[Dean's World] Dave Price: Violence Down In Ninevah

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Posted by Dave Price:
Violence Down In Ninevah
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1190398777.shtml


   Apparently no one in Iraq [1]knows what they're talking about:

     MOSUL, Iraq - Competent Iraqi security forces and a deluge of tips
     from residents have helped U.S. troops tamp down violence in
     northern Iraq despite an influx of al-Qaida fighters responsible
     for occasional spectacular attacks, U.S. officials say.
     But American commanders believe the key to lasting peace is to
     resolve the region's most vexing political problem â Kurds hold too
     much power in the local government at the expense of Sunni Arabs.

   Not surprisingly, it's hard to resolve these problems. Saddam forced
   Kurds out and replaced them with loyal Arabs. Many Kurds
   understandably feel they have the right to seize back their property.
   There won't be an easy solution, but with increasing security there's
   hope it can be a relatively non-violent one. As Petraeus said in the
   hearings, there is an unavaoidable ethno-sectarian competition for
   resources Iraq, but that struggle can be more or less violent. To wit:

     Hassan and other Iraqi and American officials said the province's
     Sunni Arabs turned against al-Qaida after the May 16 attacks, and
     anonymous tips from the local community have doubled.
     Most of Ninevah's Arabs now support the provincial government, and
     are pushing for new elections in which they believe they will win a
     greater share of power, officials said.
     "We meet with Sunnis here in public forums and in very discreet
     ones, and they all readily acknowledge (the 2005 election boycott)
     was a mistake," said Joshua Polacheck, public diplomacy officer for
     the U.S. State Department's provincial reconstruction team in
     Ninevah. "I don't know one Sunni Arab who says it wasn't a mistake
     to boycott those elections."

   I blame the conspicuous absence of MTV: Rock The Vote.

References

   1. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070921/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_key_to_peace_1;_ylt=AkDjSILWF6PmaG92odMe6tlX6GMA