Sunday, November 26, 2006

After the Thanksgiving bombings of Sadr City

High profile bombings like the one on Thursday, especially on Sadr City, are simplified as from "Sunni insurgents", but they are almost always from Al Quaida and its small group of Sunni allies of convenience. Their purpose is to incite the volatile militias of Sadr in taking out their frustration on Sunnis in general which, unfortuately they are happy to do. The bulk of the Sunni insurgents are defending their neighborhoods and wish to live to fight another day. Maliki is continuing to show to be a dancing monkey of Sadr, but the Iraqi people, even Shiites, are tired of his hypocrisy of talking tough against militias but doing the opposite when Sadr is involved. http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/ shows the general chatter of the militias on both sides, conveniently translated into english. Although there is foreboding, except for Sadr's militias, everybody else is pretty much taking defensive positions which means full scale civil war is still on hold. Another positive is that this is a sign that normal people are not turning their heads which was the prevalent sentiment not too long ago. It is up to the Iraqi people, but it is obvious that a prime minister that has no ties with Sadr is needed to reign in the Shiite militias doing the bulk of the killing. As for Al Quaida and its "Shura council" that continues to provoke the Shiites, that is going to be a long term fight that eventually the Iraqis will have to take over completely from the USA. They need a cleaner security force instead of one that currently has the appearance of being infiltrated by Sadr's gangs. All is not lost. Pessimism will seem to be the standard mood, but the atmosphere is ripe for changes for the positive. The bulk of the Iraqi people still don't believe in sectarianism. If those people can take charge and link together, the minority who are looking for a fight can be beaten back.

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