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Iraq-Jordan
US forces surround AMS chief's house
2004-11-15
US forces have surrounded al-Haj Sulayman al-Dhari village where Shaikh Harith al-Dhari, secretary-general of Iraq's Association of Muslim Scholars, lives.
That's the local branch of the Learned Elders of Islam. I find it disappointing that they only surrounded his house, rather than reducing it to rubble and killing everyone inside to include the butler and the cat.
Ahmad Abd al-Ghafur al-Samarrai, a member of the influential Iraqi Muslim body, told Aljazeera that the US forces had surrounded al-Dhari village "without justification" on Sunday. "US forces are carrying out random strikes and arrest operations," al-Samarrai said. Al-Dhari's house had been surrounded and stormed while an associate, Shaikh Abd al-Sattar, had been arrested, he added.
That's good. Hopefully the full color 8x10 glossies of him with ladies underwear on his head and a banana up his butt will be widely circulated...
US forces also surrounded al-Haswa and al-Iskandariya cities south of Baghdad, raided mosques and arrested three of their most prominent imams, the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) said in a statement. "The situation is very difficult," al-Samarrai said. "Cities are surrounded, US forces are heavily deployed in many areas in Iraq and helicopters are hovering over them. We don't know what they want."
Oh, go on! Make a guess!
"The Iraqis want nothing but to be liberated from occupation," he said. "They only want to be free people. However, US forces should never underestimate the Iraqis and their abilities."
Nor should the big turbans of the Learned Elders of Islam underestimate the Americans and their abilities.
Posted by:Fred

#11  Ok, now that the cat has been taken care of, I'm all for Freds suggestion of levelling the place.
Posted by: Tony (UK)   2004-11-15 1:27:30 PM  

#10  Wars (incl. civil wars) end because somebody loses, not because everyone decides to get along.

Insurgencies happen at two levels, the combat against the insurgents AND the folks who provide the insurgents the sea to swim in. You can kill all the insurgents, but you also need to come to SOME understanding with ENOUGH of the supporters to make any future insurgency marginal. (in the US Civil war, the conventional fighting was followed by occupation, and a KKK insurgency, which ended when the federal govt accommodated the white South politically) It will not be necessary to win over EVERY Sunni Arab, but it WILL be necessary to win over SOME of them. The Kharzai govt has pursued exactly that policy in Afghanistan, and the same will be necessary in Iraq.
Posted by: Liberalhawk   2004-11-15 11:38:22 AM  

#9  Wars (incl. civil wars) end because somebody loses, not because everyone decides to get along.

This is precisely why any ideas put forth by the current Iraqi leadership about accomodating or appeasing rebels, rebel sympathizers, and their terrorist allies gets ridiculed. Someone who isn't beaten, and doesn't feel they've been beaten will be inclined to soldier on until their will is broken.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-11-15 10:31:27 AM  

#8  If it's a problem, we'll take the cat in.
Posted by: Curt Simon   2004-11-15 10:20:04 AM  

#7  We'll know we're winning when the same is happening in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the West.

The intellectual leaders of Islamofascism must be either ridiculed by their own people or killed by us.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever)   2004-11-15 9:52:10 AM  

#6  why the cat?
Posted by: 2b   2004-11-15 9:33:34 AM  

#5  verlaines ideas are interesting. It certainly seems that we're moving at least partly in this direction, with a move against the AMS.
Posted by: Liberalhawk   2004-11-15 9:24:02 AM  

#4  This is where the WOT should begin, taking out the source of hateful ideas.
Posted by: Hupeger Jins6229   2004-11-15 9:17:03 AM  

#3  Amen, Verlaine - well put. And, just for al Dhari's benefit, there's nothing random at all about what the US does, little one. I think we're warming up the toaster.
Posted by: .com   2004-11-15 12:44:29 AM  

#2  I know there are intricacies to this unknown to those of us not directly involved, but it's about time. These public faces of doomed Sunni chauvinism should have been put on ice long ago. Incitement should have been banned -- this is our Civil War times 10, not a nation-building field trip.

Subduing Fallujah will help, but to really impress Shi'a that the new boss won't be the old boss, some focused nastiness is in order. Get out those rosters of party/intel/mil/govt. employees in every Sunnis town/neighborhood of consequence, and provide them free room and board behind wire, indefinitely. Adapted for scale, do to every Sunni town what we did with Saddam's home village: isolate and ID/hound the male populace of concern.

The spirit and will of the Sunni community have to be broken -- only areas and individuals clearly playing ball excepted (and there are some). Wars (incl. civil wars) end because somebody loses, not because everyone decides to get along. Plenty of stupid challenges will remain, but forcing subordinate status on the Sunnis is a pre-condition for any progress on bigger issues.
Posted by: Verlaine   2004-11-15 12:34:06 AM  

#1  "Nor should the big turbans of the Learned Elders of Islam underestimate the Americans and their abilities. "

Yet for some reason they always do, don't they.
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American   2004-11-15 12:22:20 AM  

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