cocksure wrote:Uhm, guys... like, are you sure.

The US military has embarked on a new and risky strategy in Iraq by arming Sunni insurgents in the hope that they will tackle al-Qaida operatives in Iraq.

The US high command this month gave permission to its officers on the ground to negotiate arms deals with tribal elders and other local leaders. Arms, ammunition, body armour and other equipment, as well as cash, pickup trucks and fuel, have already been handed over in return for promises to turn on al-Qaida and not attack US troops.

The US military in Baghdad is trying to portray the move as arming disenchanted Sunnis rising up in their neighbourhoods against their former allies, al-Qaida and its foreign fighters. But the reality on the ground is more complex, with little sign that the US will be able to control the weapons once they are handed over.

The danger in the US strategy is that the insurgents could eventually use these weapons against American troops or in the civil war against Shia Muslims. Similar efforts by the US in other wars have often backfired, the most spectacular being the arming of guerrillas against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2100597,00.html

Good to see they've at least got the liberal labor initiatives going simultaneously though. Open the Labor section of your local paper for further developments.

Oh wait...

The BBC wrote:There are now an estimated four million Iraqis who have been forced to flee their homes, and the numbers continue to rise, according to the UN refugee agency.

Neighbouring Jordan and Syria, which have borne the brunt of the problem after receiving some two million refugees over the past few years, have now restricted access because they can no longer cope with the influx.

The BBC wrote:Ghaith Abdul Ahad, an Iraqi journalist, says the areas where displaced Iraqis live have become fertile recruiting-grounds for militants.

"The insurgents in west Baghdad tell me that the hardest fighters are the Sunnis who have been kicked out of their homes by the Shia," Mr Abdul Ahad told the BBC.

There is a real fear that the temporary ramshackle refugee camps that today dot the Iraqi landscape are festering wounds that may take years to heal.

More ominously, they are a breeding ground for violence as well as social and political turmoil.

Outside Iraq, the long-term effect of the exodus is difficult to foresee.

Some analysts have drawn comparisons with the plight of the Palestinians, who were forced to flee after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

And if that analogy is anything to go by, then the Iraqi refugee crisis could become a destabilising factor for the entire region for years to come.

No one can predict the exact impact on the precarious demographic balance in neighbouring Syria and Jordan, which have received the highest numbers of Iraqi refugees.

Gramsci wrote:Obviously the best option here to arm both sides of the civil war in Iraq with nuclear weapons. Evidently that will create the balance need to prevent further conflict.

Dudley wrote:

Gramsci wrote:Obviously the best option here to arm both sides of the civil war in Iraq with nuclear weapons. Evidently that will create the balance need to prevent further conflict.

This is ace. And even if it doesn't work and they use them, it'll just be "Iraqis killing Iraqis", therefore demonstrably "not our fault". Not at all. So we win either way.

THinking ahead (always important!), and this might be gilding the lily a bit, but we could then get Halliburton et al to build an only-slightly-radioactive refugee camp on the smouldering remains, accept back a few of those who've fled, and we'lll look like Jesus incarnate - shit, a Nobel peace prize might even be in the offing.

sparky wrote: I know why Bolton so vociferously repeats that the war was a success. He realises that were he to admit its wrongness and the mindbogglingly callous recklessness of him and his, he should surely be locked away for the rest of his life.

LutherBlissett wrote:Classic Avi Lewis interview with Bolton.

Johnny C wrote:Lewis would be a much more effective journalist if his questions weren't loaded and leading.