“It’s worthwhile if we win,”
February 25th, 2007 | by Craig R. Harmon |“But to sacrifice, there’s got to be a purpose. And if we don’t win, then our sacrifices are going to be in vain.”
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8 Responses to ““It’s worthwhile if we win,””
By Jersey McJones on Feb 25, 2007 | Reply
Win what? How do WE “win” Iraq’s civil war???
That makes no sense. The man’s not the brightest bulb in the lamp shop.
JMJ
By Charlie on Feb 25, 2007 | Reply
Gotta agree with Jersey on this one. There has not been a win possible since we became an occupier. No matter how long we stay we will not “pacify” the country unless we kill every man woman and child there. Hardly a worthy cause.
By Craig R. Harmon on Feb 25, 2007 | Reply
Just as a thought experiment, I offer two possible solutions for cogitation:
A. Throw in with the Shia against the Sunni. The Sunni will either give up the fight for the continuance of existence and negotiate a peace.
B. Throw in with the Sunni against the Shia, assuring that the Shia will never win the civil war. The Shia will negotiate a peace.
By Charlie on Feb 25, 2007 | Reply
Okay, if we go with the Shia against the Sunni then we alienate Saudi Arabia and bring them into the war in more than a fundraising role.
Going with the Sunni against the Shia will bring in the Iranians and the Syrians. Bringing them in in this manner will most likely spill the war over into Iraq’s neighbors creating a regional war.
Moreover, either course would crack the fault lines within the fragile Iraqi parliment. Moreover, the militias and insurgent groups have infiltrated the government. You cannot attack one side or dismantle the militias without bringing down the government.
Assuming that either would or even could negotiate for peace with us in niave. The Sunni insurgency is not an army as we understand it. It’s a network of networks. That is part of why fighting them is so hard.
By Jersey McJones on Feb 26, 2007 | Reply
I concur with Charlie on your experiment, Craig - and then let’s not forget the Kurds and their international issues with Syria and Turkey.
This thing is getting impossible to “win,” however one tries to describe it.
JMJ
By Craig R. Harmon on Feb 26, 2007 | Reply
Well, I think I’ll give Petraeus a chance.
Oh and, from what I’ve read, there are any number of former insurgents who have done exactly what you call naive to expect: they’ve negotiated peace with us.
If this government falls, as parliamentary governments do all the time, it may not be the worst thing that could happen.
By Charlie on Mar 1, 2007 | Reply
There may be some networks that have disbanded. My point was that niether the insurgent networks or the militias are unified in a way that they can be successfully disbanded.
By Craig R. Harmon on Mar 1, 2007 | Reply
Charlie,
Not trying to be a tight-ass but you say some networks may have disbanded. Then you say they can’t be disbanded. Well, that just means we can’t enter into talks with one centralized command for all the networks. Fine. We enter into talks with all the networks. Just makes it more complicated, doesn’t make it impossible.