Saturday, April 05, 2008

Maliki Doesn't Give A Damn

I just got turned on to a blog that seems to have some very in depth knowledge of what is going on in Iraq. Talisman Gate. There is an entry up about the recent fighting in Iraq. Panic in the Green Zone. Let me quote a bit:

Those counseling caution and delay stressed that smashing Sadrist-related criminal cartels would spark a large-scale Sadrist reaction across Iraq at a time when the Bush administration wants to keep Iraq quiet especially with the '4000' milestone that was being approached and got passed a couple of days ago. Another argument against action counseled that the Iranians are angling for a fire-fight to sully any talk of progress that Gen. Petraeus may give in a couple of weeks when he appears before Congress, and that the Democrats and their allies in the US media would take these images out of Basra and elsewhere and package the news as a "security meltdown"...

...Maliki decided that he doesn't give a damn about US presidential elections and that the only timeline that concern him are Iraq's own upcoming elections...
That doesn't sound like a weak leader at all. That sounds like a "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead kind of guy.
It seems that much of the logistics for Operation Cavalry Charge were delivered through an airlift by the Iraqi Air Force because the military planners assumed that the outlaws would mine transportation routes in and out of Basra with IEDs. According to one source briefed on the campaign's logistics, the Iraqi Army in Basra (...I think we're talking about 3 Divisions that are in this fight) is amply supplied and overstocked with food, ammunition and spare parts, indicating that the planners are foreseeing a long campaign.
So the Iraqis were handling their own logistics. Impressive.
Operation Cavalry Charge is still in full effect and Maliki is brazenly saying that he hasn't signed a ceasefire with anyone. He's still out to arrest the criminals on his Most Wanted list, according to the press conference he held today in which he suggested that Sadr City too needed a clean-up.

The Sadrists have called for a 'March of Millions' next Wednesday to protest America's presence in Iraq. Government spokesmen have already said that a peaceful protest is perfectly fine with them but that any violence will be met with overpowering violence.

Stay tuned for grossly exaggerated estimates by western reporters of the numbers attending these rallies where these same western reporters will likely be the most animated of activists.
Let me quote the author's profile so you can get some idea who he is:
Nibras Kazimi

Visiting Scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC. I also write a weekly column on the Middle East for the New York Sun, and a monthly column for the Prospect Magazine (UK).

Welcome to my blog. This is the place where I explore issues like whether Nostradamus had predicted the whole Zarqawi phenomena, and is Walid Junbulatt the real Hariri killer? In other words, this space is devoted to all the stuff that would peg me a crank should I try to put it out in print. But what the hell, journalistic credibility is way too over-regarded. Plus, blogging is an exercise in vanity; it is the joy-ride of ego-trips. So, excuse my pompous self-righteousness, and try to enjoy your stay.
I like that attitude.

Now about those pregnant men.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

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