plover
Sep19-04, 11:08 PM
Thoughts on recent violence in Iraq from Middle East scholar Juan Cole.
From Letter to a Marine Reserve Officer (http://www.juancole.com/2004_09_01_juancole_archive.html#10953146687334215 1):
I am sure the local Marine commanders [the ones who initiated a hunt for Muqtada al-Sadr - ed.] were manipulated by Adnan Zurfi and the Najaf elite, and probably Allawi as well. (A . . . State Department official intimated to me that Allawi was mainly behind it and Negroponte's hands were tied). But, again, if the initiative came as Burns claims from local commanders, then what they did was most unwise (the polite way of putting it).
There are some things that the US should not do, period. Besieging Najaf and bombing the sacred cemetery is one of them. The whole city and its environs are holy, not just the shrine. It is very nice for Zurfi and Allawi if they can get us to do it, but we should resist being used that way.
From Letter to a Marine Reserve Officer (http://www.juancole.com/2004_09_01_juancole_archive.html#10953146687334215 1):
I am sure the local Marine commanders [the ones who initiated a hunt for Muqtada al-Sadr - ed.] were manipulated by Adnan Zurfi and the Najaf elite, and probably Allawi as well. (A . . . State Department official intimated to me that Allawi was mainly behind it and Negroponte's hands were tied). But, again, if the initiative came as Burns claims from local commanders, then what they did was most unwise (the polite way of putting it).
There are some things that the US should not do, period. Besieging Najaf and bombing the sacred cemetery is one of them. The whole city and its environs are holy, not just the shrine. It is very nice for Zurfi and Allawi if they can get us to do it, but we should resist being used that way.