U.S. warplanes attacked suspected militiamen wielding shoulder-fired rockets Saturday in the second day of fierce fighting between U.S. and Iraqi forces and Shiite gunmen south of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi officials and witnesses said.
I know a lot of people think we should go hammer and tongs against the Shia militias, but I don't agree. I've known for over a year that we must neutralize them, but we can't just destroy them at the risk of alienating the majority of the Shias. Some portion of the Shia oppose us, but a lot simply appreciate that the militias attack the hated Sunni Arabs and would not be sympathetic to a lengthy and bloody campaign against the militias which are viewed as their communities protectors.
But I don't think we need to do that. Most militias, I'd guess, are really interested in protecting their neighborhoods and are not the death squads or the pro-Iranian thugs. As Sadr remains in hiding, probably in Iran, the Iranians connection becomes more obvious and therefore many Arab Shias will be fine with taking out local killers in the pay of the Persians.
I have to assume that we've convinced a lot of militia leaders to stand down in Baghdad. Diwaniyah may be a place where Sadr's hard core are located to avoid the capital surge or perhaps they are Iranian thugs returning to Iraq after some training in Iran. Here we will go after them.
We must be ruthless with the minority of killers and Iranian puppets. The rest must be treated with kid gloves. I'm hoping this is one sign of our ability to distinguish between the groups.
