"Staying the Course" Doesn't Cut it Anymore...

Stardate 4898.2

"Five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that..." - Donald Rumsfeld, November 2002

CTV - Iraqi leaders call for pullout timetable

Reaching out to the Sunni Arab community, Iraqi leaders called for a timetable for the withdrawal of US led forces and said Iraq's opposition had a "legitimate right" of resistance.

I was beginning to wonder if it was just heat on the American homefront or if even Iraqis were getting tired of an occupation with no end in sight. Of course, the country has become a much more dangerous place to live since the occupation, what with the numbers of terrorists that have migrated into the country swelling dramatically, and the addition of insurgents or freedom fighters that are fighting against the occupation.

The communique - finalized by the Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni leaders Monday - condemned terrorism but was a clear acknowledgement of the Sunni position that insurgents sgould not be labelled as terrorists if their operations do not target innocent civilians or institutions designed to provide for the welfare of Iraqi citizens.

I am sure some attacks by insurgents do target such things, either by accident or coincidence, but I have to agree with what they are saying. The Insurgents are being rounded up and detained as Terrorists when in fact, they should be POWs. Of course, this is a very old arguement now, and would likely meet a lot of vitriolic resistance from certain readers and other folks, but even the Iraqi leaders are saying this now.

So now, the goal is to rebuild the Iraqi armed forces such that they are capable of dealing with the aftermath of a US withdrawal. They suggest the end of 2006 as the timetable for the complete removal of foreign forces.

More interesting is the mention of several points, including the release of inoocent peoples being detained without charge by US forces, and the immediate end to arbitrary raids and arrests without a documented court order.

I have found no comments yet by the US administration on this... though I suspect DICK will call them all traitors and unpatriotic.

Out of all of this, I think that the differentiation between "terrorist" and "insurgent" is a very valid point. After all, there were very few "terrorists" in the country before the US invaded. Of course, now, they will attack whatever and whomever they can to forward they're own agendas, whereas the insurgents' goal is to remove the occupying forces... Just like in France in the 1940's.

The invasion began on March 20th, 2003. The occupation has no end in sight.