Militias making Open Moves now

A year ago.. from Nov.17, 2005: (Spaces Blog)
What is to gain by staying in Iraq now? Nothing. We pull out. We let the Iraqis who can Stand up- Stand up for themselves now. Let them take control of their own country. Get American lives, money, and ideas out of there. Iraq will be Iraq. For better or for worse on its own terms. Those of you who really believed in what we are doing there, (the few of you that there are now)- You can always claim that Americans got Saddam out of power. We did that. Now leave them to govern theirselves. We need to step back from this nation that we wrought so much pain upon. And then we can take a long hard look at the results.

Nothing is to be gained by staying in the Sunni/Shiite civil war that we see happening now. It is an exercise in futility. Immediate withdrawal. This antbed is not worth kicking any longer.

Two months ago: (spaces blog)
http://risingsons.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!1FF898EC70F0ED78!1555.entry

A year later and nothing much has been accomplished, except that Sadr's goons and the Sunni militias are 100% more organized, and getting more violent. Add to that the Israel/United States failed excursion into Lebanon and Israel's defeat by Hezbollah- and you have both sides amping up against the Occupiers and the "puppet Iraqi" democracy. The elected officials in Iraq are busy working under the table; wrangling support and jockeying for position for the future of Post-Occupation Iraq. They, like the neocons, are watering at the mouth for unfettered war. They cannot wait for the Americans can leave so that they can return to doing things the way they want to. And in the end, one man: the most powerful, ruthless, with the best connections to money and arms, will rise to run Iraq. Saddam Hussein Junior.

from C&L
Staying the course in Iraq is only allowing our military to be bled dry. And they want to do it for Four More Years? The current Iraqi leadership will define the country in the next four years. And I am sorry to tell you that they are not concerned with the welfare of the Iraqi people. If it's NOT a civil war, at the very least its' a series of intricate powergrabs by the men who run the militias. If it's NOT a civil war, its because they haven't quite got their power structures cemented quite yet. When they do, it won't matter if there is an American Military presence or not. The real bloodshed will begin in earnest, and our troops will be stuck in the middle.As it is, our troops are being killed at the rate of 30-40 per month. So in 48 more months, that will be another 1700 American dead and probably 7000 badly wounded. Is your son or daughter there? Your brother, sister,father, mother, aunt, uncle, cousin, friend? Our troops presence there is NOT preventing 100's of Iraqis from dying every single day. Its time to get them out of this useless exercise in "Staying the course".
fade 10.13.06

There are no "power structures" in a civil war, that's what makes civil war possible. The very tearing down of those power structures
mudkitty 10.13.06

Mk- I disagree- Al-Sadr and his "power structure" are more powerful than ever. The Sunnis and Shiites aren't openly fighting each other- they are just picking off the people who are in the wrong neighborhoods, purging their areas of the "wrong people". There aren't Sunni-Shiite militia shootouts going on yet - they are just helping shape their organization. Once they think they can win decisively, the Shiites will make a large aggressive move against the Sunnis.. right now, they are just jockeying for position.
fade 10.13.06

Today's News:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html?hp&ex=1161403200&en=eb96c35aac0be456&ei=5094&partner=homepage BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The Shiite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized total control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah on Friday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by one of the country's powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said.

Meanwhile... Mosul is being targeted by the Sunnis...
http://www.juancole.com/2006/10/71-killed-bombings-shootings-mosul.html
The US military withdrew 3,000 troops from Mosul to send to Baghdad, where 15,000 US soldiers are now engaged in Operation Forward Together. Guerrillas in Mosul, Iraq's second largest city with a population of some 1.8 million, some 80% of them Sunni Arab, have taken advantage of the draw-down of US troops there to multiply the number of their attacks on police and the institutions of the new government. Mosul was a bastion of the Baath Party in the old days, and crowds there have chanted for Saddam even after his fall. Some Sunnis in Mosul support the fundamentalist Salafi movement.