Now I’m all confused. Wasn’t the brilliant new strategery of “the surge” (which was neither brilliant, nor new, nor actually a “surge”) supposed to work like this: 1) Crack down on Shia Sadrists in Baghdad, because George “Tough Guy” Bush will no longer kowtow to the pro-Iranian whims of al-Maliki? 2) While simultaneously backing Sunni insurgents, the ones planting the IED’s which kill Americans, in order to gain their favor? 3) Because we can’t allow Iraq to become what it will, ineveitably, due to brute demographics, an oil-rich, pro-Iran, pro-Hezbollah state? 4) Because the Saudis have stated they will intervene on behalf of Iraqi Sunnis if the slaughter becomes too great? 5) So in order to win the Global War on Terror, which began when Sunni radicals, mostly from Saudi Arabia, crashed planes into skyscrapers, screaming “God is Great,” we need to make friends with Sunni radicals, screaming “God is Great,” mostly from Iraq?
I actually think it’s a good thing for major players to be talking up front. I find it hard to fathom how Tony Snow spins this one though. At worst, the Iranian regime (that of the mullahs) remains the primary arbiter of power in the region for the next two decades. At best, we realize what a catastrophe the US has created, and start talking to people in the region who actually live there. Because you don’t stage a failed occupation with the allies you want, but with the ones you might potentially have. Or who at least see some convergence of shared national interest.
Wet Casements 