The New York Times is reporting that, contrary to “repeated statements by the Bush administration and American officials in Iraq”, U.S. intellgience officials “are confronting a broad-based Shiite uprising that goes well beyond supporters of one militant Islamic cleric who has been the focus of American counterinsurgency efforts.”
At the same time we are fighting to retake control of Kut and Najaf in Iraq from our former Shiite allies, the Karzai government in Afghanistan is attempting to retake control of the capital of a northern province that has been over-run by a group of our former allies in the Northern Alliance.
“General Abdul Rashid Dostum/’s largely ethnic Uzbek militia invaded Faryab from neighboring provinces on Wednesday, prompting the central government to send national troops there on Thursday in an attempt to maintain control,” Reuters reports.
Wolfowitz had some naive praise for General Dostum and his commitment to national unity in July 2002:
Our meeting in town … was with General Dostum and Ustad Muhakkik and the Governor. I would say basically we had two messages. The first message was appreciation for the role that they played in liberation of Afghanistan and particularly the liberation of this part of Afghanistan.
…
At the same time I said to him that in some ways the challenges of war are easier than the challenges of peace, because in war you know who the enemy is and peace is more vague. … And I must say that certainly every thing I heard from all of them suggested, I think, a real appreciation of what we were saying and of the importance of trying to solve their problems and not create new ones.
Seems like he had something very similar to say about Iraq. Our former allies in two major military operations that are widely considered crucial to American security have switched sides. The Vulcans just may be the worst foreign policy team in American history.
