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Iraq Fighting Underscores Power Struggle

Why does Bush keep pushing a strong centralized government in Iraq? Does anyone think this plan will work?

HP-For once, George Bush’s open-faced incomprehension - at Nouri al-Maliki’s decision to set off a civil war inside Iraq’s Shia community - seems entirely appropriate. When the American President admitted he did not know why the Iraqi Prime Minister had launched an offensive in Basra saying, ‘I’m not exactly sure what triggered the Prime Minister’s response’, he was not alone.

The consequences of the decision to send 15,000 Iraqi troops, and as many policemen, into Basra has been the destruction of a nine-month-old ceasefire from Moqtada al-Sadr’s al-Mahdi Army. In just a few days it has swept back onto the streets in Kut, Hilla, Amara, Kerbala, Nasiriyah, and Diwaniya, as well as into Sadr City in Baghdad, where militiamen have been raining rockets and mortars on the Green Zone…

…Meanwhile, in Basra, British troops have been supporting the Iraqi troops who have been struggling to take ground against the Iranian-backed militia. American jets have been in action supporting the Iraqi army and there is even talk of US troops being sent south into what has been a British-run zone. The ceasefire with al-Sadr has been an essential part of the success of US general David Petraeus’s ’surge’ - the deployment of an extra 28,000 American troops into Baghdad and nearby cities. Assured of quiet on the Shi’ite front, US forces have been free to concentrate on battling al Qaeda and Ba’athist insurgents among the Sunni community.

Petraeus is due to testify before the American Congress in two weeks’ time, where he was expected to show his favourite slide - a graphic illustration of the steady decline in fighting and terror attacks since the surge. A new slide will now have to be prepared, showing an upturn in violence.

A Deal With Satan

THE TRUTH ABOUT IRAQ!

Posted by JohnKonop on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 4:00 am | under Uncategorized | |RSS 2.0 feed | Comments and pings closed. |

12 Responses to “Iraq Fighting Underscores Power Struggle”

  1. JohnKonop Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 4:51 am

    FROM NYT

    Iraqi Offensive Revives Debate for Campaigns

    The heavy fighting that broke out last week as Iraqi security forces tried to oust Shiite militias from Basra is reverberating on the presidential campaign trail and posing new challenges and opportunities to the candidates, particularly Senator John McCain.

    The fierce fighting — and the threat that it could undo a long-term truce that has greatly helped to reduce the level of violence in Iraq — thrust the war back into the headlines and the public consciousness just as it had been receding behind a tide of economic concerns. And it raised anew a host of politically charged questions about whether the current strategy is succeeding, how capable the Iraqis are of defending themselves and what the potential impact would be of any American troop withdrawals.

    Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, has made the Iraq war a centerpiece of his campaign; he rode to success in the primary season partly on his early advocacy of the troop buildup. The battle in Basra broke out as he returned from a trip to Iraq this month, proclaiming that violence there was down and that the troop escalation was working.

    READ MORE

  2. JohnKonop Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 5:49 am

    FYI

    FROM NPR

    Iraq

    Rebel Cleric Urges Followers to Drop Arms

    In a surprise announcement, rebel Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers to put down their weapons Sunday. In response, the Iraqi government announced that it will lift an around-the-clock curfew in many parts of the capital Monday.

    Andrea Seabrook talks with Lourdes Garcia Navarro about why the rebel cleric might have made the announcement now and how the Mahdi Army is responding.

    LISTEN

  3. JohnKonop Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 5:53 am

    FYI

    FROM FOX

    Iraqi Government Welcomes Al-Sadr’s Orders to Pull Fighters From Streets

    BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Iraqi government has welcomed an order by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to pull his fighters off the streets.

    Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told FOX News that the decision is “positive and responsive.”

    Al-Dabbagh said the move would “help the government confront those who are violating the law” and that it would help to “isolate those who are trying to destroy the government effort”.

    He said Iraqi security operations in Basra would not end until the “criminal elements” operating there are removed.

    Also praising al-Sadr’s orders was Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who said it was “a step in the right direction.”

    Al-Sadr ordered those loyal to him and his Mahdi Army Sunday off the streets in Basra and cities across Iraq, saying that whoever carries arms against Iraqi forces is not one of his followers.

    Al-Sadr also called on the government to stop what he calls haphazard raids and release security detainees who haven’t been charged.

    Sunday’s offer was contained in a nine-point statement issued by his headquarters in Najaf.

    READ MORE

  4. onceamarine Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    Unless eliminated, Moqtada al-Sadr will be the next and the worst Sadam Hussein.

    Great video. Makes you wonder why Americans cannot do this kind of 4reporting. Ineptness is our middle name when confronted with good reporting versus playing stupid politics.

    Always have admired the British candidness although their decisions are sometimes wrong. Good going Konop.

  5. bb Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 3:02 pm

    A limey discounts the importance of elections and a constitution in a country trying to find freedom…hmmmm, how’d that work out for bloody ol England the last time their pompous asses ignored a revolution?

  6. JohnKonop Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 3:58 pm

    Bart

    You think Al-Sadr’s government rule is freedom?

  7. JohnKonop Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 4:05 pm

    FROM NYT

    McCain ‘Surprised’ by Iraq Developments

    As he launched a tour here designed to highlight his family’s long tradition of military service, Senator John McCain said Monday that he was surprised by the latest turn of events in America’s current war in Iraq.

    Mr. McCain said he had not expected Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to try to oust Shiite militias from Basra without consulting the Americans, and that he was troubled by some of the demands that were made by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr as part of his offer of a ceasefire after the militias held off the American-supported assault. And he tied some of the current problems to the Bush administration’s old strategy there.

    “Maliki decided to take on this operation without consulting the Americans,’’ Mr. McCain said on his campaign bus as it rolled through downtown Meridian, saying that the move showed independence but that he had expected the military to focus on Mosul.

    “I just am surprised that he would take it on himself to go down and take charge of a military offensive,’’ he said. “I had not anticipated that he would do that.’’
    “I think he felt – which many of us had talked about many times—that Basra was an important part of the country, it was not under the control of the government, we all know that varying mafia-like factions, Shiite militias, control different parts of it,’’ he said. “The police are corrupt. So he decided he wanted to address the issue. And whether he should have or not, I think we will see what the ultimate results are. But it certainly shows a degree of independence.’’

    “Apparently they have a ceasefire, and Sadr has made some demands, some of them certainly not agreeable, and also apparently there are some Shiite militias that are not under Sadr’s control,’’ he said. “So it’s still a very fluid situation, and we’ll see what happens in the next 24, 48 hours or so.’’

    And Mr. McCain, an ardent supporter of the war who then faulted the Bush administration’s post-invasion strategy for deploying too few troops, said that some of the current problems can be traced to the failures of that earlier strategy.

    “This goes back to when we didn’t have enough boots on the ground, after the initial military success,’’ he said. “Iranian clerics moved into the region, Iranian influence moved into southern Iraq, and we basically, and the British, did not do a great deal to prevent them. These are the penalties we continue to pay for the very bad mishandling of the war for nearly four years while they became solidly entrenched.”

    Asked if the Basra campaign had backfired, he said: “Apparently it was Sadr who asked for the ceasefire, declared a ceasefire. It wasn’t Maliki. Very rarely do I see the winning side declare a ceasefire. So we’ll see.’’

    Then Mr. McCain arrived at a theater in downtown Meridian, where he pivoted from talking about the current war to the wars decades ago that his father and grandfather, both admirals in the Navy, fought, and how their examples molded him.

    “As a boy, my family legacy, as fascinating as it was to me, often felt like an imposition,’’ he said. “I knew from a very early age that I was destined for Annapolis and a career in the Navy. In reaction, I often rebelled in small and petty ways to what I perceived as an encroachment on my free will.’’
    “I concede that I remember with affection the unruly passions of youth, and how they governed my immature sense of honor and self-respect. As I grew older, and the challenges to my self-respect grew more varied and serious, I was surprised to discover that while my sense of honor had matured, its defense mattered even more to me than it did when it was such a vulnerable thing that any empty challenge threatened it.”

    “Like most people, when I reflect on the adventures and joys of youth, I feel a longing for what is lost and cannot be restored. But though the happy pursuits of the young prove ephemeral, something better can endure, and endure until our last moment of life. And that is the honor we earn and the love we give when we work and sacrifice with others for a cause greater than our self-interest. For me that cause has long been our country. I am a lucky, lucky man to have found it, and am forever grateful to those who showed me the way. What they gave me was much more valuable and lasting than the tribute I once paid to vanity.”

    “I am the son and grandson of admirals,’’ he said. “My grandfather was an aviator; my father a submariner. They were my first heroes, and their respect for me has been one of the most lasting ambitions of my life. They gave their lives to their country, and taught me lessons about honor, courage, duty, perseverance and leadership that I didn’t fully grasp until later in life, but remembered when I needed them most. I have been an imperfect servant of my country for many years. But I am their son, and they showed me how to love my country, and that has made all the difference for me, my friends, all the

  8. captain_menace Says:
    March 31st, 2008 at 6:20 pm

    The last words of the video clip say it all… “I don’t know if we can even talk about it?”

  9. bb Says:
    April 1st, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    John,

    I think the country of Iraq has an opportunity to escape tyranny.

    Just as the founding of this country required bloodshed, sacrifice and controversy, the same can be expected in Iraq.

    I know it’s hard for you defeatist surrendercrats to grasp, but what if the plan actually works with Iraq eventually becoming a semi-stable, democratic government? What if enough people come together to demand freedom from oppressive leaders? Then scumbags like Al Sadr will have to find another place to raise hell.

  10. JohnKonop Says:
    April 1st, 2008 at 3:03 pm

    Bart

    How when the rulers are like Moqtada al-Sadr?

  11. ApolloSpeaks Says:
    April 2nd, 2008 at 7:15 am

    ” A semi-stable democratic Iraq” will nevertheless be an anti-Western Islamic republic based on the Koran, in league with theofascist Iran and its revolutionary goal of making Shiitism supreme over the Middle East and all of Islam.

    See my essay The Rise of Nuclear Iran at apollospeaks.blogtownhall.com

  12. Bill Says:
    April 3rd, 2008 at 10:41 pm

    The Shia community is behind everything. And on top of the oil too. Those bastards.