Iraq: Preparing For The Worst
Robert Dreyfuss
February 28, 2006
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Second, as 900 more Marines left Hawaii over the weekend for Iraq, and 7,000 more U.S. soldiers began preparing to head for Iraq soon, various U.S. military spokesmen began to drop broad hints that more, not less, U.S. forces might be needed in Iraq. According to Gen. Mark Kimmitt, "There might be a need for more American forces." According to the Army Times , Gen. George Casey, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, is deciding whether or not to ask for more troops. The 56-page quarterly report by the Pentagon dated February 17 said: "Coalition force levels will increase, if necessary, to defeat the enemy." It also noted that (even before the post-Golden Dome violence) that attacks on U.S. forces had risen to an all-time high of 550 per week since October.
<snip>
It's a Mad Max world. It's rule by mob, by militia, by gangs and warlords and renegade mosque leaders. The Independent , the British daily, says that as many as 1,000 Iraqis are being tortured to death or executed, largely by Shiite militia forces and rogue police, army and Interior Ministry units, citing as its source the United Nations' former human rights chief in Iraq.
<snip>
Inside Iraq, all sides are preparing for war. Ominously, the mainstream Sunni Arab bloc, not the resistance per se but the provincial, tribal and mosque leaders of western Iraq, are reportedly forming their own militia forces, called the Anbar Revolutionaries, to defend Sunni territory against marauding Shiite militiamen associated with Muqtada Al Sadr's Mahdi Army. The Post says that Sunnis are forming "local defense forces and conducting their own attacks." Ayatollah Sistani, the Shiite religious leader, is shedding his peaceful pose, calling on Shiites to defend themselves, and he is asking tribal leaders to consider raising their own militias. Sadr's forces are now openly admitting that they have attacked Sunni mosques, sometimes just to kill Sunnis and damage the mosques, sometimes to occupy them and "re-flag" the mosques as Shiite. All of this is happening under the eerie calm of a three-day curfew and vastly stepped up U.S. military patrols.
Outside Iraq, meanwhile, there are dire signs that the conflict might spread to involve Iran and Arab countries. Harith Al Dari, a leading Sunni Arab cleric in Iraq, issued a call on Arab nations to intervene in Iraq to defend Sunnis against attacks by Shiite militias. There have been recent signs of instability in both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. In Saudi Arabia, oil prices spiked after an almost unprecedented attack by a three-car motorcade of car bombs against the huge Abqaiq oil facility, which by itself pumps 8 percent of the world's oil, and in response a major security alert was declared in Kuwait over the weekend. Iran is also flexing its regional muscle: one week after demanding that the Anglo-American forces withdraw from the city of Basra, an Iraqi city that sits just over the border from Kuwait and which is now in the hands of militiamen loyal to Iran, Iranian President Ahmadinejad made a stunning visit to Kuwait, where he delivered a speech that denounced the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/02/28/iraq_preparing_for_the_worst.php
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