Sadr, we are giving Washington one year to make this work

The United States has until maybe December 2007 (update, April 2008) to make Iraq work, according to Moqtada al-Sadr. The United States knows where al-Sadr is, they believe he is cooperating with the coalition and Iraqi government, and are even working to place him in a position of leadership when they leave Iraq. Sadr says he actually wants US troops in Iraq now. Do you believe this? If it's all true, what does it mean for Iraq's future, or more importantly for America's future?

Moqtada al-Sadr is by and large in control of JAM. Those elements not under his control are being rendered to conversion, either by Iraqi and coalition military and security forces or internally. There are special operations units at work in helping decimate Sunni insurgency and to take care of rogue JAM. Apart from running interference in Southern Iraq. Soon up North in Kurdistan. And the United States is fully briefed.

The United States is fully briefed on his [Sadr] whereabouts.

Again, I invite your careful attention to Nassar al-Rubaie's statement. We are giving Washington one year to make this work. You are the first for me to advise that in fact al-Sadr is not opposed to the US forces presence. He realizes that US troops are now needed to keep the flooding ship from sinking. He is a Nationalist and wants to preserve the unity and integrity of Iraq. At the same time, the US forces presence helps position him as leader of the nascent Movement for the National Liberation of Iraq. The United States is fully briefed on both accounts. --Albrecht Gero Muth is a former Special Adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in Iraq, advising the Hoyatoleslam Moqtadir al-Sadar. Mr. Muth is believed to be a key architect of the JAM/ Sadrist battle plan.

As part of the Baghdad “surge” in January, the US declared it would crackdown on Shiite militias. "All of the targeted areas had been defended to some extent by the Mahdi Army. However, on the urging of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his fighters to go to ground in order to avoid clashes with the US military.

As was stated to me earlier, "To be blunt: any dead Shia plays to the Hoyatoleslam's advantage."

A Mahdi Army commander stated: “Washington calls us the greatest threat to peace in Iraq, but who is defending our citizens from Al Qaeda and the takfiris (Sunni sectarian extremists)?”

The outpouring of anger highlights the reasons for the resignation of six members of Moqtada al-Sadr’s political movement from Maliki’s cabinet on Monday. [snip]

Sadr’s spokesman, Abdul Razaq al-Nadawi, stated: “The Iraqi government is incapable of establishing security as long as occupation forces are still present. [snip]

Media reports suggest that Sadr loyalists would win control of most of the south if elections were ever held for the provincial governments. (CounterCurrents.org)

Saint or Sinner? Reality vs Perception? Following the lead of the Harry Reid crowd? There are always consequences to our actions, always a price to pay for wrong choices. Let's get this thing right and not have to deal with it again.

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Comments

[Freedom Now]

Al-Sadr is Iraq's Benedict Arnold. He sold out to Iran who in addition to helping Shiite insurgents is also helping Sunni terrorists. Of course these Sunni terrorists are killing more Shiites than Americans.

American troops just kicked the Mahdi Army's ass in Diwaniyah where they fled after the Surge began.

The problem is that the media continually fabricates news by adding their own opinions and quoting unidentified sources to put a spin on every story coming out of Iraq.

They will stretch the truth in any direction to turn around Al-Sadr's recent setbacks and make them look like they are setbacks for the U.S. and our Iraqi allies.

You rarely will hear of U.S. victories against the Mahdi Army in Karbala and Najaf because of this dynamic. This is despite the fact that the U.S. objective of kicking out Al Sadr’s militia from each of those cities was successful.

Al Qaeda and the Democrats control the flow of information these days. I am not saying that they are allies, they are working independently of each other. However, they have the same short term goal of kicking out the U.S. from Iraq.

[Debbie]

I'm looking forward to hearing what General Petreaus has to say this next week.

[StormWarning]

Rasta, are you suggesting that creating a democratic Iraq from all of the various ethnic and religious and tribal sects is an exercise in futility?

[Rastaman]

Get 1000 picture puzzles. Then take one piece out of each box and put it in an empty box until you have one piece from each puzzle, 1000 pieces total, in the box.

This is Iraq. This is what we're trying to make a coherent picture out of.

It can't be done.

Rastaman