The Ghosts of Anbar

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TheHeretic -> The Ghosts of Anbar (8/27/2007 6:42:44 PM)
Michael Yon has launched a four part series on his time with US Marines in the Fallujah region. I'll link to the first couple installments below. Whatever your opinion on Iraq, actual reporting, from the scene and with the troops, is pretty rare. Yon isn't bad. http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/the-ghosts-of-anbar-part-1-of-4.htm http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/the-ghosts-of-anbar-part-ii-of-iv.htm (Okay, I'll admit it. That first paragraph after the quote on the first link... That's pretty bad. Balls big enough to do what he does AND great talent with language is even rarer still. I still think he's worth reading.)

farglebargle -> RE: The Ghosts of Anbar (8/27/2007 8:54:30 PM)
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/21/1349252&mode=thread&tid=25 NIR ROSEN: Iraq has been changed irrevocably, I think. I don’t think Iraq even -- you can say it exists anymore. There has been a very effective, systematic ethnic cleansing of Sunnis from Baghdad, of Shias --from areas that are now mostly Shia. But the Sunnis especially have been a target, as have mixed families like the one we just saw. With a name like Omar, he’s distinctly Sunni -- it’s a very Sunni name. You can be executed for having the name Omar alone. And Baghdad is now firmly in the hands of sectarian Shiite militias, and they’re never going to let it go. AMY GOODMAN: What do you think of Senator Levin calling for the Maliki and the whole government to disband? NIR ROSEN: Well, it’s stupid for several reasons. First of all, the Iraqi government doesn’t matter. It has no power. And it doesn’t matter who you put in there. He’s not going to have any power. Baghdad doesn’t really matter, except for Baghdad. Baghdad used to be the most important city in Iraq, and whoever controlled Baghdad controlled Iraq. These days, you have a collection of city states: Mosul, Basra, Baghdad, Kirkuk, Irbil, Sulaymaniyah. Each one is virtually independent, and they have their own warlords and their own militias. And what happens in Baghdad makes no difference. So that’s the first point.

TheHeretic -> RE: The Ghosts of Anbar (8/27/2007 9:44:34 PM)
Interesting stuff, Fargle. And here I was thinking you'd launch a rant about former insurgents in the Iraqi Police... Don't ask, don't tell.

farglebargle -> RE: The Ghosts of Anbar (8/28/2007 5:58:21 AM)
Nope. In fact, one of the points of the interview I linked to is that the Iraqi Police and Iraqi Army are nothing but the police and army of the $local_governor. I would expect that there are CURRENT Occupation Resistors serving in the local police and armed forces... You know, to take a break from ethnically cleansing the other kind of people they take a few potshots at the US troops?

popeye1250 -> RE: The Ghosts of Anbar (8/28/2007 9:19:23 AM)
That's probably the best solution for them, city/states. When King George goes let them have at it and get our people out.

TheHeretic -> RE: The Ghosts of Anbar (8/30/2007 6:02:32 PM)
Part three has been dispatched. http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/ghosts-of-anbar-part-iii-of-iv.htm It's really no wonder at all that this guy has to go the reader supported route. First he annoys the Fox audience by saying something like this; Iraqis respond to a sense of justice. The importance of this fact cannot be overstated, and it is this sense of justice on an international scale that gets undermined when people are held in prisons without being charged with any crimes. But then he turns around and makes sure none of the other major American networks are going to let him offend the audience by saying; Al Qaeda and related groups do not need reasons. They buy press with blood.

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