An hour or so ago I read that the surge was about to be diminished, because it is unsustainable, and posted “Losing in Iraq, part oneâ€
I guess Sadr read it also, for a few minutes ago I read that the Green Zone is being shelled and the oil is being cut off. I read it and posted, Sadr read it and started shelling.
The major alternatives:
- Declare victory, since we aimed to slaughter Al Quaeda (radical Sunni) and have done so, and get the hell out, leaving Iraq’s oil in the hands of our victorious enemies (radical Shia) who will use fund attacks on us, as radical Shia are already doing in Iran.
- Let our enemies get the oil, but make sure that there is unending war between our various enemies, so that they spend the oil money killing each other instead of us.
- Slaughter enough radical Shia, and their families, that the remainder decide to play nice and let someone have the oil who will use it buy whiskey and whores, rather than rockets and bombs
- Ethnically cleanse Basra and Khorramshahr, and staff the oil ports with non Muslim workers imported from all over the world.
Of course, if implementing any of these options, will need to do so with fewer troops, but the last two options would seem to require quite a few troops.
The above was posted in 2008-03-28.
Revision added a year later:
Although the the British failed to control the oil, eventually the elected Iraqi govenment, with US assistance, recovered control of the oil, contrary to my expectation, which was that the oil would wind up in the hands of our enemies.
This, denying the oil to our enemies, constitutes victory in Iraq, and was attained without the extremely destructive measures I thougth necessary. But I retreat to the position, that victory is costing too much, and a few more victories like this will result in us all praying towards Mecca five times a day.