Sunni Violence

According to the Washington Post, next year the Pentagon is planning a drawdown from 150,000 troops to somewhere around 40,000 at Bush’s recent mention of a long-term South Korean occupation model. A small part of the 40,000 will be Special Operations assigned to target al Qaeda, which can only accomplish so much.

The next plan, it seems, is to equip Sunnis with materials and monetary compensation and allow them greater participation in the fight against al Qaeda. However, as with everything the government does, there are several risks being taken, such as the counter-risk of them using the weapons against our own troops, or, if their needs are not properly met, we may see reconciliation among them and al Qaeda or other terrorist organizations. 

If there is a central government, whether it is relatively strong or weak, commanding the allegiance of more or fewer people, it is, at least, a defined entity, and would be fighting against some kind of opponent (terrorists, guerrillas, insurgents, whatever) — that would be a conflict that we could understand and in which we could prevail.

This business of arming various groups, with the plan or hope that they then go along with our view for the country, is more than discomforting.

When men and women leave their families to go off and fight in Iraq, they are sacrificing most of their lives and expect that upon their return, they will be celebrated for having fought for a country they so deeply love. When we look into the historical ways our American government has tried to abolish crime worldwide, the plan has come back to hurt us more often than not. Iran Contra and arming bin Laden to fight the Soviets were probably the more unintelligent plans of action from the government, yet George Bush thinks his plan will work, when the Shia outnumber the Sunni by 6 to 1 and control the government. All that is left for us to do is sit back and watch our dear old president play “war games.”