I’ve been thinking and reading some more about the Sunni/al Qaeda massacres at Shiite mosques in Iraq. It’s undoubtedly true that these mass murders are designed to bring civil war and chaos to Iraq. But they are thereby also designed to thwart Shiite majority rule in a future democratic Iraq. Such a democratic experiment could obviously lead to potential Shiite uprisings all over the Arab world, as this persecuted sect seeks their long-lost right to self-government. What we could be seeing, in fact, is the beginning of a broader Shiite uprising, that would, in part, be a result of American intervention and would pit the Shi’a against al Qaeda. What would be the future ramifications of that? For policy toward Shiite Iran, for example? And for policy toward Saudi Arabia, a Wahhabist dictatorship with a large Shi’a population? For al Qaeda’s ability to focus on the West as a target? Just asking.
LETTING ZARQAWI GO: I’m at a loss to understand how the Bush administration failed to act decisively to take out Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi when it had several opportunities to do so. This report is deeply disturbing. I wonder how killing Zarqawi could have conceivably impeded our bid to topple Saddam; and why the White House aborted the military operations. Money quote:
In June 2002, U.S. officials say intelligence had revealed that Zarqawi and members of al-Qaida had set up a weapons lab at Kirma, in northern Iraq, producing deadly ricin and cyanide. The Pentagon quickly drafted plans to attack the camp with cruise missiles and airstrikes and sent it to the White House, where, according to U.S. government sources, the plan was debated to death in the National Security Council.
The administration flubbed several subsequent opportunities subsequently – and hundreds are now dead as a result. Maybe there is some explanation here that I don’t yet know. But it seems to me that if we blame Clinton for not getting Osama when he could have (and we should), then the blame on the Bush team for letting Zarqawi through the net should be just as intense. What exactly is the real excuse?
The Dish 