enemies of the majority

Timothy Garton Ash reports from punditland:

Discount Petraeus and Crocker, if you will, on the grounds that "they would say that, wouldn't they?" Listen, however, to George Packer, one of the best and most critical journalists to report from Iraq, writing in the latest New Yorker. American troops in Iraq, Packer concludes, have come to be a brake on the violent forces which they themselves unleashed through the war and bungled occupation. "America's diplomatic leverage will be weakened by a withdrawal, and Iraq's predatory neighbours will take advantage of the power vacuum to pursue their own interests.

Noah Shactman reports from Anbar:

Sunni political and tribal leaders are increasingly throwing in their lot with U.S. forces here against Al-Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent types. But, to get them to come over to our side, the American military has fed them a steady diet of anti-Shi'ite propaganda.

Arrests and killings of Shi’ite militants are announced from loudspeaker blasts; President Bush’s bellicose rhetoric towards Shi’a Iran is reported on friendly radio programs. But the majority of this country is Shi’ite. Are we setting ourselves up as the enemies of the majority here? Are we priming the pump for an all-in sectarian battle royale? It seems like a possibility.

Supporting sectarian interests to get people on your side is basic in this kind of struggle – let's you and him fight and all that- but it also pokes a few holes in this emerging liberal punditry consensus that occupying forces are somehow above the fray. How could they be? But then maybe this is just counterinsurgency for the home front.

Incidentally, check out the photo on the Shactman article: it’s the best shaped charge made from a cement mixer you ever did see. Promise.

Comments

[dsquared]

that cement mixer is clearly of Iranian design. Nobody is capable of making a cement mixer except Iran.

[Alex]

It's a cracking piece of work, no? And there I was thinking in terms of gas bottles; but you see the audacity of hope in action. (CUE MOTIVATIONAL MUSIC) Where conventional wisdom said "stick with the gas bottles", this 1920 Revolution Brigades cell went a step further, moving on to cement mixer technology.

And nothing beats that sense of achievement when a small business succeeds...in mashing half a dozen Marines and an armoured vehicle into scrambled bloke with metal bits.

If I worked for Accenture I'd do one of their "High Performer Studies" of this guy.

Further, is this an example of beating ploughshares back into swords?