[Texgreen] Iraq update

[Roger Baker]

 From Juan Cole there is this:

How bad the situation is in Iraq is suggested by this email I just  
got from a professional who used to be in Iraq but now is in a nearby  
country:

' It is desperate in Iraq, worse then ever and there is no end in  
sight. I had lunch with [a former high ranking medical educator in  
Iraq] two days ago. [He]noted that Iraq no longer has neuro-surgeons,  
no cardiac surgeons, few pediatric doctors - they are all gone,  
killed or fled to neighboring countries like him. He was given seven  
days to get out or be killed. He is one of the lucky ones. He and his  
family have an opportunity for a new life in the US. But what about  
all the others. Where are they to go?

Another friend, a Sunni sheikh of the Shammar tribe noted to me that  
thousands of former officers are prepared to assault the G[reen] Z 
[one]. It is no longer a matter of can they do it, they are only  
mulling over the timing. The breach of the Green Zone security the  
other day was a test of their ability to get in, and not a real  
attempt at a coup, though it is reported as such. Every Iraqi I talk  
to says unambiguously that the resistance attached to the former  
regime would take out the Shiite militias with barely a fight, but  
that the resistance will not commit wholesale revenge against the  
Shiite population. They just want to get rid of the "carpet baggers"  
from Iran. '

http://www.juancole.com/