If George Will is right that the Baath is planning a big October offensive, it is being planned in al-Anbar Province and may be launched from there.
Here's what George Will said...
So does sovereignty reside with the prime minister whose will evidently commands U.S. commanders? Or with those commanders who curb the prime minister's will?
A house so divided cannot stand. If it is the prime minister's will, or that of Iraq's embryonic democratic institutions, to conduct with insurgent factions negotiations that strip the Iraqi state of an essential attribute of statehood - a monopoly on the legitimate exercise of violence - the U.S. presence will swiftly become untenable.
Untenable even before what may be coming before November: an Iraqi version of the North Vietnamese Tet offensive of 1968.
To say that the coming offensive will be by "Baathists" is, according to one administration official, akin to saying "Nazis" when you mean "the SS" - the most fearsome of the Nazis.
Such an offensive could make Sadr's insurgency seem a minor irritant. And it could unmake a presidency, as Tet did.
A house so divided cannot stand. If it is the prime minister's will, or that of Iraq's embryonic democratic institutions, to conduct with insurgent factions negotiations that strip the Iraqi state of an essential attribute of statehood - a monopoly on the legitimate exercise of violence - the U.S. presence will swiftly become untenable.
Untenable even before what may be coming before November: an Iraqi version of the North Vietnamese Tet offensive of 1968.
To say that the coming offensive will be by "Baathists" is, according to one administration official, akin to saying "Nazis" when you mean "the SS" - the most fearsome of the Nazis.
Such an offensive could make Sadr's insurgency seem a minor irritant. And it could unmake a presidency, as Tet did.
And I have no idea where the idea of this Baath attack comes from. It could be true. It could be CIA. It could be disinformation - fear mongering.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
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