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S-2 · 10-24-2007, 01:14 AM

"...we can separate the mahdi army from the populace; then we can begin taking it down as a military organization."

This story indicates a local truce arising from an unanticipated bounty. The intel came to us from a sunni civil militia- not JAM elements. We've smartly negotiated a brief visitation. The circumstances here don't indicate anything but expediency on both sides though I freely acknowledge that surprising in-roads are actually being made separating shia villages from JAM.

Further, the so-called 49 killed has been challenged by, it seems, every Iraqi official in Baghdad. Accusations of civilian deaths from helicopter gunship attacks and protestations that the only bodies seen were civilians. Totally indicative of the stink.

If we're gonna see this partition, then why the desire to take down JAM as a military organization? Kurdistan won't give up it's PESHMERGA to the nat'l gov't. Why should a Shiastan surrender the military foundation of it's regional gov't? Do the Badr brigades inherit that mantle? If so, why?

Who defends the sunnis-the national army? Not likely as they're still largely shia-dominated. What happens to the nat'l army in a climate with armed regional armies? Do they play a wild-card role, lending their weight this way and that? Nominally affiliated separate states sounds kinda like the GCC but I bet you don't envision that "separate" do you? As in "sovereign"?

"however, as long as they're not openly warring with each other, are relatively AQ-free, and have reduced iranian influence, that's good enough given the absolutely desperate situation of a few months earlier..."

Your last comments are the most interesting. A very LARGE part of me would love to use those conditions as they exist now to declare victory and split. Maybe even dump on the Kurds and be gone. I do not want the American public funding some arbitration council with uniforms and guns for the next fifteen years. At this pace, it'll be that long before McDonald's shows up.

That, my friend, is the symbol of total victory.

10-24-2007, 01:14 AM	#22 (permalink)
S-2 *Military Professional* Join Date: 09-11-06 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 2,244 Country:	Astralis Reply "...we can separate the mahdi army from the populace; then we can begin taking it down as a military organization." This story indicates a local truce arising from an unanticipated bounty. The intel came to us from a sunni civil militia- not JAM elements. We've smartly negotiated a brief visitation. The circumstances here don't indicate anything but expediency on both sides though I freely acknowledge that surprising in-roads are actually being made separating shia villages from JAM. Further, the so-called 49 killed has been challenged by, it seems, every Iraqi official in Baghdad. Accusations of civilian deaths from helicopter gunship attacks and protestations that the only bodies seen were civilians. Totally indicative of the stink. If we're gonna see this partition, then why the desire to take down JAM as a military organization? Kurdistan won't give up it's PESHMERGA to the nat'l gov't. Why should a Shiastan surrender the military foundation of it's regional gov't? Do the Badr brigades inherit that mantle? If so, why? Who defends the sunnis-the national army? Not likely as they're still largely shia-dominated. What happens to the nat'l army in a climate with armed regional armies? Do they play a wild-card role, lending their weight this way and that? Nominally affiliated separate states sounds kinda like the GCC but I bet you don't envision that "separate" do you? As in "sovereign"? "however, as long as they're not openly warring with each other, are relatively AQ-free, and have reduced iranian influence, that's good enough given the absolutely desperate situation of a few months earlier..." Your last comments are the most interesting. A very LARGE part of me would love to use those conditions as they exist now to declare victory and split. Maybe even dump on the Kurds and be gone. I do not want the American public funding some arbitration council with uniforms and guns for the next fifteen years. At this pace, it'll be that long before McDonald's shows up. That, my friend, is the symbol of total victory. __________________ "This aggression will not stand, man!" Jeff Lebowski