or is it because they're ambivalent and are only after a paycheck
There is something to that, but remember that the Iraqi police were weak under Saddam too (don't confuse them with the Mukhabarat or the Special Republican Guard) and they've had only a few week's training.
The real problem with Iraq is that it needs what it can't get, about 5 years of unquestioned American rule to set it up for sovreignty. Everybody is trying to do everything too fast, and because they never had a chance to defeat their enemies in battle, must combat the hit-and-run tactics now.
100 luke warm supporters who aren't willing to risk their lives to help you are weaker than the 10 that are willing to risk their lives to kill you
It is not an easy situation, esp. when the neighbors are adding to those 10 as fast as they can. However, there is little choice. Too much of the discussion has the flavor of, "it's insurgents! RUN!". That is simple-minded defeatism. Counter-insurgency wars are like other wars, they must be fought, they can be won, lost, or arrive at a negotiated settlement. Their outcomes are not inevitable beforhand.
We do know that the majority of Iraqis a) don't want the Americans to leave, knowing it will mean civil war, b) don't support al Sadr (his supporters are a small minority even among the Shia), c) don't support Zarqawi or Saddam's thugs in Fallujah either. There is no choice now but to put down the insurgencies. |
