Yes, it won’t solve everything. Yes, some Sunni and Jihadist terrorists will escape and have escaped to wreak havoc elsewhere. But subduing the Sunni-Jihadist insurgency is a simple prerequisite for some kind of representative government in Iraq. Johann Hari cites an Iraqi friend:
The Sunni resistance is, however, a different story [from the Shiite resistance]. “I was there in Fallujah earlier this year. It doesn’t look like Iraq; it looks like Taliban Afghanistan. I didn’t see a woman’s face the whole time I was there. They are all hidden behind those dehumanising shrouds.” The resistance fighters he met there believed in either Sunni supremacy or endless jihad. “It wasn’t surprising. You only have to look at who they are killing to find out their philosophy. They don’t want democracy and peaceful co-existence. If there was any way to negotiate with them, I’d support it. But how can you talk people like this down from their ledge? What can you offer them?” Yasser then offers two crucial facts. First, there hasn’t been a single Shia suicide bomber in Iraq so far. That tells you something about who is trying to destroy security and why. Second, there have been just three weeks this year when there were no suicide bombs in Iraq. They were the three weeks the US forces had Fallujah surrounded. Doesn’t that suggest it is the base of the Sunni resistance? Doesn’t that suggest it is right to deprive them of their base by force if necessary?
Yes, and yes. It’s foolish to believe that this siege means a major victory. It doesn’t. It’s one stage in a brutal war of attrition against the enemies of democracy. But it must be done. And what it’s teaching the U.S. military will prove invaluable in the years of war ahead.
THE EVIL EMPIRE: I mean Microsoft. They’re approaching bloggers. (Theme song from “Jaws” will now commence.)
“MANDATE”: Isn’t that term just a little but, er, gay?
EMAIL OF THE DAY: “I’m a Christian missionary, investing my life in bringing global transformation by working to convert Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists in the hardest and most miserable parts of the world. I oversee the work of a number of christian Relief & Development NGO’s that seek to restore human dignity by providing jobs and sustainable family incomes through micro-economic development, educational projects, clean water projects, and a lot more… I believe you and others who are gay are doing yourselves a great disservice by your rhetoric and the way you go about trying to achieve your goals. I think most evangelical christians would support your rights in every realm if you were more wise in your approach to the subject.
As a very devout, Bible-believing, conservative-value-holding, christian missionary, I believe that every person, straight or gay, should have the ability to freely choose who should inherit their property when they die, who should be able to visit them in the hospital, who should have the right to make hard decisions over their lives and property in the event they were incapacitated in some way, etc., etc. I do not believe these rights should be granted to husbands and wives only, but to everyone, because we are all created in God’s image, and have the God-gioven right to freely chose our path in life and our associations — whether God approves of them or not. This desire for everyone’s freedom of choice that I hold so dearly does not contradict my belief that nuclear families are the very foundation blocks of a stable society and should be encouraged, strengthened, and preserved through our laws and by every other social means available to us.” So why not support equality in marriage? Or more to the point: how on earth does including gay couples in civil marriage somehow weaken the protections for the nuclear family? How?
The Dish 