Unleash the Shiites?

[rodeodance]

Unleash the Shiites?

The U.S. may be forced to choose sides in Iraq's civil strife.
By Laura Rozen, LAURA ROZEN, a senior correspondent for the American Prospect, writes about foreign policy issues from Washington.
November 16, 2006

AS SECTARIAN violence rises in Iraq and the White House comes under increasing pressure to revamp its strategy there, a debate is emerging inside the Bush administration: Should the U.S. abandon its efforts to act as a neutral referee in the ongoing civil war and, instead, throw its lot in with the Shiites?

A U.S. tilt toward the Shiites is a risky strategy, one that could further alienate Iraq's Sunni neighbors and that could backfire by driving its Sunni population into common cause with foreign jihadists and Al Qaeda cells. But elements of the administration, including some members of the intelligence community, believe that such a tilt could lead to stability more quickly than the current policy of trying to police the ongoing sectarian conflict evenhandedly, with little success and at great cost.

This past Veterans Day weekend, according to my sources, almost the entire Bush national security team gathered for an unpublicized two-day meeting. The topic: Iraq. The purpose of the meeting was to come up with a consensus position on a new path forward. Among those attending were President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, national security advisor Stephen Hadley, outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.

.....
Among the risks of an unleash-the-Shiites strategy is that if it were adopted, the White House would be unlikely to publicly acknowledge that such a choice had been made. Like so much else that has contributed to the U.S. difficulties in Iraq, it would be a decision taken in the dark, outside the realm of public debate.

[wake.up.america]

1. I hate beating a dead horse, but America is up to it's eyeballs in

problems because of a moron, who failed to listen to reason. And now the rest of us are forced to try to bail out the idiot, who still won't listen.

[aquart]

2. Yup. Gates' job is to anoint the next Saddam. What a surprise.