Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia Remains a Threat in Iraq

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/world/middleeast/21qaeda.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=iraqi%20qaeda%20group%20shifts&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 9:01 AM
Subject: re: Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia Remains a Threat in Iraq
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   So Iraqi Sunnis still consider the central government a hostile Shiite tool, and expect open hostilities to erupt between Sunni and Shia and between Sunni and Kurd when the foreign peace-keepers are gone. This isn't news, but perhaps it's necessary background to the war coverage to come.  What is missing is any effort to reconcile this reality with the bland assertions that the Petraeus strategy has succeeded. If this is the model for our Afghan strategy, we  will be stuck a peacekeepers there too until hell freezes over.

Barry Levine