 |
|
May 24, 2013
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
March 2, 2006
/ 2 Adar, 5766
Deadly farce: Killing each other and blaming US
By
Ed Koch
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
The Bush administration tells us that the ethnic and religious groups in Iraq are not yet involved in a civil war. The New
York Times reported, "Peter W. Rodman, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, said this week's
violence was the biggest sectarian test for the Iraqis since a car bombing at a Shiite shrine at Najaf in August 2003; in that
attack, at least 80 people were killed, including Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, the most prominent Shiite cleric
cooperating with American military forces. 'What the extremists are trying to do is to foment civil war,' Mr. Rodman said.
'But we don't see it. We don't see them succeeding.'" He needs glasses.
Thousands of Iraqis, primarily Shiites, have been killed over the last two years, many by suicide bombers and car
bombs. The media has begun reporting on paramilitary death squads that have targeted Sunnis.
Now, in apparent reprisal for last week's explosion at one of the holiest Shiite mosques — the gold-domed mosque in
Samarra — at least 379 Iraqis have been killed, many of them taken from their homes or off buses and summarily executed in
the streets. If this isn't a civil war, what is it? To date, we have lost 2,296 American soldiers with 16,825 wounded, many
grievously injured.
In addition to the ongoing civil war between Sunnis and Shiites, Shiites and Sunnis are waging war against U.S. forces
Almost every political figure in Iraq publicly attacks the U.S. presence, demanding we set a timetable to exit. In
private, however, they make sure we know they don't want us to leave immediately, but sometime in the future, like maybe
two years from now. Meanwhile, the Iraqi factions all blame U.S. forces for not protecting them from other Iraqi factions.
Imagine the reaction if American soldiers fired on Sunni or Shiite mobs in the streets of Iraq's cities that are bent on
killing one another. While they have no hesitation about killing one another and destroying each other's mosques, woe unto us
if we were to try to stop the carnage by, for example, firing on a mob advancing on a mosque or a private home intending to
destroy it and those living or praying there.
According to The New York times, President Bush continues to state, "Our strategy in Iraq is that as the Iraqis stand
up, we'll stand down." But the Iraqis are not standing up and based on a just-released Pentagon report entitled "Measuring
Stability and Security in Iraq," "53 Iraqi battalions were able to take the lead in place of Americans in the battle against
terrorists and insurgents, up from 36 three months ago. A battalion in Iraq varies in size, but usually has from several hundred
to 750 troops. But while at least one battalion was said three months ago to have the ability to operate wholly independently
of American forces, that number has fallen to zero."
That's progress? These Iraqi forces have been training for years. Marines are ready for combat in Iraq after 16
weeks of basic training. Is it possible that Iraqi soldiers prefer American soldiers to do the dangerous combat work?
We are more likely to see Godot before we see Iraqi soldiers prepared to engage in combat on their own. The most
shocking aspect of the report is that "Pentagon officials say the new statistics are more in line with the realities of the battlefield,
where even some of the foreign countries [our allies] that supply troops to Iraq cannot function without American support."
Most of our NATO allies refuse to join the war effort. Of the few who do, apparently some can't even function on
their own in combat. And we are planning, according to Pentagon statements, to reduce our forces, relying on Iraqi forces?
We should get out now, unless our NATO and regional allies agree to share the burdens with us. They know that if we leave,
the civil war will spread and endanger their countries and interests. Then they will be forced to come in and we won't be there.
U.S. State Department spokesman, Adam Ereli, according to the Times, recently said about Iraq, "Rather than see a
collapse or a setback, I think in some ways, you can see an affirmation that the approach we've been taking has worked.
You've got political leadership acting together on behalf of the common good, and you've got security forces demonstrating
that capability and a responsibility as a national entity that we've been working to develop and that has now bee put to the test
and, I think, is proving successful."
Adding to the misinformation coming from the White House, The Times reported the following, "Top aides at the
White House, the Pentagon and the State Department all expressed the hope that the new violence did not portend civil war in
Iraq. They found it in evidence that all sides were appealing for restraint, even the firebrand Moktada al-Sadr in Baghdad."
What are these guys smoking?
Remember, Moktada's militias are regularly killing Sunnis while they are targeting American soldiers as occupiers, and
the Sunnis, rather than appreciating our efforts to protect them and bring them into the national government, are denouncing us
and seeking every day to blow up our soldiers on the roads with IEDs (improvised explosive devices). If it weren't all so
deadly and harmful to the U.S. and our national interests, particularly as regards our ability to confront an even more dangerous
Iran, one would think this is a farce. Only this is deadly stuff.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Edward I. Koch, the former mayor of New York, can be heard on Bloomberg Radio (WBBR 1130 AM) every Sunday from 9-10 am . Comment by clicking here.
Archives
© 2006, Ed Koch
|
|
Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman
Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman
Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|
