Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl's ... battalion ... the Sunni enclave of Amiriyah. [snip]
"We're going after al-Qaeda," a leading local imam said, Kuehl recalled. "What we want you to do is stay out of the way."
After a bit, Kuehl got the point and the rest is on
the front page of the Washington Post. When will his commander in chief understand ? To destroy al Qaeda in Iraq we have to stay out of the way.
Actually the real plan is to arm Sunni insurgents who are now fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq. Arming both sides of a civil war does not sound like an ideal strategy, but it sure beats fighting against both sides in a civil war.
At the end of the article, there is a pessimistic view
The tank driver, Spec. Estevan Altamirano, 25, expressed skepticism about his new partners.
"'Pretty soon they run out of al-Qaeda, and then they're going to turn on us,' he said."
That was the best quote Joshua Partlow could get to prove he is a reporter not a cheer leader. The down side is that after a bit of US forces getting out of the way, the Sunni insurgents will run out of al Qaeda. Hmmm maybe when they run out of al-Qaeda we can leave. Oh no, silly me, that would mean al-Qaeda wins (except for the little problem of all being dead).
