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Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Explaining Fallujah and Najaf Sean-Paul brings us chilling news: we've broken the truce in Fallujah and it looks like we're about to launch an assault on Najaf. There is a growing consensus that our forces in Iraq are insufficient to maintain order. Why on earth would their leaders heave more bricks at the hornet's nest? Do they think that a redoubled show of aggression will cow the insurgents like it has in Israel? Do they think the Sadrists are bluffing when they say that the arrest or killing of Moqtada will double their resolve? Do they think the Sadrists will melt away once their leader is taken care of, like the Ba'athists did? Do they think the Sunnis will ever forget the images of hundreds of dead women and children in Fallujah and decide to work with the occupiers? Are they criminally stupid? I don't think so. They're looking to bug out. They just need enough chaos and blood to make Iraq look ungovernable and our position there untenable. And then we can flush our 600 dead soldiers and our $200 billion right down the fucking toilet. The saddest thing is, leaving aside the bloody charade unfolding at the moment, it's probably the smart thing to do. We don't have enough troops there. We don't have any more troops to send there. The rest of the world can't get out of Iraq fast enough. We've accomplished exactly nothing in terms of setting up a working polity in Iraq. All of which reduces our options to: 1) Continue what we're doing, with no real prospects for any improvement in the situation; or 2) Leave and let the Iraqis sort it out. 
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