How many times have we heard, "As the Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down"? Well, Tom Lasseter of the McClatchy Newspapers, has some interesting interviews which illustrate the virtual impossibility of this ever happening. What is happening is that many of those who we are trying to get to stand up are, in fact, siding with the insurgents. A quote from a US officer, "Half of them are JAM. They'll wave at us during the day and shoot at us during the night."
Lasseter writes mainly of the Mahdi Army's success in infiltrating the Iraqi police and security forces. But, things have reached such a pass that you have to believe that this is happening all over Iraq.
This week's release of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq - the previous estimate, by the way, was issued more than two-and-a-half years ago - reinforces the conclusion that we are near the death throes of a country. It looks like it's either the three region solution or complete anarchy.
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