Having fun with hand grenades

One of my favourite blogs is fun with hand grenades also here at blogspot.

If you really are interested in a grunts view of Iraq, you have to read his blog. I am not sure, if he still writes, I’ve just reading what he has wrote from the beginning till December 2006.
Here he writes under the topic “Issues” and “Decisions, decisions” a lot which I agree completely. I will write more in the future but for the moment, I will just cite some of his thoughts. I hope, he won’t sue me.

While home I was constantly asked what we should do about Iraq. Do we send more troops, bring some home, or totally withdrawal? I used to think I knew what to do about Iraq but in the end it doesn’t matter; when the bullets start flying politics really do go out the window; people are trying to kill me and foreign policy doesn’t mean shit in that situation. On the flip side you’d assume I’d be a better position than the actual policy makers because unlike our think tanks I’ve actually been in the shit with my boots on the ground. I eventually realized that I simply don’t know what to do about Iraq anymore.

Which is the same with me. And he continues:

Iraq has no concept of national unity or patriotism. … Islam is divided up into two major sects, the Sunnis and the Shiites. The Kurds live in the Northern part of Iraq and generally have kept to themselves. Back in the day, Saddam, a Sunni, oppressed the Shiites along with persecuting and massacring the Kurds. Fast forward to 2006: the Sunnis are pissed because they don’t have their Saddam-era power base or wealth, the Shiites want retribution, and the Kurds still want to be left alone but wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to get a vengeful piece of that Sunni ass. What fuels the whole “Iraqi Civil War” scenario is just that, three distinctly different sects who generally don’t get along well. Because of the oppression/demand for vengeance there isn’t much national unity and the country is split along those lines.

If the US just left, Iraq would destroy itself in a matter of weeks. The Shiites would exact vengeance on the Sunnis then naturally and understandably the Sunnis would react. As much as I love the Kurds I wouldn’t be surprised if they also tried to pull some crazy shit.

The point is not anymore if it was right to topple Saddam Hussein, but how to get out of the situation.

It’s a good possibility that if Iraq was thrown into chaos its neighbouring countries (Turkey, Iran, Syria, etc.) would carve up a chunk for themselves. This would be totally unacceptable and particularly dangerous in the cases of Iran and Syria.

We shouldn’t leave. Iraq isn’t ready for us to leave. If we do the results could be disastrous. From my past writing you’d think I don’t give two shits about Iraq and I’m just concerned about getting home in one piece.

There isn’t an easy way to put this; we create more enemies everyday in this country. … it’s virtually impossible to actually fight.

We need to make sure Iraq becomes something that the Iraqi people deserve. Iraq will never be a world power but it can be a lot more than it is now. Twenty thousand plus American wounded and almost three thousand dead will have suffered and died for nothing if we fail. How we get to that point is something I don’t think I’ll ever figure out.