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"up with women, down with patriarchy!"..., 2005-08-22 00:52:33 | Main | if grins could only kill..., 2005-08-22 17:23:06

Sunnis offer "exit plan":

"It's impossible for them or us to fix an exact schedule" for troop withdrawal, said Isam al-Rawi, a leader of the Muslim Scholars Association, a group of 3,000 Sunni clerics. "That is not the important thing right now. There are other steps that are much more necessary to calm the situation."

Largely unnoticed amid the U.S. political debate, al-Rawi and other Sunni leaders close to the insurgency have reached tacit consensus over the broad outline of an interim program to reduce the violence, stabilize the country and thus enable the U.S.-led coalition troops to begin a gradual withdrawal. While differences remain on some points, there is wide agreement on these steps:

Paraphrasing: withdraw troops from populated areas, ending military checkpoints, etc; they want, persumably equal, status within the Iraqi security forces presently reserved largely for Kurds and Shi'ites; release of the "as many as 15,000 Iraqis behind bars" without charges or due process; amnesty for participants in the native insurgency.

I would have to assume that they still expect full withdrawal prior to the formation of what they could consider a legitemate government, which would quite likely invite us back in: an invitation we should by no means accept, we've done quite enough to stir up religious fundamentalism as is. Otherwise I'm reminded of Ed Luttwak's "The Logic of Disengagement", from which we might observe that the conditions of withdrawal can be punitive as much as they can be generous. Pottery barn liberals should be advised that withdrawing is probably the only avenue we could persue to mitigate the civil war, nevermind the only one that fits within the really existing operational parameters of the American army without forced conscription.

On the peacenik front maybe its just the press coverage but I don't see as much weight given to "generous withdrawal" demands as I'd expect. Bush Co. is talking about four year plans - reparations, call em reconstruction payments or what have you, but it would be cheaper than any plan involving our sticking around and it makes me and all those little Iraqi kids sick to death that they're still drinking their own feces on our account.


:: posted by buermann @ 2005-08-22 12:16:17 CST | link





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