What’s needed to defeat the insurgency

I’ve been saying for a long time that if the U.S. were to have any chance of success in Iraq our policy there must be re-worked from the bottom up. In the current context, that seems highly unlikedly, and so the situation does not seem hopeful to say the least. But here’s a reader who sees the situation in truly hopeless terms:

The only way to win the war in Iraq is either to exterminate the Sunni population or to drive them out of the country. That’s it. Anyone suggesting anything short of that is not being serious. The insurgency is too deeply supported and connected with the Sunni population to be any other way.

Even if we were to do this, we’d still have the Shiite problem to contend with, as well as the Kurds.

The reader seems to be saying that the insurgency is essentially a war by Sunnis against Shi’tes. If this is so, how come the Shi’ites aren’t striking back? Why hasn’t this become a civil war?
Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 15, 2005 10:32 PM | Send