U.S. and Iraqis Are Wrangling Over War Plans
John Burns

BAGHDAD, Jan. 14 — Just days after President Bush unveiled his new war plan for Iraq, the heart of the effort — a major push to secure the capital — faces some of its fiercest resistance from the very people it depends on for success: Iraqi government officials.

American military officials have spent days huddled in meetings with Iraqi officers in a race to turn blueprints drawn up in Washington into a plan that will work on the ground in Baghdad. With the first American and Iraqi units dedicated to the plan as part of the new troop buildup due to be in place within weeks, time is short for setting details of what American officers view as the decisive battle of the war.

But the signs so far have unnerved some Americans working on the plan, who have described a web of problems, ranging from a contested chain of command to issues of how to protect American troops deployed in some of Baghdad’s most dangerous districts, that some fear could hobble the effort before it begins.

First among these is a Shiite-led government that has been so dogmatic in its attitude that the Americans worry that they will be frustrated in their aim of cracking down equally on Shiite and Sunni extremists, a strategy that President Bush has declared central to the plan.

“We are implementing a strategy to embolden a government that is actually part of the problem,” said an American military official in Baghdad closely involved in negotiations over the plan, expressing frustration. “We are being played like a pawn.” ...

Hat tip Allahpundit, who notes here:

Sunni jihadis and Shiite militias are half the problem. The other half is the Iraqi government, which is now so distrusted by the American military that the Baghdad operation is being organized with a novel command structure — including a “crisis counsel” comprised of Maliki, Iraqi ministers, and Gen. Petraeus in supreme command of the Iraqi military and Iraqi generals being paired with American babysitters — to make sure Sunni and Shiite commanders don’t go renegade.

... A major worry among the Americans is that their own efforts to clear areas of the city will be used by militia groups, or even by the Shiite-dominated government forces, as an opening to grab territory and to seed the newly cleared area with their own allies. The concern centers on both Sunni and Shiite armed groups, but particularly on the Shiites. “We are doing their bidding unknowingly,” one American military official said.

“You go clean the area, but then it’s backfilled by JAM,” he said, in a reference to the Mahdi Army, the militia of the renegade Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr. “That’s the heart of the problem.” ...

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Don't miss John Werntz's worthy related post here.

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Today, the war in Iraq is over
Commissar

And the Shiites have won.

U.S. and Iraqis Are Wrangling Over War Plans

From now on, it’s all just for show. If any war-supporting bloggers want to pretend this can still come out differently, they are delusional. The original war we started in Iraq, the war to Destroy WMDs, Remove Saddam, and Instill Democracy, is finished. Done. Future histories may note the Ides of January, 2007 as the official end of that war. ...

No one, anywhere on the planet, including those of us who might be potential victims of terrorism, have more stake in defeating the Sunni insurgents in Iraq than the men who comprise the Iraqi government. And they, in a surely accurate estimation of their self-interest, do not need us. They can handle the Sunnis on their own. Not according to rules that we might like, but we are, in fact, irrelevant.

Today, victory in Iraq belongs to the Shiites.