Mar. 18, 2007 - 18:38 MDT

MID-EAST ANT PILE

In our Sunday paper today The Denver Post under "WORLD" is an article by Michael R. Gordon of The New York Times which I shall quote in it's entirety :

SUNNI MILITANTS REPLACE SHIITES AS TOP CONCERN

Contrary to predictions when Bush surged troops into Baghdad, Shiite militias were seen as the main worry. Some analysts predicted that bloody clashes with Shiite militants in the Sadr City district in northeastern Baghdad were inevitable.

"Instead, during the early weeks of the operation, deadly bombings by Sunni Arab militants have emerged as a greater danger."

"In particular, the threat posed by the Sunni groups al-Qaeda in Iraq was underscored when American troops seized a laptop computer from a senior operative in the group who was reported killed in late December."

"Information from captured materials indicates that the group's leadership sees "the sectarian war for Baghdad as the main focus of its operations," according to an intelligence report that was described by American officials."

"At the same time, the group has continued waging attacks in Anbar province on American troops and on Suni Arab tribal leaders who have defied it. On Saturday, a triple truck bombing there involving chlorine gas made hundreds of people ill near Fallujah."

"Reflecting concern over the group's bomb attacks, especially car bombings, U.S. military officials have begun to emphasize that bringing security to the Iraqi capital will involve not only the protection of Baghdad neighborhoods but also the use of raids to shut down bomb factories and uncover arms caches in the largely Sunni areas on the outskirts of the city."

"The Baghdad belts are increasingly seen as the key to security in Baghdad," Lt. Gen. Raymond Ordierno, the American officer in charge of day-to-day operations in Iraq, said in an e-mail message. "I believe this is where you can stop the accelerants to Baghdad violence. We have already found a large number of significant caches in these areas related to car bombs and IEDs," or improvised explosive devices."

"The Shia have gone to ground for the most part, but there are still rogue elements of Shia extremists that are still a threat and conducting operations against the coalition, but more importantly against the government of Iraq," he added."

"The threat has shifted on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq, in which American forces toppled Sadaam Hussein only to face a growing insurgency and find themselves in an arduous effort to cut off growing sectarian strife."

"In efforts to stabilize Iraq, American commanders have had to contend with al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, other Sunni Arab insurgent groups, a variety of Shiite militias, crtiminals, and, they say, Iranian operatives. The greater Baghdad area seems to include all of them."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Looks to me like we have pre-empted ourselves into one mell of a hess to say the least. And it seems that "surging" our troops has just multiplied problems over there.

I also fear that we have overextended our manpower and materiel as well.

And that's just in the Baghdad area, what's to keep them from going country wide later ?

A solution ? I am not sure there is one, if there is it may be far down the road. I have no ideas, let alone a good one.

Again is seems to me that we are in a sandy place with the top kicked off in the squirming MID-EAST ANT PILE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Blog