Larry C Johnson: Deep Shiite, We’ve Driven Off the Cliff

[babylonsister]

Deep Shiite, We’ve Driven Off the Cliff
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2007-07-17 12:45. Media

By Larry C Johnson, NoQuarterUSA

The ethnic cleansing of Baghdad is well advanced and the United States does not have the military force in place to alter the course of these events without engaging in a full scale war against the militias of Moqtada al Sadr and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. By the end of September the various Shia militias will control close to 90% of the city.

So what? For starters it is no coincidence that the Green Zone has sustained multiple mortar bombardments in the last couple of weeks. The bombardment comes in the wake of stepped up U.S. military assaults against Shia targets in eastern Baghdad. The simple fact that the mortars can be fired seemingly at will into the Green Zone without effective counter battery highlights the limited operational capability of the U.S. forces that have “surged” into Baghdad.

The security situation in Baghdad, within the so-called “highly secure” Green Zone has deteriorated to the point that U.S. personnel venturing outside must wear body armor and helmets. Check out the story broken by McClatchey and the memo itself.

The Shia success certainly screws up the White House propaganda plan to portray the enemy in Iraq as Al Qaeda on the march. Joshua Partlow makes this point in today’s Washington Post:

West Rashid confounds the prevailing narrative from top U.S. military officials that the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq is the city’s most formidable and disruptive force. While there are signs that the group has been active in the area, over the past several months, the Mahdi Army has transformed the composition of the district’s neighborhoods by ruthlessly killing and driving out Sunnis and denying basic services to residents who remain. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, described the area as “one of the three or four most challenging areas in all of Baghdad.”

Dominance by Shiite militias is typically associated with places in eastern Baghdad, such as Sadr City, while areas west of the Tigris River and south of the Baghdad airport road are home to large Sunni enclaves. Not long ago the western neighborhoods conformed clearly with this perception. U.S. soldiers estimate that a year ago, Sunnis made up about 80 percent of the population there and Shiites 20 percent. But those numbers have now reversed, after a concerted effort to cleanse Sunnis from the area, according to U.S. military officials. Graffiti marking the walls in these neighborhoods herald the new order: “Every land is Karbala, and every day is Ashura,” read one slogan, extolling the Shiite holy city in southern Iraq and a major Shiite religious holiday.

more...

[bemildred]

1. Gee, who could have predicted this? nt

[Botany]

3. Everybody w/ half a brain predicted it.

According to the book, "The End of Iraq" bush did not know the difference
between Sunni & Shi ites less than 2 months before starting this nightmare.

[frogcycle]

2. Thanks babylonsister

I am sure that most DUers would join me in saying you are a great resource to all of us.

There is so much counterintelligence like this out there that the msm just ignores while repeating the lies, and it takes a lot of surfing to gather it ...

I nominate you as program director for our DU-News cable channel!

[babylonsister]

4. Would I get paid? I'm in!

:rofl: Thanks, frogcycle. :D

[marmar]

5. Deep Shiite.....LOL

The title alone is worth a :kick: and R!

[Kagemusha]

6. "Over the past several months"!!?? You mean 100% during the surge?

Wow. Just wow. So much for the grand promises that they'd put a stop to the Shiite militia ethnic cleansing. What a militia victory over the US military, almost literally right under its nose.