[Dean's World] Dave Price: Joe, Jails, And Jaysha Al-Mahdi

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Posted by Dave Price:
Joe, Jails, And Jaysha Al-Mahdi
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1181925310.shtml


   Joe Lieberman [1]gets it:

     The precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces would not only throw open
     large parts of Iraq to domination by the radical regime in Tehran,
     it would also send an unmistakable message to the entire Middle
     East--from Lebanon to Gaza to the Persian Gulf where Iranian agents
     are threatening our allies--that Iran is ascendant there, and
     America is in retreat.
     ...
     That is why--as terrible as the continuing human cost of fighting
     this war in Iraq is--the human cost of losing it would be even
     greater.
     ...
     When I returned to Anbar on this trip, however, the security
     environment had undergone a dramatic reversal. Attacks on U.S.
     troops there have dropped from an average of 30 to 35 a day a few
     months ago to less than one a day now, according to Col. John
     Charlton, commander of the 1st Brigade of the 3rd Infantry
     Division, headquartered in Ramadi. Whereas six months ago only half
     of Ramadi's 23 tribes were cooperating with the coalition, all have
     now been persuaded to join an anti-al Qaeda alliance. One of
     Ramadi's leading sheikhs told me: "A rifle pointed at an American
     soldier is a rifle pointed at an Iraqi."
     ...
     These necessary legislative compromises would be difficult to
     accomplish in any political system, including peaceful,
     long-established democracies--as the recent performance of our own
     Congress reminds us. Nonetheless, Iraqi leaders are struggling
     against enormous odds to make progress, and told me they expect to
     pass at least some of the key benchmark bills this summer.

   Owen and Bing West [2]worry about whether overreaction to Abu Ghraib
   is hampering the effort to stabilize Iraq.

     The other major defect weâve seen in our military strategy is the
     consistent release of captured insurgents. Imprisonment is the
     dominant military weapon for quelling this insurgency. Vietnam was
     a shooting war; Iraq is a police arrest war. The insurgents learned
     years ago not to engage in firefights with American troops.
     American troops in Vietnam in 1968, for example, found that they
     killed 13 enemies for every one captured; in Iraq, one enemy is
     killed for every 10 captured.
     Yet, according to Pentagon records, more than 85 percent of the
     suspected Sunni insurgents and Shiite militiamen detained are soon
     set free. The troops call it âcatch and release.â The American and
     Iraqi jails now hold about 40,000 prisoners â by some estimates
     just half the number Saddam Hussein released from prison in the
     mass exodus of 2002. Texas, with a smaller population, has more
     than 170,000 in jail.
     Part of the problem is that, in response to the shameful abuses at
     Abu Ghraib, the American military instituted vastly excessive civil
     rights protections for detainees.

   And the indispensable Bill Roggio [3]rounds up the latest news from
   Iraq, including an interesting implication that Sadr is much weaker
   than a year ago.

     The supporters of Muqtada al Sadr, the leader of the fractured
     Mahdi Army, held a protest today in Sadr City, home to an estimated
     2 million Shia. The protests drew "more than 2,000 eastern Baghdad
     residents," according to Multinational Forces Iraq, which closely
     monitors large gatherings. The poor turnout for today's
     demonstration speaks volumes about Sadr's power on the street. One
     year ago, Sadr drew hundreds of thousands into the streets.

References

   1. http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010212
   2. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/15/opinion/15west.html
   3. http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2007/06/iraq_report_sadrs_small_samarr.asp