Posted by
Dawnsblood on Saturday, January 13, 2007 4:49:58 PM
According
to Amir Taheri, the Iraqis are relieved.
'A SIGH of relief!" So one resident of Haifa
Street, in the heart of Baghdad's badlands, reacted to the new plan to
secure the Iraqi capital with the help of thousands of additional
American troops.
"Maybe the Americans aren't running away
after all," said the resident, a Sunni Arab, over the phone moments
after President Bush unveiled his new plan. "The message seems to be
that the United States will remain committed as long as Bush is in the
White House."
Some 70 percent of Baghdad's violence is
concentrated in five neighborhoods, where both Shiites and Sunnis have
been the targets of rival death squads for months. Other Baghdadis say
the population of those areas will greet the American troops with
sweets and flowers.
The fear that the United States, bedeviled
by internecine feuds, might cut and run has been at the root of the
violence since Iraq's liberation in 2003.
Jihadists have
fought not because they hope to win on the battlefield, but to
strengthen the antiwar lobbies in the United States and Britain. Some
in the new political elite have become fence sitters because they
regard the United States as a fickle power that could suddenly change
course. Others have created or expanded militias, in case the United
States abandons Iraq before it can defend itself against internal foes
and predatory neighbors.
The new Bush plan has raised Iraqi
morale to levels not known for a year. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki,
who had been dropping hints he might resign because of sheer fatigue,
now says he is committed to restoring Baghdad's sobriquet of Dar al-Salaam (The Abode of Peace) by clearing it of al Qaeda and Saddamite terrorists, militias and death squads.
The Dems have been scaring the Iraqi civilians for a long time now. Perhaps we will get some progress now.