Ron Davies - Point 1:
Ron Davies - 12 Dec 06 - 11:36 PM

"Uh, Teribus--will you ever start reading your own questions? Even when you provide your own answers, you don't seem to notice.

But just to pick one question of yours that actually makes sense--a major step forward: Why aren't young Sunnis signing up for the Iraqi army or police? As you noted yourself, even trying to do so would be very dangerous. Do you by some chance recall the attacks on young men lining up for such jobs?"

In ALL reports of such attacks on Police or Army recruitment centres Ron the attacks were carried out by insurgent groups - SUNNI ARABS.

From the same post:

"You are falling into the old military trap (being one of the old military, it's not surprising)--you think every problem can be solved by military means."

Just demonstrates your propensity to read what you want to read - In actual fact I have stated exactly the opposite on many occasions - Ron you really should work on your english comprehension skills.

Of course at bottom it has to be a political solution, and one in which the USA has no say. The Arab Sunni's, or more correctly those "leaders" who instruct the Arab Sunni's in what to say and think, decided very early on to have no part in the emergent political process. Those same people now complain that they have been left behind - their choice then, it's their choice now, what they have to do is catch up, what they have to do is actively engage. They cannot do that, Ron, with any degree of credibility if they are going to talks during the day and making bombs for insurgents and sheltering them and their activities by night. It is one of those things where a decision has to be made, same thing happened in Ireland, where Bertie Ahern stated that Sinn Fein would never form any part of government while the IRA remained under arms, because you cannot have anyone engaged in a democractic process who maintains a private army. What they are doing at the moment is they have issued a list of what the Government must do to get them to the table - That Ron is blackmail, and no Government should submit to it.

They want employment in the Arab Sunni provinces of Iraq? Then they should turn their backs on the insurgents. Last bomb went off in the Kurdish area of Iraq which is mixed (Both Sunni and Shia) two years ago - Erbil is now a tourist destination, there is no shortage of jobs in either the Kurdish North of the country or in the predominantly Shia South - Only in the Arab Sunni Provinces where the insurgency has it's base.

As far as I am aware activities relating to purging the Iraqi Police Force and Army of Shia Militia members is already underway. Has it been completed? no these things take time, but it is incorrect to say that the problem has not been recognised and that nothing is being done about it.

As for the revenue from Iraq's natural resources, the deal struck meant that the Arab Sunni provinces got whatever share of the oil revenue that they received before (the bulk of Iraq's oil coming from existing fields). New fields and exploration would be subject to a different division of revenue as the "Federal Areas" would take a share in the costs of exploration and development in partnership with the oil companies. All of that can be up for negotiation at a later date, at the moment that is not a priority, nor should it be. What the "leaders" of the Arab Sunni minority need to hoist onboard and quickly as possible is that if they do not engage in the political process (difficult as it is for those "leaders" as it will involve a bit of a U-turn with subsequent "loss of face") they will be left astern, with no other hope save their doomed insurrection, which in the ensuing "civil war" will be crushed. It is entirely their decision and they must accept the consequences of whatever it is they decide.