BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 13 - With four months to go before nationwide elections in Iraq, the insurgency has grown more brazen and sophisticated, prompting American commanders to begin a series of military operations to regain control over large sections of the country lost in recent months.I'm sorry, but isn't this really old news? Aren't these headlines about a year old? Couldn't we have had these headlines even before the invasion? Winning a war like the one in Iraq is not military, it's winning the hearts and minds of the people on the street. You don't do that by shocking and awing women and children to death. When you go after insurgents with military might you kill women and children. When you kill women and children you create more insurgents and inflame Muslims all over the world.
But as the Americans and their allies raise the pressure on the insurgents, they are rapidly finding themselves in the classic dilemma faced by governments battling guerrilla movements: ease up, and the insurgency may grow; crack down, and risk losing the support of the population. The additional quandary facing the Americans is the need to break the deadlock before January, the self-imposed deadline for elections.
One of the multitude of justifications the Bush administration gave for invading Iraq was it was a hotbed of terrorists. It wasn't before the invasion but it certainly is now. Elections aren't the answer in Iraq.
"For sure, if the situation stays like this, it will be difficult to have free and honest elections," said Harith al-Dhari, the chairman of the powerful Association of Muslim Scholars, which represents hundreds of Sunni clerics around the country.A date for elections doesn't matter it's a date for U.S. withdrawal that does.
"But Iraqis do not rely so much on these elections," Mr. Dhari said. "The most important thing is for the Americans to assign a date for their withdrawal. That is the only solution."
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