Inside Report: "Jihad is against Shia, not Americans" -LINK

[Blackhatjack]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1989397,00.html

This first person account of interviews with Sunni fighters, commanders and insurgents paints a different picture of the situation on the ground in Baghdad.

Talking points memo pointed to this article.

Anyone who has any doubts about the lunacy of Bush's 'surge' and the existence of sectarian violence will be convinced if they read this article.

The Sunnis now realize that the Americans are the only thing preventing the Shia from massacring their people in Baghdad --and the Sunnis have been trying to talk to the Americans.

And yet we do not change our strategy even though the situation on the ground has changed 180 degrees --sheer lunacy and ineptness.

[ck4829]

1. And it looks like all the RW'ers were wrong

The Rick Santorum's, the Robert Spencer's, Daniel Pipe's, of the world said that the Muslims were waging jihad against the West. Unfortunately, I think that they were wrong.

[acmavm]

2. It's the sect of Saddam so of course we won't talk to them.

And anyway, it's not in the BFEE's interest to talk to them. They need chaoa and carnage.

[leftchick]

3. They are getting their weapons from AMERICANS not Iran

the BS about the insurgency getting anything from Iran just does not wash anyway you look at it. Here is an example of the reality....

<snip>

Rami was no longer involved in fighting, he said, but made a tidy profit selling weapons and ammunition to men in his north Baghdad neighbourhood. Until the last few months, the insurgency got by with weapons and ammunition looted from former Iraqi army depots. But now that Sunnis were besieged in their neighbourhoods and fighting daily clashes with the better-equipped Shia ministry of interior forces, they needed new sources of weapons and money.

He told me that one of his main suppliers had been an interpreter working for the US army in Baghdad. "He had a deal with an American officer. We bought brand new AKs and ammunition from them." He claimed the American officer, whom he had never met but he believed was a captain serving at Baghdad airport, had even helped to divert a truckload of weapons as soon as it was driven over the border from Jordan.

These days Rami gets most of his supplies from the new American-equipped Iraqi army. "We buy ammunition from officers in charge of warehouses, a small box of AK-47 bullets is $450 (£230). If the guy sells a thousand boxes he can become rich and leave the country." But as the security situation deteriorates, Rami finds it increasingly difficult to travel across Baghdad. "Now I have to pay a Shia taxi driver to bring the ammo to me. He gets $50 for each shipment."

The box of 700 bullets that Rami buys for $450 today would have cost between $150 and $175 a year ago. The price of a Kalashnikov has risen from $300 to $400 in the same period. The inflation in arms prices reflects Iraq's plunge toward civil war but, largely unnoticed by the outside world, the Sunni insurgency has also changed. The conflict into which 20,000 more American troops will be catapulted over the next few weeks is very different to the one their comrades experienced even a year ago.

[Blackhatjack]

6. This passage should be required reading for every Congressman....

... it shoots so many holes in the President's Plan For A New Way Forward.

Bush's plan is detached from reality, and pure insanity.

If Bush were dealing with reality, we would be pulling back --not sending more troops.

[leftchick]

8. oh I agree

I have to wonder wtf the democrats in congress are smoking. Do they bother to even READ? Find out wtf is really going on in Iraq like we can every day with our internets??? They seem to be totally relying on the WH and the US military for their information! Just like the IRAQ invasion! It is maddening! They offer up a NON BINDING resolution instead of cutting off the funds!!! We are so fucking screwed.


:banghead: :cry: :argh:

[Blackhatjack]

9. This is what you get when your President ignores reality..... n/t

[magellan]

12. The Sunnis wouldn't be supplied by Iran, a Shia country

But I wouldn't be surprised in the least if Iran was arming and funding the Iraqi Shia militias, which are completely entangled in the government now. Iran wants a Shia government in Iraq that it can control just as Bush** wants a pro-American Iraqi government he can control.

[Blackhatjack]

4. Several enlightening passages here(paraphrased)

.... we only fight Americans when they arrive with Iraqis,
or try to arrest us

.... we need to use the Americans to fight the Shia

.... the entire city has been divided into neighborhoods with their own defense groups

.... we(Sunnis) get our weapons from American shipments, purchased from (corrupt) officers

MORE

[aikoaiko]

5. they still want to kill Americans, its just that the Shia are a bigger threat right now.

thats how I read the article.

[Blackhatjack]

7. They plainly feel exploited by Al Qaeda/foreign fighters and want a cease fire to protect Sunnis

.... there comes a time when one side wants and needs a cease fire, which is now. What do we do? Escalate the violence.

The SHia are the bigger threat to the Sunnis and they need the AMericans there to survive.

[Blackhatjack]

10. This should be page one of every newspaper in the country .....

People depend on MSM sources to tell them what they need to know in 10 second sound bites.

It would be interesting to poll the public opinion of Americans who have read the linked article in the OP, and see how their opinion has changed about Bush's New Plan To Move Forward in Iraq.

However, it is hard to get people focused on what is important. Even here at DU it is hard to keep this on the first page --and yet, if you monitor the posts to come over the next week you will realize most people have no idea what the situation on the ground in Baghdad is really like.

[leftchick]

11. this is not getting the attention it deserves

:kick: