Sunnis Persecuted
The Shia leaders of Iraq have found a great way to alienate the Sunni population:
It did not take long for Col. Brian D. Jones to begin to have doubts about the new Iraqi commander.
The commander, Brig. Gen. Shakir Hulail Hussein al-Kaabi, was chosen this summer by the Shiite-led government in Baghdad to lead the Iraqi Army’s Fifth Division in Diyala Province. Within weeks, General Shakir went to Colonel Jones with a roster of people he wanted to arrest.
On the list were the names of nearly every Sunni Arab sheik and political leader whom American officers had identified as crucial allies in their quest to persuade Sunnis to embrace the political process and turn against the powerful Sunni insurgent groups here.
“Where’s the evidence?� Colonel Jones demanded of General Shakir. “Where’s the proof? What makes us suspect these guys? None of that stuff exists.�
To that, Colonel Jones recalled, the Iraqi commander replied simply, “I got this from Baghdad.�
American forces in Diyala. In the end, he said, he concluded that the Iraqi general’s real ambition was to destroy the Sunni political movement here — possibly on orders from Baghdad.
“I believe this is a larger plan to make Diyala a Shia province, rather than a Sunni province,� he said.
And what will the Sunnis do? That is right, they turn to militias for their safety.
And what will that result in? That is right, full, open civil war.
It almost seems that this is something the Shia want, doesn’t it. Either that, or they are simply stupid.
8 Responses to “Sunnis Persecuted”
Honestly, as a country we are refusing to see that Iraqis don’t WANT to be one country, one people. It’s not a matter of if they want peace (obviously virtually all do) but if they want peace next to their enemies. It’s not at all surprising that Shia and Sunni are jockeying for the greatest power and oppressing the other side, they are being given one country as an option, and since actually living in peace with their neighbors doesn’t even enter their minds, then it’s time to fight to be the boss of that one country. I don’t know that a divided Iraq would be very good, but I’m betting it would be closer to what Iraqis want.
MvdG – Could you provide a link to this article.
Rudi: i would love to, but i made it all up.
Seriously; yes, sorry for forgetting, i will put it in.
Lynx I agree and disagree. You say that they perhaps do not want to live in peace with each other and that they, perhaps, want a divided country.
The disagreeing part? Perhaps you should consider this: they do not want their country to fall apart, they simply want to rule over the other sectarian groups (by force) in one, united Iraq.
This points out perfectly the fallacy of the Iraq government taking over the military, the forces will become a tool for the Shiites to impose their will on the Sunnis. The Kurds will be suspicious of the military and in no way will they allow Iraqi national forces in their territory. If the country is not split up the US will leave and the military will be used by the predominate Shiites to impose a dictatorship, perhaps not of one man or party but of one religion. Any Federal solution will have to allow local control of police forces and an agreement on the position [both locality and force size] of national military forces. Note that there are internal Shiite issues with the control of military forces as the Badr brigades clash with Sadr. I will be interested on how the Baker report handles this thorny issue, along with the other big problem, oil revenue sharing.
Let’s just position our troops between the Shia and Sunnis and let them blast away. If we don’t, the terrorists will win.
As Kentucky’s John Yarmuth so succintly put it “Americans are no longer fighting terrorists in Iraq. We’re fighting Iraqis.”
It almost seems that this is something the Shia want, doesn’t it. Either that, or they are simply stupid.
Of course they want it. Only the Americans seem confused about the battle lines here. We keep confusing our goals with their goals and wonder how stupid or immoral or crazy they must be not to simply stop shooting one another.
We keep appealing to the leaders in Iraq to come together as Iraqis. Where’s the evidence that any of them see Iraq as a distinct nation with common hopes among its peoples.
American’s are confused because we keep describing every attack as due to the insurgents or the terrorists, as if they are united in purpose, instead of a dozens of factions fighting against one another.
As long as we can only see a single enemy there, we’ll never be able to find a workable solution to the violence.
Yet another perfect example of the fact that it is entirely possible for religion to mean too much to people.
I mostly agree with Grognard, adding that we will see genocide like we are seeing in Darfur, as the Shiite dominated army wipes out the Sunni opposition. There have been too many years of Sunni oppression for the power-sharing that we had hope for, and most likely the Shiites want Islamic rule with no going back to Sunni domination or Baathist rule. If we side with the Shia it upsets our alliances with Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt, if we side with the Sunni we are inciting the rage of Iran and Syria, plus the Shiite majority of Iraq.