After a day or two on the base I began to grasp why the female Colonel conked out so quick on the flight in—the work pace is exhausting. The US soldiers, Marines, Navy, and Air Force personnel working on these bases are busting ass 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I slept in a 12 man wooden cabin outfitted with bunk beds. During the week I was in Iraq the lights in that building were turned on only twice. They were left off because someone was almost always sleeping. I felt like a hooker on spring break—I spent the week sleeping with men I did not know (but we were in separate bunks). I was going to bed around 2 in the morning and waking up around 0730 hours. Adrenaline in new surroundings can keep one moving.
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But the safety I felt on the base is not the experience of the average Iraqi or the US soldier sent to move among the Iraqi people. Outside the security of the US military bases the civil war is raging. While we do not see the conventional armies we normally associate with our own Civil War, the fact is that Shias and Sunnis are locked in a death match.
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The sad truth is that we are not fighting an effective counter insurgency campaign. We treat the threat as simply a terrorist threat and hope that if we kill enough of Zarqawi’s leaders and followers that the violence will subside. That was the belief 15 months ago. Since then our forces have carried out many dramatic and effective counter terrorist operations. Yet, as of June 2006, the number of attacks continue to increase. The trend line is up and the victims tend to be the average Iraqis that healthy communities rely on to rebuild public order.
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I believe our best course of action, at this juncture, is to step out of the way and let the shias and sunnis fight it out. That is a harsh solution, but our presence in Iraq appears to be providing aspiring jihadists the motive and means to pursue their ambition. If left to themselves, we might have more flexibility in working behind intermediaries and thru cutouts in order to get Iraq back on its feet. What we have right now are US bases that are little more than feudal castles. We provide safety to those inside but cannot provide the security and services required for normal political life.
more...When I first heard about Biden suggesting that maybe Iraq should be carved up into three parts - I thought "who are we to do something like that." Maybe Iraq is too sectarian to be held together by anything less than a dictator with an iron fist. Maybe it should be allowed to find its natural borders by itself.
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