Sunday, March 30, 2008

What The Heck Is Going On In Iraq?

I believe we must turn to a source we can trust. Al Jazeera. The headline is: Sadr orders his fighters to stand down.

What are the terms?

UPDATED ON: SUNDAY, MARCH 30, 2008 19:27 MECCA TIME, 16:27 GMT - [it is currently 1805z]

Al-Sadr's nine-point plan, agreed with the Iraqi government, was issued by his headquarters in the city of Najaf and broadcast through loudspeakers on Shia mosques.

James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Baghdad, said: "The main elements are that Muqtada al-Sadr's fighters should leave the streets ... in return, apparently, they will not be pursued, the Iraqi government will not arrest any of them unless they have arrest warrants for them.

"The big question now is whether the Mahdi army fighters will obey this command because there are all sorts of factions and splinter groups in existence."

Basra operation

Despite the order Iraqi troops will continue military operations against "criminals" in Basra, al-Dabbagh later told the Reuters news agency.

"The operation in Basra will continue and will not stop until it achieves its goals. It is not targeting the Sadrists but criminals," he said.
It is not targeting the Sadrists but criminals

How can you tell the difference? I suppose the criminals are the guys with weapons.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Simple - Sadr has gotten the message from the crooks of Teheran that if he fights now, he'll get blasted. He lost hundreds of fighters in the first few hours of the "offensive", and decided he wants to keep his troops.

Obviously this tactic will fail. But hey.

Anonymous said...

Sadr attacks, gets his @## wupped, runs away and stops fighting till he can regroup, then repeats the process. He's been doing this since we first heard of him. It's a clear pattern. Why hasn't anyone made public note of it?

That is a typically Islamic style of fighting. It is cowardly and dishonerable. Unfortunately, it is a tactic that works, as we see from Islam's military conquests over the last 1400 years.

Until the West realizes there is no enduring peace with this intractable enemy it will continue to lose. The losses may be so small as to be dismissed as worth the price of peace. But we will never get peace because they will always violate any peace agreement they make. And little victories, over hundreds or thousands of years, ultimately add up to big ones, and if unchecked to total victory.

M. Simon said...

For a good example of that check out the comments at Fitna The Movie.

In the past Islam gained by battle.

Now they are in a cultural war they can't win.

Islamic style fighting is good for extending the margins. Where there are no margins (a high communications environment) they are getting their asses whooped.