Iraq
(Iraqslogger) "Twenty thousand US troops have received word that their units will deploy back to Iraq starting late in 2007, with the Pentagon announcing Tuesday the force adjustment was part of regular troop rotations."
(AP) The Sunni Arab bloc officially withdrew (not suspended) from the Iraqi government.
(AP) And let's not misquote likely new Joint Chiefs Chair Mullen.
(NYTimes) At least 50 Iraqis were killed and 60 were wounded in a single bombing on a petrol station in Baghdad. (Still early reporting.) At least 17 others killed in another Baghdad bombing. (There have been a number of bomb attacks on Karradah recently.)
(McClatchy) "Despite President Bush's recent insistence that al Qaida in Iraq is the principal cause of this country's violence, senior American military officers here say Shiite Muslim militias are a bigger problem, and one that will persist even if al Qaida is defeated."
(The Shia militias will never go away because they have the utility of nonofficial violence. The real question is whether those efforts will be confined to Iraq. They are Shia Iraq's Hezbullah.)
(NYTimes) The Saudis "consider" upgrading their ties with the Maliki government as Gates and Rice visit, bringing them $20 billion in military hardware. (We're supporting "democracy" in Iraq by arming the autocratic Saudi monarchy. Nice.)
(ABCNews) The State Department still hasn't filled its diplomatic posts in Iraq.
(Iraqslogger) The GAO says that the DoD cannot account for 190,000 weapons given to the Iraqi government. "110,000 AK-47 rifles, 80,000 pistols, 135,000 items of body armor, and 115,000 helmets....." (Certainly not all of this has gone into "insurgent" hands, but just as certainly, alot of it has.)
(AP) The Sunni Arab bloc officially withdrew (not suspended) from the Iraqi government.
(AP) And let's not misquote likely new Joint Chiefs Chair Mullen.
"I believe security is critical to providing the government of Iraq the breathing space it needs to work toward political national reconciliation and economic growth, which are themselves critical to a stable Iraq," Mullen said. "Barring that, no amount of troops and no amount of time will make much of a difference."
(NYTimes) At least 50 Iraqis were killed and 60 were wounded in a single bombing on a petrol station in Baghdad. (Still early reporting.) At least 17 others killed in another Baghdad bombing. (There have been a number of bomb attacks on Karradah recently.)
(McClatchy) "Despite President Bush's recent insistence that al Qaida in Iraq is the principal cause of this country's violence, senior American military officers here say Shiite Muslim militias are a bigger problem, and one that will persist even if al Qaida is defeated."
(The Shia militias will never go away because they have the utility of nonofficial violence. The real question is whether those efforts will be confined to Iraq. They are Shia Iraq's Hezbullah.)
(NYTimes) The Saudis "consider" upgrading their ties with the Maliki government as Gates and Rice visit, bringing them $20 billion in military hardware. (We're supporting "democracy" in Iraq by arming the autocratic Saudi monarchy. Nice.)
(ABCNews) The State Department still hasn't filled its diplomatic posts in Iraq.
(Iraqslogger) The GAO says that the DoD cannot account for 190,000 weapons given to the Iraqi government. "110,000 AK-47 rifles, 80,000 pistols, 135,000 items of body armor, and 115,000 helmets....." (Certainly not all of this has gone into "insurgent" hands, but just as certainly, alot of it has.)
posted by mikevotes at
7:34 AM
8 Comments:
There is more to this arming the Gulf States (they are paying for the arms) than meets the eye. Notice the complaints from Israel are feeble. I think the idea is to somehow pit the Sunni states against Iran.
By
Anonymous, at 8:26 AM
No question there. There was a story a couple days ago about the Israelis endorsing this.
(Of course, they are also receiving a counterbalancing sale of arms.)
There's no question that the intent is to line up the Sunni states against Iran.
The next step, I would guess, is to offer Syria entry into this club in an efort to prise them away from Iran.
By
mikevotes, at 8:29 AM
Interesting thought. The Syrians would want the Golan in return of course and the Israelis would want them to stop supporting Hezbullah in Lebanon. Next thing you know you could have a full scale Middle East conference on your hands. Elliot Abrams isn't going to like that.
By
Anonymous, at 8:38 AM
Right now, the Syrian negotiating position is that Israel leave Golan before talks can start.
That's not happening, but the Israelis are still working lower level talks despite US objections.
Getting Syria to stop support for Hezbullah would be a really tough negotiating point because it's so difficult to track and easy to restart. Let's say the Israelis gave up part of Golan, and then in 6 months the Syrians start covertly working with Hezbullah again. What happens?
As I've said before, I'm not an expert on the broader middle east politics, but the Israelis and Syrians seem to believe there's reason to keep talking despite the vocal US and Iranian objections.
(And there is no middle east piece without a solution on Jerusalem.)
By
mikevotes, at 1:01 PM
I'm not optimistic about a peace settlement in the region...ever. I don't think the Israelis or the Palestinians really believe in it except on their own terms. I'm not even sure Americans who understand the situation believe it either but Bush has to go through the motions.
By
Anonymous, at 1:52 PM
And the motions are pretty important if the goal is to get the Sunni governments to turn on Iran.
They can't be seen to be giving up the Palestinians and allow the Iranians to claim the mantle of Palestine's protectors.
In other words, for the policy to work, it's important to create the APPEARANCE of activity.
By
mikevotes, at 2:09 PM
Appearance is important. Hence the flurry of activity after the Gaza 'coup'.
But until the US is truly impartial no real movement is possible. Mark Perry gets it...
http://tonykaron.com/2007/07/31/
why-oblivion-looms-for-mahmoud-abbas/
By
Anonymous, at 2:20 PM
Dude, if you're waiting for that to happen......
By
mikevotes, at 5:29 PM
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