In Iraq, the Enemy of my Enemy is Still My Enemy Posted by Suzanne Nossel

The New York Times has a fascinating piece about the widening rift between the indigenous Sunni insurgents in Iraq, and al-Zarqawi's foreign-infiltrated al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.  The article details a serious of battles and incidents that have inflamed tensions between the two groups, principally over al Qaeda's indifference to high levels of civilian casualties that, among other things, have quelled public support for the Iraqi insurgency. 

On the Times website, the subtitle given to the story is "The clashes present a rare opportunity to enlist local insurgents to cooperate with Americans and Iraqis against Al Qaeda."  Reading that, one concludes that either some crafty Baghdad-based DoD public affairs officer is finally making some headway in spinning the Administration's Iraq story and/or that the recent reports of growing contacts between the military and the insurgents may be bearing fruit.

But perusing the entire Times story, there's nothing remotely encouraging about what the al Quaeda-insurgent rift means for the US.   While the American forces want insurgent cooperation against al Qaeda, the Iraqi insurgent interviewed says that while he's happy when the US forces kill al Qaeda members, "It is against my beliefs to put my hand with the Americans."

Meanwhile, al Qaeda and its insurgent enemies are locked in cycles of vicious killing and revenge, but the bloodshed is only making Iraq more difficult to control.   A Sunni cleric who is part of a group that are outraged at the number of Sunni civilian victims of al Qaeda's holy war is quoted as saying "If you want jihad, the American military is there." 

The article states:

American and Iraqi officials believe that the conflicts present them with one of the biggest opportunities since the insurgency burst upon Iraq nearly three years ago. They have begun talking with local insurgents, hoping to enlist them to cooperate against Al Qaeda, said Western diplomats, Iraqi officials and an insurgent leader.

OK, so American officials are encouraged that al Qaeda which, by all accounts, had no active presence in Iraq prior to the US-led invasion, is now - -  in addition to attacking US forces and undermining Iraqi public confidence in the country's transition -  - locked in deadly conflict with other insurgent groups that are gradually beginning to hate al Qaeda to a degree that may ultimately approach the enmity they have for us?   

If that's the good news, what's the bad news?  This is.

Comments

[Cal]

"The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy"

One could extend this to the Iraqi gov't as well. Its official postition seems to be that it's OK to kill American soldiers so long as the attacks don't harm Iraqis or damage Iraqi infrastructure.

Why are we fighting for this gov't again?

[Stephen]

And in order to fool YOUR readers into continuing to believe it is "another Viet Nam", you pick out one sentence of a lengthy article to speciously support your premise that there is NOTHING good coming out of what we're tryinmg to do there. How shameful. Especially when the last sentence of the piece is a quote from that same fighter, "I feel happy when the Americans kill them". Sounds kind of positive to me. OH, thats right, its just DoD spin. It's too bad the government and the military has to fight that war on 2 fronts; there and here at home.

[Greg Priddy]

Cal,

And if you think the Shi'ite-dominated Iraqi government is problematic now, wait until we start mixing it up with Iran.

[J Thomas]

Stephen, I'm confused by your logic here.

Somehow you seem to take "I feel happy when the Americans kill them" as acceptance of us. But we feel happy when insurgents kill zarqawi supporters, and that doesn't mean we support the insurgents at all.

The bright spot about local insurgents fighting foreign terrorists is that the more they fight each other the less strength they each have left to fight us. If they were evenly matched, it would be nice if we could just sit back and let them fight each other until they were all gone. But I suspect they'll run out of Zarqawi supporters long before they run out of insurgents.

[wow gold]

I like to earn the World of Warcraft Gold very much, I want to have a lot of warcraft gold in the game, i do not satisfy the old equipment and so i have to buy wow gold to buy the new equipment to make me strong. If i am very strong in the game i can get some cheap wow gold as the rewards in the game. So i like the game very much.

[gw gold]

I hope i can get GuildWars Gold in low price.

[Archlord gold]

When I have Archlord gold, I feel very pleased with life no one can understand you, but here you will find fun. When I have Archlord money, I experienced that feeling, that very warm feeling.

[sealonline cegel]

Once I played seal, I did not know how to get strong, someone told me that you must have seal cegel. He gave me some sealonline cegel.

[shaiya online gold]

or you can not go on this game without shaiya online gold. If you buy shaiya gold, you can continue this game.

[cheap coach handbags]

Thank you for your sharing! I like i very much!

[skull bracelet]

While American and Iraqi officials have talked of a split for months, detailed accounts of clashes were provided by men claiming to be local insurgents.

[Network]

thanks for sharing Sohbet many people are pay more attention to one's swearing than before, especially a watch.Muhabbet.
Perhaps when you went to some place far away Sohbet you must borrow it from friends you can get everything you want in this game Chat money to invest in other industry which will return you good profit. Sohbet when you look at Chat
the surface of the watches viaload great any cool Exsohbet from the city you live in and thought you knew nobody there Egitim Fourth, there were various signs of political conflict among shia. If they split 3 ways or 4 ways, the sunnis and the kurds could often be the Sohbet swing votes in the politics. If they felt they had political clout out of proportion to their numbers, they could settle in Sohbet and do politics and not feel oppressed.

[old phone]

The clashes present a rare opportunity to enlist local insurgents to cooperate with Americans and Iraqis against Al Qaeda.

[Tour Rome Italy]

I think it just DOD spin. It's too bad the government and the military has to fight that war on 2 fronts; there and here at home.

[Amy Laurent]

In addition to attacking US forces and undermining Iraqi public confidence in the country's transition -locked in deadly conflict with other insurgent groups that are gradually beginning to hate al Qaeda to a degree that may ultimately approach the enmity they have for us?

[Saunas]

Really this Times story, there's nothing remotely encouraging about what the al Quaeda-insurgent rift means for the US.

[Home Protect Home Warranty]

I am waiting for it from such a long time...Thanks for posting..I like this type of blog..
Really great..I like this type of blog..Hope you will continue to post such type of post in future also...

[xujing]

これは、ワンフェス等でサンプル展示のあった、水着アニメ「ウィッチブレイド」のキャラ「天羽雅音」と「天羽梨穂子」の親子を、女性 水着第16話で登場した水着姿で立体化したもので、とらのあなの商品説明によると「天羽雅音と梨穂子が親子揃って水着姿で登場。セクシーなコスチュームに身を包んだ女性達の戦いをレディース水着描いたアニメ『ウィッチブレイド』から、「天羽雅音」と「天羽梨穂子」がリゾビキニート合コンの回で見せた水着姿で、親子揃って登場です。母親らしい白いシンプルな水着に身を包んだ雅音と、腰の部分に付いたフリルが可愛らしい紺色の水着を着た梨穂子の、親子水入らずの穏やかでほのぼのと水着　通販した平和なひとときを再現したこのフィギ水着　激安ュア。手を伸ばして母親に抱きつこうとする梨穂子と、それをしっかり受け止めようとする雅音の姿を表した動きのあるポージングは、親子二人の確かな信頼と愛情を感じさせ、この二人の間の強い絆をうまく表現しています。なかなか珍しい親子揃って立体化されたこのフィギュア。ウィッチブレイドファンは決して見逃せない一品です！」と紹介されています。天羽雅音は、公式のキャラ紹介によると「娘の梨穂子と一緒に暮らすため、東京へやってくる。明るく天真爛漫な性格。ウィッチブレイワンピース水着
ドに「装着者」として選ばれる。6年前に起こった大震災以前の記憶を失っている 」というキャラで、天羽梨穂子は、公式のキャラ紹介によると「雅音の娘。元気で利発的な女の子。不器用な雅音を母親に持った反動か、幼くして家事全般をこなすことが出来るしっかりもの。料理が得意。」というキャラ。

[水着]

彼らはリンクを取得するための最良の方法は、女性 水着人気サイト、人気のサイトを持っレディース水着てするための最良の方法を持っている人々はそのためそれとビキニリンクすることです判断するため、コンテンツの達人に来る場所もちろん、ここにある、コンテンツが必要よい。そして、彼らはそうだ。人々は最初の場所でそれを見つける方法を – ウェブサイトはあなたが考える必要があ水着　通販る荒野に追放される良質なコンテンツは良い品質のリンクを生じさせるのだろうか？バックは人気の指標である、それはGoogleが正確にWebサイトは、任意の特定の検索が実行されたときに配置する必要がありますここで判断するゲージとして水着　激安使用することができる唯一の​​ことだ。したがって、（検索エンジンの目の前に）ワンピース水着人気がある必要があります – あなたのサイトを指しているバックの多くは、あなたがリンク
して価値があると信じて他のサイトから来ているでしょう。

[jewelry display stands]

I've gone through your stuff its really very controversial and political and comments are also belongs same issues,well stuff.