The pragmatic Iraq strategy

[aneeshm]

The current situation in Iraq is such that most people seem to be pulling out, and the USA seems in no position to provide enough troops to subdue the place.

I wonder why the USA hasn't adopted the simplest, best, and cheapest strategy - that of Divide and Rule. Simply put, let the Shias and Sunnis checkmate each other, while minimising American casualties, and when their energy has been expended, go in and clean up the mess. It might require a longer-term occupation, but it is at least guaranteed to work.

[ZEE]

because... quite simply... bush is an idiot...

[PuddlewatchHQ]

Because we are not a Monarchy.

And there certain rules regarding occupations and occupying powers that have to be followed.

[BlackCat]

You mean something like the brits did in Jallianwala Bagh and Moplah ?

[aneeshm]

You don't have to support either side. Just stay in your secure little bases and provide protection to the puppet government. When everyone is thoroughly sick of the infighting, and when people truly start looking upon the US as a "liberator", clean up the place.

Cynical, but it works.

[DRoseDARs]

This is the same argument as the break up of the Baltic states, Chechnya, or the Kurds. Once you start encouraging ethnic groups within a larger political state to break off to form their own ethnic states, suddenly you'll being hearing from groups unheard of before likewise demanding independence. Iraq, Iran, and Turkey are absolutely opposed to a Kurdish state because they'd all lose territory to it. Serbia is opposed to the the Kosovars being given even a little independence. Indonesia had a bloody conflict with and was eventually forced to grant independence to East Timor. Russia continues to fight with Chechnya. Even the United States has its issues with the native populations. Some have proposed a new, independent nation encompassing pretty much the entire Great Basin (geographic region which covers parts of California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona). The British Empire royally screwed up when it formed the artificial state of Iraq and we'd probably have been better off forcing the issue and at least splitting post-Saddam Iraq into three distinct commonwealths with Baghdad as its own administrative district (similar to the state/federal relationship here in the US) ... if not just completely breaking the country up outright.

At this point, it's unfortunately too late for any of that. Try as we might, this civil war will continue until the combatants decide to stop, not because anyone on the outside tells them to or interferes.

[PuddlewatchHQ]

Optimistic much?

No right thinking Iraqi is going to consider us as liberators. Not in this lifetime.

[DRoseDARs]

Not in ANY lifetime.

[DinoDoc]

Northern Iraq does.

[ZEE]

thats the Kurds if im not mistaken

[DRoseDARs]

And they've effectively been their own state since the US began enforcing the No-Fly zone post-GW1.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by AAHZ
thats the Kurds if im not mistaken

They are still Iraqi.

[DRoseDARs]

Maybe it's time for that to stop being true. Again, there isn't much the outside world can do for Iraq other than to try to provide aid to the displaced and continue negotiations.

[LordShiva]

The US should put pressure on India to pick up the slack after they're gone. The Iraqis like us, and we like oil. Win-win.

[ZEE]

i say we should concentrate on the kurds and the govt...
the rest will fall into place...
no need risking any more american lives...