Shek

Another great article published in the New York Times by Michael Gordon

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/ma...hgXqeH8/DEQvoA

It's a longer read, but well worth it.

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"So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

Shamus

Great find as usual Shek ,do you think these Sunni dominated groups will pose a problem for the Shiite dominated government,supposing they do eradicate AQ groups in their villages?

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A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but
it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.

Demosthenes

Here's another related story I've recently found. US Soldiers, with their former enemies, cooperating...A great story.

Michael Yon : Online Magazine » Blog Archive » Hunting al Qaeda, Part I of III

Bluesman

I've said from the very start that this is the key. You've GOT to get some pro-American/pro-GoI movement going to make this come out right. And that simply will NOT happen if we keep talking about 'exit strategies', 'troop withdrawals', 'dates certain', and all the rest that the Democrats keep insisting on. (And the Democrats KNOW this, too, which is exactly WHY they keep hammering on the point. If the Iraqis notice that over half of the American People's representatives are eyeing the exit and saying as loudly as they can that they intend to bolt for the door as soon as possible, they will NOT identify themselves with the side they feel will eventually lose, because they know the victors will slaughter them and their families.)

The Iraqis KNOW what we're like. They've seen us sell out allies before, and HELL, THEY were the 'allies' themselves at one time, when we got THOUSANDS of them killed by tricking them. OF COURSE the Iraqis are reluctant to come over to our side; what rational, thinking person wouldn't be?

Well, we've got a slim chance now to prove America CAN be faithful to her word. But note the Democrats trying as hard as they can to - ONCE AGAIN - abandon the people that believed in us so much that they bet their families' lives on our fidelity to our word. The Iraqi fence-sitters - the people we need so desperately to win this thang - are JUST NOW starting to see that we're trying - despite the Democrats' instinct for American defeat - to hang in there.

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"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell