guy who has to answer that question.

[petgoat]

25. "the guy who has to answer "

If history is any guide, the neocrocons will undertake secret negotiations
with the insurgents (a la October Surprise) to delay the attacks until near
the election, will bribe them with weapons (a la the arms-for-hostages
deal), and will blame the defeat on Democratic back-stabbing (a la Vietnam
and Germany after WWI).

[SlavesandBulldozers]

27. yep.

great post.

[IndyOp]

9. Sunni will not commit wholesale revenge against Shia...

According to Cole: "Every Iraqi I talk to says unambiguously that the resistance attached to the former regime would take out the Shiite militias with barely a fight, but that the resistance will not commit wholesale revenge against the Shiite population. They just want to get rid of the "carpet baggers" from Iran."

The Sunni know that the US is behind ALL of this -- the wounds are deep, but so is the desire for peace.

Americans had better pray that God is not just. Who said that? Twain?

:(

[many a good man]

13. WHO benefits by the US presence ???

That quote infers that Americans are propping up Maliki and the pro-Iranian Shia. Would our withdrawal lead to the Baathists defeating the Shia militias (in Baghdad at least) and taking control of the country?

The current government has carved up power among competing interests, heavily favoring the pro-Iranian elements. Without our aid the Iranian influence would suffer, no? Baathist rule would likely lead to a secular state, no?

But Baathists won't let the US control Iraq's oil, right? So that's the only reason we are allying with the Iranian terrorist groups, DAWA and SCIRI, who control Iraq. Nuclear brinkmanship with Iran and our continuing occupation of Iraq are mere bargaining chips in lust for oil power politics? Shit.

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.
- Thomas Jefferson.

[yurbud]

21. sounds like you got it figured out--you just don't like it.

[tblue37]

16. Thomas Jefferson said it--about slavery.

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever."

[SlavesandBulldozers]

28. wow hadn't seen that one.

thanks.

[MadMaddie]

10. Tet Offensive Anyone...

Our soldiars are in the Green Zone and they will be the main targets...get them out now....

[ChairmanAgnostic]

11. what you said. Tet, meet Green.

What use is superior airpower when those infiltrating are right next to you?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. what you said. Tet, meet Green.

What use is superior airpower when those infiltrating are right next to you?

[Hissyspit]

14. Permanent Link:

http://www.juancole.com/2006/11/233-dead-in-civil-war-carnage-health.html#comments

[IntiRaymi]

18. Thanks, Hissysipit. nt

[jwirr]

17. And *ss will let it happen like Katrina so he can use it as an

excuse for withdrawing. He does not care about the soldiers in Iraq. Hopefully the generals do.

[Swagman]

19. I've been expecting this..like the storming of the Saigon US embassy

[Porcupine]

20. It would be mass suicide to do that.

A mass attack from outsid the Green Zone would run into fixed wing and helicopter gunships. In the case of an infilteration attack they would have to neutralize and mix with the majority of US troops within minutes.

As soon as a coherent mass of US troops were able to organize around command orders would be given to drive out or execute all non-US personell. After that it would simply a matter of killing every living thing moving outside the perimeter. It would be a political disaster for the US but suicide for the majority of attacking Iraqi's.

The final Iraqi option would be a mass population march on the Green Zone. By literally pouring the entire population of the city into the streets and at the Green Zone they could force a political showdown. Surrender or kill us all. Bush has already proven that we have no problem with mass murder or slaughter of Iraqi's. He would not hesitate to repeat a highway of death incident.

May Peace Prevail on all parties.

[eridani]

22. And what if they are willing to do mass suicide? n/t

[catnhatnh]

23. Nope....

It's called "hugging the belt":See Vietnam....The one most successful tactic to prevent the US use of air power assets was to get so close that air assaults were as much fratricide as a defensive tactic....leading to the final possible countermeasure-calling for air strikes on your own position while being over run:See "kill us all and let God sort us out...".

[Recursion]

24. The Sunni militants have to do that because they want us to stay

And they know we can't leave immediately after a massive attack. As long as we're still they're disrupting the Iraqi political process/civil war, we're holding off the day that they have to accept Shi'ite majority rule and buying them time to undermine the Shi'ite government. If they get into the green zone and hit it hard, they know we can't leave for a while. God help the men and women over there...

[electron_blue]

26. oh no, don't say that. A friend is headed there in January

:(

National Guard, his second tour over there. He wasn't supposed to go back, they told him, but they've had unexpectedly heavy losses, so he was told, so he's going back for another year.