"You know, this is a fight, when you get right down to the root of it, between Sunnis and Shias – it goes back a millennia of time – over who is the rightful successor to the Prophet Mohammed. That is not our fault. That is not our fight. And that’s not something we can fix …
Moreover, if you think we should be going out and fighting them, you have to answer the question whether the insurgency that this has become is worth doing. If you say yes, it is, then you have to adapt your tactics.
What we are doing – and I have seen this in – with my own eyes in Iraq — what we are doing is sending them out from the Green Zone, clearing, and then retreating back to the Green Zone. Now, I got to tell you, that does not make any sense, if you are fighting an insurgency. History will tell you, to fight and win insurgencies, you have to clear, hold, and then build, so you build confidence in the people there, so that they become the foot soldiers, they root out the terrorists, and they ultimately fight for their freedom. It is not our country. It is theirs," – Senator Gordon Smith.
Either we commit the forces to truly clear, hold and build alongside a fledgling Iraqi army, or we should leave as soon as possible. The worst of all worlds is hanging out in Iraq, and slowly becoming coopted by one side of a raging civil war. Then we truly become a target not just for al Qaeda loons but for either all Sunnis or all Shia. If you really want to give al Qaeda a shot in the arm, join with the Shiites. I’m not surprised in a way that Cheney is moving toward that position. On almost every issue in this war, he has been consistently, disastrously wrong. Why should he change now?
The Dish 