U.S. Sets Plans to Aid Iraq in Civil War

[Barrett808]

U.S. Sets Plans to Aid Iraq in Civil War
Security Forces Would Bear Brunt

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 10, 2006; Page A01

The U.S. military will rely primarily on Iraq's security forces to put down a civil war in that country if one breaks out, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told lawmakers yesterday.

Sectarian violence in Iraq has reached a level unprecedented since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and is now eclipsing the insurgency as the chief security threat there, said Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, who appeared with Rumsfeld.

"The plan is to prevent a civil war, and to the extent one were to occur, to have the . . . Iraqi security forces deal with it to the extent they're able to," Rumsfeld told the Senate Appropriations Committee when pressed to explain how the United States intended to respond should Iraq descend wholesale into internecine strife.

If civil war becomes reality, "it's very clear that the Iraqi forces will handle it, but they'll handle it with our help," Abizaid said later when asked to elaborate on Rumsfeld's remark.

(more)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/09/AR2006030900280.html

[skypilot]

1. Iraqi security forces???

Does he mean the security forces who still can't bring security to the country without the help of the U.S. military? They're going to "put down" a civil war now? Oh, it's Rumsfeld talking. Never mind.

On edit:"...the Iraqi forces will handle it, but they'll handle it with our help," Abizaid said later when asked to elaborate on Rumsfeld's remark.

Someone always has to come along to elaborate on or "clarify" what these idiots say.

[coalition_unwilling]

2. How can the WP publish such drivel as "news"?

It's news because Rums-fuckup says it??

Let's see if I understand: the U.S. is going to rely on Iraqi security forces to "deal with it."

The problem is that no one honestly maintains that the Iraqi security forces are honest brokers. They are heavily infiltrated by the Resistance and by members of various sectarian militia (aka "death squads").

[MidwestTransplant]

3. Um but I thought there wasn't going to be a civil war?

Somebody better tell Snotty Scotty.

[Tanuki]

4. I thought

that under the Geneva Convention, it was the responsibility of an occupying force to maintain civil order. Oh, yeah, silly me, I forgot that the B*sh gang of criminals thinks the Geneva Convention is quaint and obsolete, and behaves accordingly.

[wellst0nev0ter]

5. Some Minor Details Missing:

Pentagon: Iraqi troops downgraded
No Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support

Friday, February 24, 2006; Posted: 8:29 p.m. EST (01:29 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/24/iraq.security/index.html?section=cnn_topstories

Which is perhaps because of this:

Shiite Militias Roam Free Despite Curfew, Occupy Sunni Mosques

By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, February 26, 2006; A16

BAGHDAD, Feb. 25 -- Until four days ago, the building was a Sunni Muslim mosque called al-Hassan, located on a quiet side street amid a clutch of stone homes with ragged yards in the northeast Baghdad neighborhood of Mustansiriya.

But in the chaos that followed the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra north of Baghdad on Wednesday, Shiite residents of the diverse community and members of a feared militia stormed the mosque and adorned it with black, red and green Shiite prayer flags. They closed the street to vehicles and renamed the mosque after Imam Ali, who was the son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad and is particularly revered by Shiites.

"It was a Shiite mosque before the tyrant Saddam Hussein took it for Sunnis. We had the chance and we took it for its rightful owners," said Haidar Abbas, 25, part of a force of about two dozen guarding the mosque Saturday afternoon. Several carried AK-47 assault rifles as they walked the perimeter, and neighborhood residents said their black attire and police-issue flak vests were hallmarks of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia loyal to the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

While Baghdad and three other Iraqi provinces are supposed to be under security lockdown, Shiite militias are roaming the streets among and alongside Iraq's police and army, attacking and occupying dozens of Sunni mosques -- and reflagging some as Shiite -- and detaining and killing worshipers. Residents of several Baghdad neighborhoods have reported seeing pickup trucks barreling through otherwise empty streets, bearing militia members armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

[xchrom]

6. who? who are they going to help?

soldiers by day -- deathsquad members by night?

remember el salvador and guatemala -- we helped there too.

[saigon68]

8. Negroponte is trained to eliminate the PROBLEM

BLOOD RUNS THROUGH HIS FINGERS

HE IS A CRAVEN WAR CRIMINAL

WHO BELONGS IN AN ORANGE JUMPSUIT AT THE HAGUE

[xchrom]

9. ding! ding! ding!

we have a winner.

[BootinUp]

7. Cry Havoc!

and let slip the dogs of war!

[liberal N proud]

10. What happened to pulling out if a civil war broke out?

Liar, liar, liar.... George W. Bu$h, you are a liar.

[peacebird]

11. we'll be busy bringing shock'n'awe to Iran when the civil war hits

it'll never make the msm, any more than the taliban retaking most of Afghanistan has.

:grr:

[jwirr]

12. What are we going to sell weapons to both sides like we did

between Iraq & Iran?