Word: shying
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...half-baked attempt by Iraqi and U.S. forces to secure Baghdad-had failed. Privately, high-ranking military officials were saying that the situation on the ground in Iraq was now dire. Indeed, Bush's Iraq project and his Republican Party seemed to be spinning out of control simultaneously, with Shi'ites fighting Sunnis in the north (and rival Shi'ite militias fighting one another in the south) while, back home, neoconservatives fought supply-siders who, in turn, fought religious conservatives as the Democratic congressional insurgency appeared to gain strength...
...Sunni insurgency has successfully prevented the U.S. and its allies from stabilizing even Baghdad beyond the Green Zone, but it can never hope to restore the control that Saddam Hussein once had over the whole country. The Shi'ites are the dominant force in the elected government and have more men under arms (in their militias and in the government security forces) than do the Sunnis, but the Shi'ites are not really aligned with the U.S. (If anything, they're closer to Iran.) And as the U.S. has pushed back against the Shi'ites in the hope of dimming...
Cheney: There's no question what there is sectarian violence now, but remember how we got to sectarian violence: al Qaeda. That was their strategy to launch attacks against the Shi'as, to kill Shi'as until they could generate some kind of a response. And there's no question but what there's sectarian Shi'as-on-Sunni violence today. But just because it's tough doesn't mean it's not worth doing...
Cheney: Well, I talk to a lot of Iraqis, and the ones I talk with have been very grateful and expressed their gratitude. They also -- I think it's a measure of the extent to which they've been beaten down during Saddam's years in power, especially the Shi'as, who are the majority -- roughly 60 percent of the population, who are clearly very heavily engaged now in the new government, but who were denied their role all those years Saddam was in power, governed by a Sunni minority, if you will -- and so beaten down, especially after...
...Then the killings began. A couple of Sunnis were killed in a neighboring town. In retaliation, Sunnis killed about a dozen Shi'ite laborers. The Shi'ites then called in their militias from Baghdad, and set off an orgy of violence. At least 100 have been killed, and you can be sure there will be more attacks and counterattacks in the days and weeks ahead. The peace of Balad has forever been shattered...