Quote: “The trouble is the experience in every-day life terms of the Iraqi population in that area is largely experience of the police and we say they remain murderous, corrupt and infiltrated by militias and that’s a real worry.”

Exactly who are “infiltrating” the police and other factions is a huge issue.  I was linked to this article, (from some thread somewhere) I don’t know if the article is accurate but it appears to be.

An excerpt:
“Which brings us to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Shortly after 9/11, we all learned that the overwhelming majority of the hijackers, a full fifteen out of the nineteen men who carried out the attacks, were Saudi nationals. So was the man who personally selected each and every one of the nineteen hijackers and provided them with training and financing – Osama bin Laden.
Indeed, Bin Laden was from one of the Kingdom’s richest and most well - connected families.  Fifteen young men from Saudi Arabia had traveled half-way around the world to murder nearly 3,000 American citizens on live TV. One would think that big red flags don’t get much bigger and redder than that. But incredibly, these facts were quickly dismissed by the Bush administration, discounted of any significance whatsoever with the same blunt self-assuredness with which they had informed the American public about all of those weapons of mass destruction they knew Saddam Hussein was stockpiling in Iraq.  Administration officials repeatedly assured the American people that, in fact, the Saudis were our “friends and allies in the war on terror.” These statements culminated in April 2002, with Crown Prince Abdullah’s (now the King of Saudi Arabia) visit to Pres. Bush’s home in Crawford, Texas. There, Pres. Bush sought to put to rest any discussion of Saudi involvement in the attacks on 9/11 by telling the American people that, “The Crown Prince and I had a very cordial meeting that confirmed the strong relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States of America. . . . It’s a strong and important friendship, and he knows that and I know that.”

Since that time, a steady stream of disturbing revelations about the Kingdom have emerged in the public record, illustrating time and again how the Saudis have played a central role in both the rise of Al Qaeda, and in inciting the global jihad (holy war) of which Al Qaeda is just a part.

http://www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com/

The article is lengthy and has four parts but well worth the time.

That’s right, call it a victory and get out.  Now that’s a plan we need to put in place.  But the big business news media want us to stay, we don’t control the oil yet!

Mission accomplished...in half way ! So when are GIs going home ?

Sounds like a “win win” situtaion.  Our boys need to be on the boat right behind them.  We’ve blown Iraq to heck and back and now we can leave them to fight their own civil war.  Violence will definately drop once they get that little shuffle over.

Sounds like a “win win” situtaion.  Our boys need to be on the boat right behind them.  We’ve blown Iraq to hell and back and now we can leave them to fight their own civil war.  Violence will definately drop once they get that little shuffle over.

This ship has already sunk. What we are seeing now is flounder, flotsam, and jetsam.