(Rummy's) Aide: As Iraqi army steps up, militias will stand down

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_477629.html

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's top man in Europe predicted Tuesday that the situation in Iraq will improve dramatically by spring.
Despite violence that cost the lives of 103 U.S. soldiers and hundreds more Iraqis in October, Rumsfeld's representative in Brussels, Evan Galbraith, said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that the U.S.-trained Iraqi army soon would take a more prominent role in securing the country.

When that happens, Galbraith said, the separatist Shiite Muslim militias he considers the biggest obstacle to stability will lay down their arms and negotiate with the Iraqi government, rather than face destruction.

"It's going to be self-evident within the early part of the year -- you know, January, February, March, the early part of the year -- and at that point we will be making deals with the Shias," he said.

Potential losses for Republicans in next week's elections would not derail the process, Galbraith said. By March, "even the Democrats will see that the Shias are making deals right and left," he said.

BTW this is Dicky Mellon Scaife's Rag reporting this.

[hatrack]

1. If you say it enough times, it MUST become reality!

Soon, Americans will drive pollution-free hydrogen fuel-cell cars!!

Soon, Americans will all enjoy free health care provided to them by benificent insurance companies!

Soon, Americans will all be able to do calculus in their heads, juggle eight plates while riding unicycles and self-perform plastic surgery to make everyone in the country look just like Bob Saget!

[HCE SuiGeneris]

2. You crack me up hatrack.........

:rofl: Soon it will necessary... erm... yet again, to deploy more troops for many more years. :patriot: :dilemma:

[NOLADEM]

9. "If you say it enough times, it MUST become reality!"

[Kagemusha]

3. Hahahahahaha!! HAAAAhahahahahahaHAAAHAHAHA

...sorry. :cry:

What a MORON. The Shiites are going to cower before the big bad IRAQI ARMY that is going to DESTROY THEM if they don't surrender, using their stockpiles of tanks.. ..wait, the US won't let them have those. Helico.. oh, they let Saddam have those to smite the Shiites before and it was a black mark. RPG's.. oh, the militias have those too. Artill.. oh, shells are used for IED's.

So I guess they'll have to fight against the militias with infantry weapons.. using infantry who are... themselves Shias, commanded by a Prime Minister who is a Shiite, whose main political support in his coalition comes from SCIRI and allies of Sadr, who run the main militias that are to be threatened with destruction.

Threats which can't even be followed up on with actual destruction.

Why is this funny again? :cry:

[Az_lefty]

4. stupid bastards...repeating the same old crap over and over again

while good and decent men and women are dying for their lies!
:grr:

[AlCzervik]

5. today Jamie McIntyre had a report on the iraqi army and he said that

the us military thinks that up to 70% of those forces have some connection to militia groups.

[Canuckistanian]

6. A corner has been turned!

How many corners is this now?

Remember, if you turn 4 corners, you're back where you started.

[nealmhughes]

7. What army? The multiethnic one we unemployed in 2003 or the Potemkin Army

that evidently exists only to have live target practice targets for Sunni militias and to steal weapons from the armories to arm the Shiite militias?

Disbanding the Iraqi army was the most idiotic thing BushCo ever did -- short of everything else.

[wellst0nev0ter]

8. Um, Yeah, We Don't Pay Them Enough

the Eye-Rack army that is:

Militias steal new recruits with better pay and perks
By Daniel McGrory

Iraq'a militias are growing in strength, attracting many recruits from the US-run police academy

SOON after he graduated near the top of his class at the American-run police academy, Alah defected. He did not bother to inform his superiors. The young Iraqi police officer simply walked into a recruitment office in a rundown neighbourhood of Baghdad and signed on for the Mahdi Army, the private militia run by the radical young cleric Moqtada al-Sadr that has been blamed for some of the most savage atrocities in this city in recent weeks.

The 23-year-old absconder described it as “a career move”. The pay was better, the duties less onerous and there was far less chance of being killed.

MORE. . .