Fuck Zakaria

His plan is bullshit, pure and unfiltered

This was posted by a reader.

This is so horribly incompetently wrong on so many levels its pitiful. I just want to make a few scattershot points.

1) The Iraqi leaders that Washington has to give a good talking to are finger puppets. Their government is based out of the green zone. Any conversation there is basically masturbation.

2) Zakaria has this notion that the United States is basically benign and positive. Sorry, that's not how the Iraqi's see it. They see America as the oppressors, people who have wrecked their country.

3) The proportion of Iraqi's who support attacks on American troops is much higher than 61%. That includes the Kurds. If you exclude them, the figure is 61% of about 80%. The real number is 77% of Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites support attacks on Americans. They hate Americans.

4) Zakaria suggests that the problems are an ineffective occupation, lack of security, lack of jobs, failures of reconstruction, corruption, and Abu Ghraib. Then he simply says, too bad, so sad. Like the Iraqi's will just forget about it.

5) His solution is to 'return to normalcy, jobs need to be created, electricity supplied regularly, more oil produced and exported, and more security.' Unfortunately, his plan will worsen the situation.

6) "We should stop trying to provide basic security in Iraq's cities and villages. US forces should become a rapid reaction force to secure certain core interests." Basically, all destruction all the time, with the good stuff being someone elses problem. He notes "True as we draw down, violence will increase."

7) We should have three goals. The first of which is to just keep on doing whatever the hell it is we were failing at in Anbar province, under the guise of fighting Al Quaeda. He imagines that Al Quaeda goes in for stand up battles. He also imagines that Al Quaeda is the dominant aspect of the Sunni insurgency (94% local, 6% foreign, 3% Al Quaeda). He has no clue.

The fight in places like Anbar is largely not a Jihadist crusade against America, but a Sunni struggle for control of the country. Uhm.... WRONG!!! If a minimum of 75% to 90% of Sunni's support attacks on Americans, that should tell you something.

9) Second objective: Secure Kurdistan. From what, for what, he doesn't know. No clue. He just likes the Kurds. Oh, Turkey's upset about something. Best not get too involved. Idiot.

10) Prevent a bloodbath. By pulling out of Town's and Villages and acting as a rapid strike force. Uh huh. Really. Turns out that this will require monitoring Iraq's roads and highway, and controlling the police and army. Iraqi forces will henceforth operate under the command or supervision of American 'advisors'... presumably on their days off from being rapid reaction forces.

11) Keep the four superbases and 44,000 soldiers 'to look after American interests'. Mighty white of America.

12) To look after the Iraqi's, 16,000 'advisors', a squad of 30 or 40 attached to every 600 or so. To 'act as the spine.'

12) I love the part about 'catchment basins' to trap refugees fleeing towards the border. What comes after that? Napalm?

13) Just remember the good thing! We deposed Saddam Hussein, who killed 500,000 Iraqi's in thirty years. And we only had to kill 650,000 in three years!

I dunno. I think if I was an Iraqi civilian, reading this 'plan', I'd be picking up a rifle. Condescending, cold blooded, dishonest, inept, incompetent, recipe for bloodbath... I can't say enough good things.

Den Valdron

Why try to rewrite what he said? It's all true.

Here's my point, Iraq isn't anything like Korea. The Korean Army was actually trained and fighting, not defecting to the Communists. There was an international agreement that the war was worth fighting, even though Americans were skeptical.

But the biggest difference was that we were not occupiers in Korea. We were invited.

However, this is not my biggest objection to his beltway nonsense.

Who is going to do the dying? Not his friends or their kids. Faceless POG's and Grunts sent to the sandbox, not just once, but two, three, four times. Broken families, destroyed marriages, the wounded and the dead. Nearly 3000 killed, 22000 wounded, and at least 5k absent.

Who the fuck does he think is going to fight his war? Spacemen? Because the US Army isn't going to much longer. They're forcing men into the Infantry for God's sake.

I am so sick and tired of these Washington armchair pundits. They act as if soldiers are disposable parts and not humans.

He should discuss his plan at Walter Reed and see if he leaves without it shoved up his ass.

I am just so sick of these risk playing motherfuckers acting like we can tell Iraqis what to do. If I was a Shia, you're goddamn right I'd want to run the country from Irbil to Basra. And I wouldn't be up for any deals on the subject. Just because the Hakims are more loyal to Tehran than Iraq is not my problem.

One simple point: what kind of idiot thinks Maliki can make a deal that can be kept? The Iraqi government was elected during an occupation, like Vichy. Who would trust them to do anything to protect the country?

The simple fact is this: Iraq will be one country. It will be run by the Shia. The odds are high that Shia will be Moqtada Sadr or a disciple of his. The Sunnis will cut their deal with him, kill the AQ lunatics and then join the Turks and Iranians in repressing the Kurds.

posted by Steve @ 2:25:00 AM