IRAQI PRESIDENT TALBANI HONORS THE US FOR SACRIFICES IN IRAQ,
VIDEO HERE

"In the name of Iraqi people, I say to you, Mr. President, and to the glorious American people, thank you, thank you. Thank you, because you liberated us from the worst kind of dictatorship."

"Mr. President, you are a visionary, great statesman. We salute you. We are grateful to you. We will never forget what you have done for our people."

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani
September 13, 2005

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What if the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about?

Different perspective:

http://www.juancole.com/...vil-war-much-of.html

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f/k/a mclamb6

The article wasn't found at that url and I didn't bother to run it down. What does it say?

Is someone inferring that we are making progress in Iraq? That isn't an idea that has much traction, even in the U.S.

As for Bush, I noticed that when I went into Virgin Records here in England the only poster sold out was the one titled "Dumb Quotes From George Bush". And, during the Half-Ironman UK this past weekend I ran with a Tory who bemoaned Bush's stupidity and invasion of Iraq. (I did ask him why he hadn't received the memo titled "Acceptable Tory Views".)

Robert (an ex-Marine)

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"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." ~Anne Frank

For those so eager to pile on and rub this guy's face in the dirt by showing all the bad examples, do you all think that nothing good is happening over there? Do you think that nothing can be done to make this mission a "success"? Sure you will always have negative things to point out, but why is that always the first thing you go to? Why not just acknowledge the fact that maybe something good is happening rather than jump down his throat or ridicule him?

Here ya go Robert



Tal Afar as Ethnic Civil War

Much of the American press has reported the Tal Afar campaign as a strike by the new Iraqi Army, supported by US troops, against foreign infiltrators in the largely Turkmen city of 200,000.

As Jonathan Finer makes clear in the Washington Post, however, the operation looks different if we know some details. The "Iraqi Army" leading the assault turns out to be mainly the Peshmerga or Kurdish ethnic militia. Along for the ride are local Turkmen Shiites who are being used as informers and for the purpose of identifying Sunni Turkmen they think are involved in the guerrilla movement (apparently they sometimes make false charges to settle scores). Tal Afar was 70 percent Sunni Turkmen and 30 percent Shiite Turkmen. The Sunni Turkmen had thrown in with Saddam, and some more recently had turned to radical Islam. The Shiite Turkmen lived in fear of their lives.

So Kurds and Shiites are beating up on Sunni Turkmen allies of Sunni Arabs. That is what is really going on. The number of foreign fighters appears to be small, and US troops that had been guarding against infiltration on the Syrian border were actully moved to Tal Afar for this operation. It is mainly about punishing the Sunni Turkmen for allying with the Sunni Arab guerrillas. That the attack came in part in response to the pleas of local Shiite Turkmen helps explain why why Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari (Shiite leader of the fundamentalist Dawa Party) authorized it, and went to Tal Afar on Tuesday for a photo op.

The US will never get stability in Iraq if it is merely an adjunct to a Kurdish-Shiite alliance against the Sunni Arabs and their Turkmen supporters.

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Don't want to be accused of bias by not posting on this topic ;)

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I read that piece. Thanks! Nicely thought out and argued.

This maze of conflicts may have a solution but I doubt Americans will deliver it. I hope I'm wrong, however.

-Robert

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"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." ~Anne Frank