On the Frontiers of Freedom in Iraq

Jazz has a good post at MEJ this morning on the mess in the Sunni areas of Iraq. Juan Cole has some additional details and some history.

Most Americans do not realize that Fallujah is celebrated in Iraqi history and poetry for its defiance of the British in the Great Rebellion of 1920. The 1920 revolution against the British is key to modern Iraqi history. One of the guerrilla groups taking hostages named itself the "1920 Revolution Brigades." Western journalists who don't know Iraqi history have routinely mistranslated the name of this group.

Professor Cole points out the the Iraqis don't have enough security forces to maintain the peace and security and with the outbreaks in Mosul the Americans are streched thin.

"The most immediate concern for the interim government is manpower. Iraq has no more than eight battalions of the newly trained troops, whose main job is to occupy cities after U.S. forces defeat insurgents. Duty in Samarra and Fallujah, which have about a half million people between them, already was stretching that force thin. Adding duty in Mosul "means you're operating right out on the edge of what forces you have -- Iraqi forces," the U.S. official said.

American forces may be stretched thin as well. A battalion deployed outside Fallujah raced back to its Mosul base when insurgents struck, attacking in groups as large as 50 at a time, numbers not previously seen in the city, said Lt. Col. Paul Hastings of Task Force Olympia, the brigade that in February replaced a much larger unit, the 101st Airborne Division."

There is a real danger that the Sunnis will boycott the election. This is making the Kurds nervous since without the Sunnis there will be nothing to keep the Shiites from taking complete control. That would be like having the Radical Christian Right take control of all four branches of the US government. Oh wait, that's happened!!!!!!