Word: mosul
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Iraq remains the most vocal and visible among Iraq's militants, however. Many Iraqi security officials, insurgency experts in Baghdad and Awakening leaders worry that the militants, who melted away during the U.S surge, may have reformed into smaller, yet increasingly lethal, movements in their existing havens of Mosul and Diyala province. Indeed, there is some fear that al-Qaeda may be infiltrating the Awakening...
...other words, Mosul has become a kind of controlled burn in Iraq that does not appear to be an imminent threat to the rest of the country or of great concern to the government of Iraq. If Iraqi officials were truly worried about the fate of Mosul, they would have by now launched a bid to gain full control of the city, much as they did in Basra in March 2008. So if Iraqi security forces appear capable of continuing to manage the insurgency in Mosul - even without a foreseeable victory there - then Iraqi and U.S. officials could reasonably calculate...
Moreover, if al-Maliki's government asks U.S. forces to stay in significant numbers in Mosul, any negotiated extension of the U.S. presence risks stoking political attacks from the Prime Minister's Shi'ite rivals. Any move by al-Maliki to allow U.S. forces to keep up major operations in Mosul may weaken his standing in parliamentary elections, which are expected to happen in December or January of next year...
Nothing about the strategic calculus unfolding now at high levels in Baghdad and Washington can offer much hope or comfort to the residents of Mosul, however. The Sunni insurgency has found its new, and perhaps permanent, home in Iraq and is highly unlikely to decamp on its own. That means Mosul, or large portions of it, will remain a scene of lawlessness and violence for some time to come, no matter what Iraqi and U.S. officials decide...
...trying to keep the peace in multiethnic Mosul...