Iraqi Government Fires 1300 Troops;
Muqtada Pledges Defiance of US
The Iraqi government has discharged 1300 officers, troops and policemen who declined to fight the Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr in late March. Most of them had been in Basra and Kut. Although the Iraqi and US governments are trying to spin the dismissals as having to do with laziness or cowardice, it seems obvious from Tina Susman's reporting for the LAT that in fact they sympathized with the Sadr Movement. Hint: These 1300 are not the only ones.
Muqtada al-Sadr slapped away the hand offered him by US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who had said Mutqtada al-Sadr was not considered an enemy by the US as long as he joined the political process. The Arab Times reports, "Radical cleric Muqtada Sadr says he will not enter any political process that would allow US forces to remain in Iraq. Sadr also denounces US Defense Secretary Robert Gates as a terrorist and says he will never work with Iraq’s occupiers."
The Iraqi cabinet prepared a draft of a law forbidding parties with militias from running in the provincial elections scheduled for October. The measure is actually in an ironic way a victory for the Sadr Movement at which it is aimed, since originally Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had intimated that he could exclude the Sadrists from running by fiat. They pointed out that only parliament could bar parties from running. The question is whether, with summer fast approaching, parliament will be able to achieve a quorum for passing the bill into law, and whether al-Maliki has the votes to put it through. The bill is the height of hypocrisy, since all major parties in parliament have paramilities, especially al-Maliki's current main partner, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (see yesterday's posting on it and its strong relationship to Iran). ISCI denials that Badr any longer exists or has been wholly incorporated into government security forces are a Big Lie.
Al-Zaman reports in Arabic that US and Iraqi forces making incursions into Sadr City in east Baghdad have taken 12 of 79 neighborhoods in the labyrinthine slum of 3 million persons. These districts are near to the gateways connecting Sadr City to the rest of the capital.
Susman also gets a great story about corrupt financier and notorious liar Ahmad Chalabi in Sadr City:
' Inside a small house off a dirt alley, hundreds of women, many of them sobbing, wailing and beating their chests in sorrow, were mourning the slaying Friday of a high-ranking Sadr aide, Riyadh Noori, who was gunned down in the holy city of Najaf by unknown assailants.
Ahmad Chalabi, the government's point man for restoration of essential services in Baghdad, joined Noori's father, two brothers and hundreds of others in a tent reserved for male mourners.
"They were angry at their loss, they were angry at the situation, and they were angry that five years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, people are still getting killed," Chalabi said later.
After leaving the mourners, Chalabi visited a warehouse in Sadr City that is supposed to hold food rations distributed monthly to residents. There, he faced an enraged man who stood inches from Chalabi's face and accused the government of failing its people.
"We voted for Maliki! How come he's not protecting us?" Hayoun Hamid Amir yelled.
"He's one of you," Chalabi replied calmly.
"No, he's not!" Amir screamed back.
He later accused Iraqi and U.S. forces of firing indiscriminately in residential areas of Sadr City. '
Al-Hayat, writing in Arabic, said that security specialists from Iraq's neighbors met on Sunday. There were said to have been tensions between Iraq and Iran over Iran's alleged role in training and arming militiamen in Iraq. Iran shot back complaints that Iraq was still harboring the Mujahidin-i Khalq terror organization, which has conducted bombings inside Iran. Kuwait requested an end to violations of its border by Iraqis.
McClatchy reports political violence on Sunday:
'Baghdad
Around 10:00 a.m. Iraqi security forces detonated under control two bombs which were planted in Ferdows intersection in downtown Baghdad.
Two policemen were injured in an IED explosion that targeted their patrol near the national theater in Karrada neighborhood in downtown Baghdad around 12:00 p.m.
Around 4:00 p.m. two mortar shells hit the green zone.
Police found tow [sic] bodies in Baghdad today. The first body was found in Zayuna neighborhood and the other body was found in Saidiyah neighborhood.
Diyala
A civilian was killed and another was injured in a bomb explosion in Abo Saida area east of Baquba city around 10:00 a.m.
A civilian was killed in al Aswad area north of Baquba city around 11:00 a.m.
Kirkuk
Two members of awakening councils were injured seriously in a bomb explosion that targeted their bus near Wahid Huzairan area in south Kirkuk on Sunday morning.
A member of awakening council was killed in a bomb explosion that targeted his patrol in Dirsh village south of Kirkuk city on Sunday morning.
Three members of awakening council were wounded in a bomb explosion that targeted their patrol in Kharabat Rot village south of Kirkuk on Sunday morning.
A bomb exploded near the gate of an employee in the directorate of health in Kirkuk city causing material damages only.
Anbar
The deputy of the local council in Falluja town Qasim Mashkoor and his 11 years old son were injured seriously when an IED attached to their car exploded. The incident took place in Nowab al Thobat neighborhood in downtown Falluja town around 7:15 p.m.
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 4/14/2008 06:35:00 AM
14 Comments:
The Sadr Current may benefit from the ban in other ways too.
They do have two thorny problems which this can solve for them: 1) They say they are anti-secterian but the Sadr Current is secterian by definition. 2) Although they claim that the death squads who killed thousands of Sunnis in 2006 were imposters, not many believe them.
So if a new party appears, let's call it The Iraq Nationalist Party for like-minded Iraqis regarless of sect and ethnicity then the Sadr leaders can 'defect' to it: they are anti-secterian, right? They also have no right to stand as Sadrists because it is banned.
Such a party will have a bigger base than the Sadr Current since it will include large numbers of Sunnis; Turkmen; Christians; Yezedis; and secularists. Nobody can accuse it of past crimes either: it is brand new. And above all: no militia!
The ban can also be used to hit their rivals with, since they have a large volume of evidence on the Badr and other militias, so they can seek a ban on them.
Has there been any extensive blog commentary on "Bush's War" by PBS? I remember seeing the second part describing Chalabi as basically an unknown, but it seems to me that Riverbend described him as very widely known in Iraq as a thief and a swindler. I've seen a bit of commentary here and there, but not much.
There are reports that Ayatollah Sistani is incapacitated, and perhaps near death. That would explain his silence during the recent crises.
If he dies, what next? My understanding is that his successor will likely not be Iraqi. How would this affect Iraqi politics?
If you want to understand what's really happening in Iraq, watch the movie "Red Dawn".
I can't read arabic, and I don't know anything about the political leanings of Al-Zaman, but the claim of the US having "taken" 12 neighborhoods in Sadre City sounds like the usual bull**** to me.
How is the US going to "take" ANYTHING from an opponent that is never going to stand and fight?
If Sadre's forces follow the usual pattern, they'll resist as long as they can without taking unacceptable losses, and then they'll go away.
And the US will claim to have "won" another battle, "taken" another town, and so on.
You can't "win" in an illegal and immoral occupation. When the rest of the world hears about Iran "meddling" in Iraq they must laugh till they cry. By what standard, when the US is actively occupying Iraq, and calling that legit, could ANYTHING Iran does be considered meddling?!!
Again, I point to what Tom Englehardt wrote on this, one of the most insightful pieces anyone has written on Iraq. In the distorted and delusional outlook of the illegal occupier, everyone not them must be percieved as actually or potentially illegitimate, in order to turn the occupiers illegitimacy into legitimacy. It's an upside down view of the world.
And a crazy world is created where utterly destroying a town, Fallujah, = saving it. A crazy world is created in which allowing the ethnic cleansing and ghettoization of the main city = pacifying it. So what can it possibly mean for the US to be "winning" neighborhoods in Sadre City? Was there ever any question of the Sadrists turning Sadre City into the Alamo?
My guess is that the US is flattening large sections of Sadre City, terrifying (and killing some of) the inhabitants that are unable to flee, maybe actually killing a few Mahdi Army fighters and taking totally uncalled for losses on their own part (how many of our own dead and wounded soldiers in this grand and unnecessary offensive?) and creating still more ill will amongst Iraqis, generally speaking.
So much for Petraeus competence and integrity, as he continues to play the political role Bush wants him to play, instead of the military role he SHOULD play (which would be to advise Bush to get our military out of Iraq, because it's part of the problem and not part of the solution, and to refuse to continue a policy gets US and Iraqi people killed and wounded for no good reason).
"Muqtada al-Sadr slapped away the hand offered him by US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates"
Really?
For a more nuanced view of what is going on in Iraq, readers of Mr. Cole would do well to follow commentary here:
http://arablinks.blogspot.com/
Department of Defense has released its latest American military casuality numbers for those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the figures reveal non-fatal casualties that go well beyond the more than 4,000 US troops who have died so far.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/14/cbsnews_investigates/main4012249.shtml
As of 5 April 2008, a total of 36,082 members of US military have been Wounded in action and Killed in Iraq, since the beginning of the Occupation in March 2003, and in Afghanistan, where the Occupation there began in October 2001. The 36,082 number breaks down to 4,492 deaths and 31,590 wounded. According to the same DoD "casualty" counts, an additional 38,631 US military personnel have also been removed from the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan for "non-hostile-related medical air transports."
"That's a tremendous number," said Paul Sullivan, the president of the advocate group Veterans for Common Sense, who believes these latest figures paint a more realistic picture of the true cost of the Iraq and Afghan Occuaptions. He is concerned troop casualties, including those who have been Wounded, Killed and medically transported, is now nearing 75,000.
Why do I keep hearing 'radical' attached to Sadr's name and title, but never 'radical' or 'zealot' regarding Christian or Jewish extremists that actually are 'radical' in the usual sense of the word. For that matter, why isn't the US government's current regime prefaced with 'rogue' or 'lawless' or 'aggressive' or even 'neo-Nazi' which defines them quite accurately? Or is accuracy a thing of the past in both MSM and on the internet?
Certainly I haven't noticed anything 'radical' about Sadr other than his wanting the illegal immoral US invasion and occupation of his country to end - in fact, that's downright sensible, considering what was said at Nuremberg...
Bad Boy, Good Boy
EXHIBIT A (Arabic, 12 April 2008)
"After I heard reports of the terrorist American SECDEF, I had to make a reply that suits terrorists of his ilk, who are smashing our towns and taking their people captive and occupying our lands and attacking our infants and women and stealing our wealth and our rights and our riches." As-Sadr went on, acording to the manifesto, telling Gates, "You people are not ever going to be anything for me but an enemy. You will remain so to the last drop of blood in my body. Anybody who serves you as a friend or a trustee or a truce negotiator, I have nothing to do with this side of Judgment Day."
As-Sadr followed up with "I shall not treat anybody but you occupiers as enemies. Thus the whole Iraqi people -- individuals and sects and religions and races and government and parliament, everybody affiliated with this holy land -- are brothers to me as long as they continue to treat you people as enemies and demand your departure and call for the timetable of your withdrawal. I am well aware, Mr. Gates, that the Hawza and Imperialism are two wives [?] that cannot be combined. (...) Even if you people do not take me for an enemy, sir, I have taken you for one."
_____
EXHIBIT B (11 April 2008)
"The Sadrist bloc is calling for solving problems peacefully. Any problem, internal, regional or international, can never be solved except through dialogue and peaceful means," Sheikh Abdul-Hadi al-Muhammadawi, the head of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr's office in Karbala, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI). Muhammadawi also called for avoiding any statements that might "stir ill sentiments," adding "the Sadrist bloc does not [insist on] anything but the exit of the occupation forces from Iraq or at least a timetable for withdrawal." He denied reports that the Sadrists, or Iraqis loyal to cleric Sadr, burnt government offices or blew up bridges during the Basra clashes.
_____
God knows best. Happy days.
I'm betting those 1300 guys find other employment really soon. Just a guess.
and good for Sadr for slapping away the hand that wants to choke him to death!
I haven't seen any credible news sources (ie non sunni arab sources) run the sadr being kicked out of Iran story. They have a vested interest in creating disputes between shia.
That said he did make those comments about Khamenei to Al Jazeera.
Would the Iranians be so stupid? someone mentioned that the iranians are chess masters, so what chess player drops the most popular street power in favour of a bunch of clowns who are stuck in the green zone?
Seriously, long term rapprochment between the sadrists and the iranians is the best thing for the Iranians.
After all half those baghdad politicians are gonna head straight out to Dubai/DC/London/Paris/Amman/Riyadh etc etc, once the occupation is over.
slapped the hand that was offered him?
i won't consider you my enemy if you come under my control? this is not an offer, it is a threat.
Pay Us To Occupy Your Country or We Will Keep On Occupying You
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080414/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq_free_ride_over
Such A Deal !!!!!!!!!
Keep in mind that this is the time of the calendar year (Spring) when offensive operations are launched, e.g., the initial invasion. A sustained period of good weather is an important planning consideration.
Raw facts like this, plus formal acknowledgment by Petreaus that planning had occurred, tend to suggest that the initial move into Basra and these subsequent events were not simply done on a whim by al-Maliki and, therefore, a surprise to the top command of coalition forces.
They can't plan the outcome but it takes a lot of planning to get the ball rolling. Planning is one of the strengths of our military. They rely on having capabilities in place and not on luck.
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