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Shiite Violence = Surge Success?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Iraq, Military, War

The Pentagon throws some interesting logic on the table about the recent problems in Iraq.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Pentagon on Wednesday said an eruption of violence in southern Iraq, where US-backed government forces were battling Shiite militias, was a “by-product of the success of the surge.”

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said it showed that the Iraqi government and security forces were now confident enough to take the initiative against Shiite extremists in the southern port of Basra.

“Citizens down there have been living in a city of chaos and corruption for some time and they and the prime minister clearly have had enough of it,” he said at a Pentagon press conference.

Maybe I’m missing something here, but if you follow this logic wouldn’t a complete withdrawal of our troops embolden the Iraqi security forces even more to act? Again, if they have no safety net they’ll have to squash these uprisings a lot faster.

And remember, Americans really aren’t fighting this fight…

Morrell said US forces were supporting the Iraqi crackdown, mainly from the air, but it was an Iraqi operation.

Again, I don’t see how drawing down our troops will hurt the Iraqi government’s new sense of ownership in the security of Iraq.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 and is filed under Iraq, Military, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Shiite Violence = Surge Success?”

Jim Dawson Says:
March 26th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
The military is also unclear about who we are fighting and why General Petraeus said we Iranian backed insurgents fired the rockets into the Green Zone, yet most of the fighting was against al Sadr, who is Shiite trying to push Iran out of Iraq.

To add to the confusion, the Iraqi army and police are full of Badr Organization members, who are the Iraqi most closely allied to Iran. So maybe the Iraqi military is lobbing missiles into the Green Zone (a possibility) or the situation is lot more complicated that is presently being reported.

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