US Arming Iraqi Sunni Insurgents to Attack Al-Qaeda

I'm in sunny downtown Seattle:

Blogging will be light until Wednesday, but I just wanted to mention this:

U.S. forces have begun arming nationalist guerrillas and former Saddam Hussein loyalists -- and coordinating tactics -- in a marriage of convenience against al Qaeda radicals in one of Iraq's most violent provinces, senior U.S. commanders tell CNN.

This new alliance, a result of the deepening divisions among Iraqi insurgent factions, was on display earlier this week at a highway intersection in the town of Tahrir. There, a group of some 15 insurgents publicly chanted: "Death to al Qaeda."

"The al Qaeda organization has dominated and humiliated Sunnis, Shiites and jihadis. It has forced people from their homes. They can't get enough blood. They killed many honest scholars, preachers and loyal mujahedeen," one of the group's spokesmen read from a written manifesto.

First, it was inevitable that we would back Sunni militants against the Shia, so arming them putatively to attack al-Qaeda is a good enough fig leaf as any. Second, al-Qaeda in Iraq is a marginal force, so "defeating" them won't be a problem, but forming an organized counter to Shiite power is several orders of magnitude harder.

(Via Phillybits.)

Comments

[Prissy]

Nice blog!!

[Aquagirl]

But our "marriages of convenience" always turn out so well!