VICTORY... Iraqi Forces Defeat al-Sadr --Rally Against al-Sadr!
A HUGE VICTORY IN IRAQ
Iraqis Rally For Iraq!
A demonstrator holds a picture of Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during a protest in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad March 29, 2008. About 200 demonstrators held a rally to support the military operations in Basra and Maliki's government, in Diwaniya on Saturday. (REUTERS/Imad al-khozai)
Iraqi Forces defeated the Mahdi Army in Iraq.
MSNBC reported:
BAGHDAD - Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Sunday ordered his fighters off the streets nationwide and called on the government to stop raids against his followers and free them from prison.Bill Roggio has more on the victory.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki issued a statement calling the order “a step in the right direction” towards resolving six days of violence sparked by operations against al-Sadr's backers in the oil-rich southern city of Basra.
Al-Sadr’s nine-point statement was issued by his headquarters in the holy city of Najaf and broadcast through loudspeakers at Shiite mosques.
Demonstrators chant slogans during a protest in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad March 29, 2008. About 200 demonstrators held a rally to support the military operations in Basra and Maliki's government, in Diwaniya on Saturday.
(REUTERS/Imad al-khozai)
Ed Morrissey says the media lost... again.
The Iraqi Prime Minister went down to Basra during the fighting.
Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (L-front) shakes hands with tribal members in Basra March 29, 2008. (Iraqi Government Office/Reuters)
posted by Gateway Pundit at 3/30/2008 11:02:00 AM
14 Comments:
DANG IT! And just when CNN was starting to report on Iraq again! It's over so soon!
FYI, I want to post this bit of information from my husband, MSG Proctor, who is a subject matter expert in the Army on Religious Leader Engagements in the war (i.e., how to deal with imams, sheiks and clerics to win the war).
Moqtada al Sadr is one of the most misunderstood figures in the Iraq war.
Far from being a terrorist or even a jihadist, Sadr is a very serious Hojat al Islam (advanced student of Islam) with a most sincere approach to his religious faith. Sadr's Uncle was assassinated by Saddam in 1981 and Sadr's father, the Ayatollah Sadiq al Sadr was one of the most courageous clerics in Iraq who stood up to Saddam and was executed in 1999. Two of Moqtada's brothers were also murdered by Saddam's brutal and often godless regime.
Sadr is being completely consistent with Shia Islam is his uncompromising declaration that the Americans must leave Iraq. Sadr's Mahdi Army has defended Sadr city from Sunni insurgents and terrorists as well as provided substantial social support to impoverished Shiites.
Newsweek's sensationalist cover story is fatally flawed entertainment - not journalism. Without covering the background of the brutal and bloody oppression of Iraq's Shia by the Baath Party Saddamist machine and the catastrophic failure of America to protect Iraaq's majority Shia after the first Gulf War 1990-1991, it is impossible to understand Sadr.
Sadr, or how he is referred to by General Petraeus, Sayid Moqtada al Sadr (an honorific title acknowledging his descent from the Prophet Mohammed's family), has abandoned military operations (in all but the most necessary situations of self defense for his Shiite followers) in favor of theology. His says he now wants to fight with doctrine and scholarship. Sadr is studying in the Najaf Hawza (the massive Shiite seminary complex) to become an Ayatollah, a process that takes many years and intense scholarship efforts.
Unless one weighs in theological factors such as the Shiite belief in the 12th or "Hidden Imam" who is to return at the end of time to establish justice and brotherhood on the earth, one can only see the angry cleric with clenched fist and scowling visage. I am not a Muslim nor do I believe in Islam, but to paint such an insulting and inaccurate caricature of Sayid Moqtada al Sadr such as Newsweek's cover story will only hurt the US interests in the region.
Islam will outlive all our efforts to establish a democratic regime in Iraq, and any success by the US and Coalition partners will require a change of heart about Iraqi clerics who defacto run the country. Our own distorted and unconstitutional aversion to all things religious is backfiring on our missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Counterinsurgency requires the host nation, not the interventionists to win - on their terms, with their own cultural norms. We will never succeed in counterinsurgency operations in religious societies when we openly mock their religious leaders (and by extension, their religion). This may actually be contributing to the American body count; and wreckless American journalists may be fueling the very sincere efforts of some in Iraq to defend their belief in God.
Food for thought.
PS...Sadr a couple days ago told his militias to put down their arms and work through the political process. They didn't listen, making matters worse. So today al-Sadr has issued an order for them to stop the fighting.
It's the elements of his militias backed by Iran that are causing the real problems.
It's a "victory" if Maliki is forced to accept the terms that he refused to accept when Sadr offered them earlier this week?
Sadr is saying he'll stand down if Maliki backs down and stops trying to disarm the militias. If Maliki accepts, that means Maliki is admitting his attempt to crush Sadr has failed. How pathetic is it that Maliki's Iranian-backed thug government couldn't crush its political opponents even after they called in the U.S. army to help them?
We'll see what happens, but this is further proof of the failure of the surge: instead of creating reconciliation in Iraq, the U.S. just spent the last few days helping Iraqis slaughter other Iraqis. And this after violence has been going up in Iraq all month.
Bush probably likes this, because he's committed to American defeat. Those who want to avoid American defeat, on the other hand, want to pull out so that the civil war can finally end.
"Anonymous,"
And your evidence is....?
Cordial tip: if you want to be taken seriously at all, you'll come out from behind your "anonymous" handle."
Otherwise, we have every right to flush your ill-informed, fever-induced rantings down the Memory Hole where they rightfully belong.
Capisce, paisan?
Wouldn't it be better if al Sadr's militia became part of the solution for all of Iraq and become a legitimate force, instead of being thought of as al Sadr's militia. I would say that the militia should be dissolved, and those who want to be part of the legitimate military or police forces In Iraq should have the opportunity to do so, granted they meet the requirements. The Iranian members of the militia should be sent packing with lead in their pants.
But isn't this a game they play - calling a truce when they start losing only to come back and start trouble again later?
Good Thing that the violence has found a way to stop, even though it's not a all out victory but at least it's a starting point. Thanks also to Amy P.'s description of Sadr, I appreciate a thoughtful point of view.
American Media, esp. magazines have the Britney Spears complex, trying to sell what people want to read and having the most 'out there' stories are going to sell more magazines. I don't buy or read magazines.
And your evidence is....?
Cordial tip: if you want to be taken seriously at all, you'll come out from behind your "anonymous" handle."
His evidence is his ability to think. Unlike Gateway Pundit, "anonymous" above bothers to think about the implications of what he's reading (or read it completely.) So, if the point of this operation was to clear Basra of "militants", and in the end Basra is left full of Mahdi Army militants, then how exactly is that a victory for the government, Dawa and SIIC? Last time I checked, if you go on the offensive against someone and fail to drive them out of their territory, then you're the loser, right? Maybe you guys can explain that more clearly with your vaunted Risk and military-toys-in-the-sandbox experience.
So, are you going to take me seriously?
This is why al Sadr surrendered:
http://tinyurl.com/2ce6dg
Incredible firefight in Sadr City.
These are mostly Iraqi soldiers. The JAM simply can't withstand this level of firepower.
Maliki now has the upper hand. He commands armed forces that are approaching the level of the best the western world has to offer.
++
re: Bill Roggio has more on the victory.
Mahdi Army taking significant
casualties in Baghdad, South
[With the fifth day of fighting in Baghdad, Basrah and the South completed, the Mahdi Army has suffered major losses over the past 36 hours. The Mahdi Army has not fared well over the past five days of fighting, losing an estimated two percent of its combat power, using the best case estimate for the size of the militia.]
[The major political parties in the ruling Coalition remain united in supporting the offensive against the Mahdi Army and the Iranian-backed Special Groups cells. President Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barazani, the president of the Kurdish Regional Government reiterated their support for the operation on Friday, while Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki ratcheted up the rhetoric against the Shia terror groups.
Maliki called the Shia terrorists "worse than al Qaeda" and vowed to remain in Basrah until the operation is completed. "Our determination is strong ... those who break the law are punished, and those who draw their weapons in the face of the state are punished," Maliki said on Iraqi state television.
Muqtada al Sadr, the leader of the Iranian-backed Mahdi Army currently sheltering in Iran, has called on his militia to keep their weapons in defiance to Maliki's order, and but still calls for negotiated settlement to the fighting as well as civil disobedience. "Muqtada al Sadr asks his followers not to deliver weapons to the government," said Hassan Zargan, a Sadr aide. "Weapons should be turned over only to a government which can expel the (US) occupiers."]
[Seventy Mahdi Army and Special Groups fighters were killed in a series of clashes with US and Iraqi security forces. The fighting included engagements in and around Sadr City as well as a strike against a Mahdi Army rocket and mortar team in eastern Baghdad.]
[US and British warplanes have begun to conduct strikes against Mahdi Army positions inside Basrah, while the British forces have conducted counter-battery fire against Mahdi Army mortar teams. The Three British battlegroups at the Basrah airport, consisting of 650 men each, are said to be preparing to enter Basrah to support the Iraqi Army and police.]
[While there has been few press reports from Diwaniyah, several hundred residents felt the security situation was good enough to hold a rally in the center of the city. More than 200 demonstrators marched in support for Maliki's operation to uproot the Mahdi Army in Basra. Police and tribal militias were also seen patrolling the streets.]
[Iraqi security forces appear to have uprooted two large Mahdi Army networks in the city of Karbala and in Babil province. Iraqi police launched a major operation in Karbala on Friday night. Twelve Mahdi Army fighters were killed, 50 were wounded, and another 30 surrendered, Major General Raed Shakir Jawdat, the operations commander for Karbala told Voices of Iraq. Police also seized 25 missile launchers, 60 rifles, five mortars and a large amount of ammunition, Raed said.]
more + links @ link..
yahoowootyeehawyayehallelujahoohrah!! :+:
ps: Sadr is also an Iranian puppet..
==
Amy;
I'd take your hubby's take on Mookie more seriously if he had ever shown evidence of the intelligence or background required to be a "religious authority". I am a believer in validation by prediction, and the hypothesis that he's a posturing self-aggrandizing thug produces many more "hits" than the Shia-theologian one.
As for the respect for "religion", it's true that Islam is no worse than any other religion or group which espouses and uses violence and terror to try and take over the world! Oh, wait …
amy's husband's analysis is definitely worth reading to gain a better understanding of the overall politico-religious situation in post-Saddam Iraq.
That said, I still believe that General Sanchez was correct in his (unheeded) recommendation made about three years ago that Sadr needed to be either killed or captured.
As one of the other posters suggested, Sadr is a weasel that has a habit of fighting until things turn against him and then declaring a truce. (And we keep obliging him, which makes us -- in my view suckers.)
Xanthippas, there is no sign of any "thought" in those comments. They consist of
1. Misstatements of fact;
2. leaps to unwarranted conclusions and
3. pejorative adjectives used reflexively.
I could have predicted, or even written, those comments days before any of the events occurred. In fact, those comments reflect a common thread of stubborn belief that does not change regardless of facts. The comments are repeated endlessly and thoughtlessly, although the dates and names change.
LOL!
Xanskippy is back.
So, are you going to take me seriously?
Depends on what I am supposed to take "seriously".
I think you are seriously deluded, which is common with your ilk. I do think you have a serious case of BDS and probably some other serious emotional and mental problems. You do seem to have some serious issues with reality, too. That is not surprising seeing as you live in your parents basement in the "reality-based community".
Run back to the basement, hun, before I bust out the Cluebat(TM).
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