Reality-BasedTM Political Numbers from Nicholas Beaudrot
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Reality-BasedTM Political Numbers from Nicholas Beaudrot
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A pair of articles in yesterday's New York Times shows "good news" and bad news in Iraq:
The first article is the bad news. The Iraqi army, not surprisingly, isn't willing to work particularly hard to fight against militia groups (perhaps because some soldiers are in militia groups, or because they perceive it as an American-against-Iraqi conflict). And the Army is engaged in yet another attempt to take back Haifa street, in a sort of repeat of World War I- or Vietnam-era conflicts where armies took and re-took the same strip of land several times.
The second article is the "good news". It appears that the U.S. is finally negotiating with Al-Sadr. Because the U.S. cannot control the street violence without using massive force, which would further put the populace against the Americans, the only way to end the violence in Iraq is to figure out what it will take to get the major actors to lay down their weapons, and, maybe, cooperate in peacekeeping and nation re-building duties. It's not a pleasant thought—we're negotiating with warlords, more or less—but it's the only way to end this mess.
As with all things related to Bush and Iraq, it's important to be skeptical. But, this is the first piece of good news I've heard out of the region in a long time.
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updated by Nicholas Beaudrot on 07:15 26 January 2007
