According to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Iraqi troops will soon withdraw from cities in the Sunni-dominated Anbar Province, where they played a role in a Monday crackdown on political protesters that left 17 dead.
The move suggests Maliki is either trying to reconcile with Sunni politicians, who resigned en masse last night to protest the bloodshed, or at least recognizes that the military presence is only making matters worse.
Fighting continued today in Ramadi, where an Iraqi military sniper was killed by unnamed gunmen. Three others, all labeled “militants,” were also killed.
The initial Ramadi protests were calling for the release of a Sunni MP arrested as a “terrorist” by Maliki, and the prime minister then declared the protest to be “al-Qaeda headquarters,” ordering troops to dismantle it.
Maliki has regularly labeled rival politicians, particularly Sunnis, as “terrorists,” and the country’s sitting Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi is still living in exile after a similar declaration came against him.
Though there is a big difference between Sunni politicians and al-Qaeda, it’s a distinction Maliki prefers not to acknowledge, and in conflating the two he is fueling more sympathy for the later across Iraq’s Sunni-dominated West, where the general consensus is that winning elections, as the Sunnis did in 2010, won’t actually mean gaining any political influence so long as Maliki remains in power.
Another "Mission Accomplished" moment – spreading Democracy across the world…after bombing an advanced society back to the Stone Age. Well done, George. In your case, George, I really hope there is a God who will judge you…but you'll probably get out of that one too.
US does not want Maliki in power. It is that simple. And the problem Maliki has is the following. He calles these bombers Al-Qaeda in order to blunt US criticism. But also to prevent cycle of revenge by Shiia against Sunni. He cannot call spade a spade — that is, that the fanatics that daily claim lives of Iraqi innocents are recruited, armed and financed by Saudi-sponsored and Wahhabi inspired Salafism. The same ones killing civilians accross Syria. Salafism is easy to spread in disaffected and poor Sunni areas, like Falujah (province Anbar). It has been already initiated by US through program "Awakening", starting essentially a Sunni on Shiia civil war. Today, Salafis receive food donations from Saudi Arabia (and their gulf satrapies), but also money, eksplosives and arms. To prevent Iraq from becoming a stable country. The scurge can be only stopped by cutting off money and arms by the sponors — Saudi Arabia. What RIGHTEOUS outrage we heard about the use of military, but no such righteousness at the thousands upon thousands of innocent Iraqis that were killed by these fanatics.
America's legacy in Iraq is continuing bloodshed and destruction. If there are human historians alive 1,000 years from now America will be viewed as more bloodthirsty and decadent than the Roman Empire, more barbaric and aggressive than the Mongol Empire, and more short lived than the French and British Empires.