Whose side are we on today in Iraq? Sunni, Shiite or ...? (Dedicated to Richard who gave me the idea on the phone today.)

Have you noticed how little mention of the Al-Qaeda there seems to be coming from anyone in the Bush Administration or the media in general? Indeed, this is a tough posting to key in because there's so little "real news" coming out of Iraq ... newscasts, blogs, op-eds, ... anything!

So let me reopen the issue.

We were originally told a number of reasons why we absolutely had to go into Iraq -- primarily the threat of WMDs and the presumed love affair between Osama and Saddam, but as the Administration slowly came clean with us on these original "reasons," we were then led to believe that our boys and girls were dying for the freedom of the Iraqi people themselves -- Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL). But liberation from whom? Saddam was by that time being dragged from a hole in the ground and the Republican Guard no longer existed.

We then began to hear of the terrible enmity between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq (to some extent true) and then (most recently), it was a matter of our selectively choosing one side or the other from day to day in their mutual massacres in a war that was quickly characterized as "sectarian violence." Interestingly, there was no such "sectarian violence" for thirty years under the brutal (he was!) dictator, Saddam Hussein.

At roughly 100 civilians dying each day in Iraq, we can say that Iraq is suffering a "9/11 scale massacre" at a rate of one per month. And for this, we have sacrificed about 2600 lives of our servicemen and women who are totally unaware of what they are really fighting for.

Now, only this weekend, I hear murmuring from our State Department that we will even accept "a little less" than complete democracy in any eventual settlement between the sectarian factions. That must make the marines and national guardsmen facing death every day jut a bit confused. But the murmurings are real!

Interesting.

Of course, even OIL (Operation Iraqi Liberation) has taken second seat to the newest boogie-man in the mix -- something referred to as the "Shiite Crescent" -- not that the US will ever take "total" sides with either the inside or outside of the "crescent," although the Shiites comprise roughly 60% of the population of Iraq -- wherin we continue to "stay the course.".

I lived in Riyadh and Dubai for the decade before moving here to the great State of Washington. Most of that time I was the political/military advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Saudi Air Force and can tell you rather forcefully exactly who it is that fears the "Shiite Crescent" most. Do you think that it's Israel or Lebanon -- or even the US ... related to its protection of the smooth flow of oil (lower case "oil" in this case)?

No, of course not! It's the unelected governments/kingdoms/dictatorships of the rest of the Middle East (United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Jordan, etc.) who are our longest term friends and allies (other than Israel, of course) in the region. They are the countries (largely Sunni) who fear the alliance of Iran, Syria, Iraq and Southern Lebanon -- not Israel, who has "the Bomb" and can protect itself if push comes to shove! Hellfire, they would have (unwisely) crushed Hezbollah (short term only) had Bush and Condi not told them to accept a ceasefire ... or else!

Our presence in Iraq is more likely unrelated to preventing a civil war in Iraq (current Administration excuse for "staying the course") than it is to preventing a "sectarian war" between and among nearly every nation in the Middle East.

How in Hell did we ever get in this crazy dilemma? Bush need look no further than the voices of his minders coming off the wires and wireless transmitters "hooked" to the speakers on the earpieces he wears when in public -- Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz (still!), and a few other lesser-known neocons still "trying" to run the show.

... and what a show it's becoming.

My brother, Richard, just might be correct -- this "Iranian connection" IS BIGGER than the federal court decision on NSA wiretapping that just came out of Detroit.

Ezekiel [38:5] just might be correct! What was that date, Richard? Oh yes .... August 22, 2006.