A self-described liberal pacifist. now if only the ones in America were as smart...
Posted on 09/16/2005 1:50:57 PM PDT by jmc1969
BAGHDAD, Iraq - (KRT) - As U.S. airstrikes pummeled insurgent strongholds in western Iraq recently, Iraqi Defense Minister Saadoun al Duleimi sipped bitter lime tea and watched news of the operation on a flat-screen TV in his opulent office in Baghdad.
His cell phone chirped with calls from furious Sunni Arab leaders, but al Duleimi had nothing left to say to them. The powerful tribesmen and clerics had squandered chance after chance to evict foreign fighters from their perennially violent cities, he said. Once again, the time had come to flush insurgents from Anbar and Ninevah provinces by force, and al Duleimi no longer cared whether other Sunni Muslims called him a traitor for dispatching Iraqi troops to help the Americans who were storming through his ancestral lands.
"I belong to that area. That's why I'm between the hammer and the nail," al Duleimi said, referring to his roots in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar. "But I have no choice. Why are they angry? If they claim they control those areas, why didn't they stop the violence there?"
A self-described liberal pacifist, al Duleimi now commands a billion-dollar defense budget and is under intense pressure to whip Iraq's fledgling military into shape ahead of an anticipated drawdown in U.S. forces next year. His every move is shadowed by a phalanx of heavily armed bodyguards as death threats come by phone and mail. And after four months in office, the embattled minister is realizing that insurgents aren't the only enemy he faces.
Many Sunni Arabs claim that al Duleimi doesn't represent them, and they revile him for the nonstop military actions in their volatile, rebellious territories. Some Shiite leaders sought his resignation earlier this month, blaming him for the lack of crowd control that contributed to the deaths of 1,000 worshipers in a stampede at a Shiite religious celebration. He's made new foes by firing several senior employees who were accused in a massive corruption scandal that appears to have siphoned more than $800 million from his ministry's coffers.
Al Duleimi's alliance with the Shiite politicians he once criticized is critical to his political survival, as public support from fellow Sunnis melts away with each new bombing campaign in western territories. The Iraqi Islamic Party, the largest Sunni political faction, this week condemned the Iraqi government's cooperation with U.S. forces in "slaughtering its sons" in the Anbar province.
Al Duleimi swats away such criticism, saying that many Sunni Arabs haven't come to terms with their new reality as mere participants - not the dominant force - in Iraqi politics. And he says there's a "silent majority" of Sunnis who support the tough measures he imposes but are afraid to speak publicly in favor of the government.
For every critical politician's call that he receives, he said, he gets a call from a beleaguered resident of a Sunni town who's seeking his help in overcoming insurgents or hastening the departure of U.S. forces. He counsels patience, saying American troops will begin withdrawing only from the most peaceful cities. Giving their homes and hearts to insurgents will only prolong the bloodshed, he says.
For his part, al Duleimi is working on a pension program for members of Saddam Hussein's former military who lost their livelihoods when the U.S. occupation authority dissolved the armed forces at the beginning of the war. The former regime's jobless Sunni soldiers make easy recruits for foreign and homegrown insurgents, al Duleimi said. But he added that he wouldn't hesitate to "crush them" if they fail to meet him halfway.
"It's not easy to build a new military and fight at the same time," al Duleimi said. "But we do that in Iraq. Build and fight. That's our fate."
Good job Mr. Minister. If they don't want to come around, F*** them.
A self-described liberal pacifist
That was as close to a "warm fuzzy" as one can get from over there now. May allah be on the good side in Iraq.
mc
Iraq will make it because of guys like this. This man realizes that Iraq will change only when good men take up the cause.
Bush is succeeding! They're just like us! They, too, have a defense minister who is up to his eyebrows in alligators! :)
Sounds good to this Seabee :)
Great post jm. The tides are changing. How nice it is becoming to just read articles and have no disenters as it should becoming obviuous Iraq will not have a civil war. Abu the Scmoooh could be out of there in a few months concentrating his efforts on Europe. Hey he has to "protect all the muslims in Europe". The L/MSM's teeth are ground to powder as predicted a half year back from yours truly. Hickup Teddy and his ilk are doomed by history once again to be proven totally wrong. We see no attacks by the L/MSM on the DoD's strategy at this point, only helpless morons such as what's her name, in between having her hair preped by some frigen queer down on the cattle road, making hiccups.
Moore shall probably becomes the world's heaviest person as he has to resort to huge quantities of booze and donutes to try to take the pain away. The likes of Hanoi John and little Johny Edwards and the rest of their rift raft, shall be ignored by the American people. Chirac and the rest of the European scum, have no place to turn. Osama bin Laden must be wondering why Abu the Schmoo could not turn the tide. Meanwhile, Duleimi continues to sipped bitter lime tea and watched news of the operation on a flat-screen TV in his opulent office in Baghdad.
Guess it is time for the Hamas scum to really turn up the stakes in Gaza, got to get some real attention for the muslim cause cooking.
You made a good point. Perhaps the terrorists will leave Iraq and go into Europe after they lose there...I'm hoping maybe into Germany, France, or Belgium.
Then we'll see if the Eurotwits there have a different view of the war in Iraq then. They could have killed them in Iraq but opted out so screw em.
"...Why are they angry? If they claim they control those areas, why didn't they stop the violence there?"
I guess you don't speak Islamobabble.
A self-described liberal pacifist. now if only the ones in America were as smart...
"Then we'll see if the Eurotwits there have a different view of the war in Iraq then. They could have killed them in Iraq but opted out so screw em."
I don't wish those scum bags on anyone. We must remember the three countries you mentioned depended on making money from the dear Butcher of Baggy Dad. And in the case of France, where basically blackmailed to an extent as how much oil they could get from him etc.. But they where not alone. Other European nations, Russia, China also did business with him. I pisses me off how goons in the L/MSM and elsewhere make it sound like the US was selling him weapon systems by the carloads, when we hardly gave him a damn thing. If anything we where amoung the cleanest contributors to his regime. Small wing of Bell commercial choppers he promised would only be used for commercial/business use, allowed for small amounts of things like research grade (lab) anthrax to be sold by American company, e.g. not the type that could be used in weapon grade anthrax, and other rather benign in nature items. Meanwhile our guys now have to still watch where they walk and ride to avoid running over French 155 mm artillery shells etc..
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