Word: fallujah
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...years? In Syria, which has absorbed more than a million Iraqi refugees, you can see cosmetic transformations. Iraqi-accented Arabic is heard constantly in the cafés and streets of Damascus. Real estate prices have skyrocketed. Food prices are rising. There's even a neighborhood in the capital called Fallujah that's popular with Iraqis...
...sometimes joined them in the insurgency against the Americans and their allies. When Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army rose against the U.S. in the summer of 2004, it was supported by the Sunni insurgency. That fall some of al-Sadr's fighters joined Sunnis in the battle of Fallujah. Al-Sadr portrayed himself as a defender of Arabs, not Shi'ites alone. Even the hard-line Sunni clerics' group, the Association of Muslim Scholars, hailed him as an Iraqi hero; Sunni politicians spoke of a political alliance with the Mahdi Army...
Trying to convey the significance of leadership by example, panelists vividly recounted their experiences in the field. Remembering an accident in Fallujah in which a U.S. convoy was struck by a vehicle carrying a bomb, Sullivan expressed her wonder at the unwavering enthusiasm of American soldiers...
...thing driving al-Sadr and Iran together is us. From the beginning, al-Sadr has made common cause with anyone fighting the occupation. (In 2004, when U.S. troops were battling Sunni insurgents in Fallujah, al-Sadr sent them aid.) Americans worried during the Vietnam War that if we left, Hanoi would become a puppet of its wartime patron, Beijing. Instead, four years after the U.S. evacuated Saigon, Vietnam and China were at war. When American troops are on your doorstep, it's easy to make common cause. But when they leave, deep-seated rivalries often re-emerge. Our occupation...
...worst-case scenario would be a dragged-out battle that produced high civilian casualties and ignited anti-U.S. anger among Shi'ite masses--just as the battle of Fallujah did among Sunnis in 2004. Sadr's forces could also melt away and bet that the U.S. will pull back again. It's not a bad gamble: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says the surge isn't likely to last past August, in part because of waning public support for the war. On a just-completed trip to Baghdad, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh told al-Maliki that Americans...