Posted on 06/08/2007 11:22:56 AM PDT by ASC2006
U.S. forces have begun arming nationalist guerrillas and former Saddam loyalists -- and coordinating tactics -- in a marriage of convenience against al-Qaeda radicals in one of Iraq's most violent provinces, senior U.S. commanders tell CNN.
Several sources said al-Qaeda members burned a 7-year-old-child alive and murdered women and other children in the towns around the provincial capital of Baquba.
Richards described assistance from the former insurgent factions and what he calls other "concerned local nationals" as "militarily crucial."
His key ally in the region is a man known as Abu Ali, who says he has never belonged to an insurgent force but was an officer in one of Saddam Hussein's feared military intelligence units.
To date, Abu Ali says he has received 39 weapons and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition from the U.S. military. The insurgent factions he represents, however, are known to have significant arsenals of their own weapons, including light machine guns, assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.
Abu Ali is grateful for the assistance he and his followers have received from the U.S. military. He predicts he can help clear the entire province of al-Qaeda militants within six months if the U.S. Army provides more ammunition and supports insurgent operations with air cover and help from tanks and armored personnel carriers.
He adds, "Especially after the help the U.S. Army has provided us, we would like them to go home as our friend, not enemy."
With the alliance only beginning to bear its first successes, few U.S. commanders seem to be looking toward the end of the affair. But there is a realization that it is a balancing act -- to prevent a-Qaeda infiltration and to maintain the collaboration of nationalist insurgents.
"It's a risk worth taking," Mixon said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
ping
Err, ahh - gee - about the size of the "average" collection of joe six pack from Texas...
Can we give all JAGs a 6-month paid leave, starting now? (So they can’t screw this up.)
Good plan.
If it where me I would be giving the Iraqi Army better weapons and US backed anti al-Qaeda death squads along with the tribes lots of support.
Your ideas make too much sense. Although I have maximum faith in our guys in the field, I am very pessimistic about any plan that involves common sense actually seeing the light of day in this administration.
Under Rummy it was far worse. The civilians in the Pentagon at the time had insane utopian notions about Iraq. Like Wolfawtiz believing that private capital would reopen all the Iraqi state owned factories that employ hundreds of thousands.
Four years later, finally the US is helping to open them up.
But, nothing is more utopian stupid then believing Iraq didn’t need a real army that it only needed a weak National Guard. Bremer, Wolfawitz, and and Fife all held that view for a long time.
Well isn’t this what Eddie Kennedy and Nuancey Pelosi wanted?
I wonder what percentage of the Iraqi Insurgents are turning on Al-Qaeda (which is mostly foreign Arab) now?
We did the same thing with Saddam and look where it got us.
That is more excellent news.
Bumperoo.
Rumsfeld and his aides were naive. We would had done better if the British Foreign Service took care of domestic affairs in Iraq while we focused primarily on maintaining security.
We didn’t arm Saddam. If you spend some time looking at where is weapons come from, his tanks, jets, and missles almost all came from Russia.
And, the Baathists are not Americas enemy in Iraq, it took us several years to figure that out.
The Baathists are smart and mostly secular. Our enemy in Iraq is religious extremists both Sunni and Shia.
If not for President Bush and his steady leadership to fight this war on terror, we would have surrendered to the terrorists long time ago. Thanks the Lord for President Bush strong leadership and not being a politician following the public opinion polls.
The general rebellion by the Sunni Arabs against Al Qaeda terrorists is the most significant event in this war since the fall of Saddam regime in April 2003. Al Qaeda is losing its main line of defense at an exponential rate and this main line of defense is the protection and support of the local Arab Sunni. Because of this AL Qaeda is dying very rapidly and the terrorists will be totally finished in six month.
I expect that the whole world will realize that America Won this war in Iraq in six to nine months and that AL Qaeda has been totally defeated.
God bless our brave troops and President Bush.
God bless America.
Its going to be very interesting in the next couple months to see how things go.
al-Qaeda is not going out without an extremely bloody fight.
already said... but yeah, your wrong.
I agree with much of what you said. But situations requiring common sense make me nervous. Bush seems prone to “give away the store” at odd moments, when he doesn’t have to. He hasn’t done it in Iraq specifically, but he has done it. And it makes me nervous.
Thankis for the ping....even CNN is “getting it”
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