Saturday, February 10, 2007

Al-Sadr looks to lie low, outlast U.S.

Al-Sadr personally may not survive us but people who think like him will outlast the dominant American presence in Iraq - barring some sort of nuclear disaster, there will always be radical anti-western Shiites in Iraq and we will not always have large numbers of troops there.

So the question is not "will Sadr's ilk outlast us in Iraq?" - the question is "Will we leave in place a government that will protect both the rights of the majority and the minorities while having the strength and determination to deal with extremists whether they are Shiite or Sunni or Iranian/Syrian invaders?"

If we want that question answered in such a way that American interests will be protected and those Iraqis who have supported us will not slaughtered then we cannot just pick up and leave on any arbitrary time table.

No comments: