Iraqi PM hands Sadr victory over US blockade
inmytree
Posts: 4,741
hmmm....
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/061031/1/44gbm.html
Iraqi PM hands Sadr victory over US blockade
AFP Photo
Iraqi Shiite militants have won a major political victory when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered US and Iraqi units to lift a blockade around the flashpoint Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.
American commanders believe Shiite gunmen may be holding a kidnapped US soldier in the east Baghdad slum and since last week their troops have been maintaining a cordon of checkpoints and roadblocks around the area.
Iraqi and US forces have also launched raids inside the district, most recently on Tuesday morning, when they arrested three suspects.
But US forces began lifting the blockade shortly before Maliki's 5.00 pm deadline, triggering a triumphant response from local youths who waved banners from racing trucks and mopeds in an impromptu victory rally.
"I know that the checkpoints down Canal Street have been removed and that this is opening up, but the other specifics of what the forces are doing right now I can't comment on," said US spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Garver.
Canal Street runs along the entire southern flank of Sadr City, a Shiite district home to 2.5 million people, which has effectively been sealed off by US and Iraqi forces since the middle of last week.
Anger at traffic jams and lost business had been growing inside Sadr City. On Tuesday militants loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered a general strike, shutting down shops, offices and schools.
"Your patience and unity brought victory," rejoiced a statement from Sadr's office to the people of Sadr City after the checkpoints started coming down.
The Shiite prime minister, who owes his job to the votes of pro-Sadr lawmakers, responded to the protest by ordering the US blockade lifted.
"The prime minister, in his capacity as commander in chief of the armed forces, has decided to lift the blockade of the access roads to Sadr City and other areas of Baghdad," a statement from Maliki's office said.
Maliki said the checkpoints should be lifted by 5:00 pm (1400 GMT), but added that it could be reimposed after dark during Baghdad's nightly curfew.
Rescuing missing soldiers is a priority for US forces, but snubbing Maliki's command would risk reopening rifts in the Iraq-US alliance just days after a White House damage limitation exercise papered over an earlier spat.
Sadr City decided to protest after suspected Sunni insurgents managed to get into the Shiite bastion on Monday despite the American security operation to set off a bomb attack that killed 26 civilians and wounded many more.
Iraqi special forces backed by US military advisers carried out a raid into Sadr City on Tuesday and arrested three suspects.
"The purpose of the mission was to search for the missing US soldier and to capture the leadership of a kidnapping cell reported to have knowledge of the soldier's location," the US military said in a statement.
An American soldier of Iraqi descent was abducted on October 23 after he slipped out of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone in order to visit his secret Iraqi wife at the home of relatives in the city.
The kidnap triggered a rescue operation by thousands of US infantry around Sadr City, home to several thousand gunmen from Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.
The soldier's Iraqi relatives told AFP that they believe he is being held by a hardline faction of the Mahdi Army.
Baghdad's bloodshed continued when a car bomb targeted Palestine Street in the heart of the city, near busy Beirut Square, killing three civilians including a woman and wounding seven passers-by, medics said.
Later, police announced that between 30 and 40 Shiite bus passengers had been kidnapped at a false security checkpoint north of the city.
And, as night fell, a car bomb ripped through a wedding party in northern Baghdad, killing 15 guests including four children, a security official said.
The capital is in the grip of a brutal turf war between rival Shiite and Sunni factions, despite a massive security operation that has put 15,000 US troops and more than 40,000 Iraqi soldiers and police on the streets.
There has been no let-up in the challenge facing US forces either.
Two American soldiers were killed in Baghdad on Monday, bringing military deaths for October to 103, the fourth highest monthly toll since the US-led invasion of March 2003 overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein.
With political progress towards national reconciliation achingly slow and the daily death toll showing no sign of diminishing, US President George W. Bush is facing intense domestic pressure to change course.
Opponents of the war are set to make gains in next week's congressional midterm elections, but the White House is standing behind its strategy of building up Iraqi security forces to enable them to fight on their own.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/061031/1/44gbm.html
Iraqi PM hands Sadr victory over US blockade
AFP Photo
Iraqi Shiite militants have won a major political victory when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered US and Iraqi units to lift a blockade around the flashpoint Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.
American commanders believe Shiite gunmen may be holding a kidnapped US soldier in the east Baghdad slum and since last week their troops have been maintaining a cordon of checkpoints and roadblocks around the area.
Iraqi and US forces have also launched raids inside the district, most recently on Tuesday morning, when they arrested three suspects.
But US forces began lifting the blockade shortly before Maliki's 5.00 pm deadline, triggering a triumphant response from local youths who waved banners from racing trucks and mopeds in an impromptu victory rally.
"I know that the checkpoints down Canal Street have been removed and that this is opening up, but the other specifics of what the forces are doing right now I can't comment on," said US spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Chris Garver.
Canal Street runs along the entire southern flank of Sadr City, a Shiite district home to 2.5 million people, which has effectively been sealed off by US and Iraqi forces since the middle of last week.
Anger at traffic jams and lost business had been growing inside Sadr City. On Tuesday militants loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered a general strike, shutting down shops, offices and schools.
"Your patience and unity brought victory," rejoiced a statement from Sadr's office to the people of Sadr City after the checkpoints started coming down.
The Shiite prime minister, who owes his job to the votes of pro-Sadr lawmakers, responded to the protest by ordering the US blockade lifted.
"The prime minister, in his capacity as commander in chief of the armed forces, has decided to lift the blockade of the access roads to Sadr City and other areas of Baghdad," a statement from Maliki's office said.
Maliki said the checkpoints should be lifted by 5:00 pm (1400 GMT), but added that it could be reimposed after dark during Baghdad's nightly curfew.
Rescuing missing soldiers is a priority for US forces, but snubbing Maliki's command would risk reopening rifts in the Iraq-US alliance just days after a White House damage limitation exercise papered over an earlier spat.
Sadr City decided to protest after suspected Sunni insurgents managed to get into the Shiite bastion on Monday despite the American security operation to set off a bomb attack that killed 26 civilians and wounded many more.
Iraqi special forces backed by US military advisers carried out a raid into Sadr City on Tuesday and arrested three suspects.
"The purpose of the mission was to search for the missing US soldier and to capture the leadership of a kidnapping cell reported to have knowledge of the soldier's location," the US military said in a statement.
An American soldier of Iraqi descent was abducted on October 23 after he slipped out of Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone in order to visit his secret Iraqi wife at the home of relatives in the city.
The kidnap triggered a rescue operation by thousands of US infantry around Sadr City, home to several thousand gunmen from Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.
The soldier's Iraqi relatives told AFP that they believe he is being held by a hardline faction of the Mahdi Army.
Baghdad's bloodshed continued when a car bomb targeted Palestine Street in the heart of the city, near busy Beirut Square, killing three civilians including a woman and wounding seven passers-by, medics said.
Later, police announced that between 30 and 40 Shiite bus passengers had been kidnapped at a false security checkpoint north of the city.
And, as night fell, a car bomb ripped through a wedding party in northern Baghdad, killing 15 guests including four children, a security official said.
The capital is in the grip of a brutal turf war between rival Shiite and Sunni factions, despite a massive security operation that has put 15,000 US troops and more than 40,000 Iraqi soldiers and police on the streets.
There has been no let-up in the challenge facing US forces either.
Two American soldiers were killed in Baghdad on Monday, bringing military deaths for October to 103, the fourth highest monthly toll since the US-led invasion of March 2003 overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein.
With political progress towards national reconciliation achingly slow and the daily death toll showing no sign of diminishing, US President George W. Bush is facing intense domestic pressure to change course.
Opponents of the war are set to make gains in next week's congressional midterm elections, but the White House is standing behind its strategy of building up Iraqi security forces to enable them to fight on their own.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
Didn't Bush belittle Kerry in 2004 for wanting to put US troops under the leadership of foreign governments? So now our troops are taking orders a foreign leader who answers to radical Shi-ites (who last I looked were also shooting at our troops?).
Really, the world is completely upside down.
doesn't feel that way right now. That's the hopeful
idea . . . Hope didn't get much applause . . .
Hope! Hope is the underdog!"
-- EV, Live at the Showbox
Worse even, is that we have abandoned an American soldier to the tender mercies of a Shiite militia. The Iraqi prime minister took orders from Moqtada al-Sadr. He is still missing. Money quote from the Washington Post:
"The move lifted a near siege that had stood at least since last Wednesday. U.S. military police imposed the blockade after the kidnapping of an American soldier of Iraqi descent. The soldier's Iraqi in-laws said they believed he had been abducted by the Mahdi Army as he visited his wife at her home in the Karrada area of Baghdad, where U.S. military checkpoints were also removed as a result of Maliki's action.
The crackdown on Sadr City had a second motive, U.S. officers said: the search for Abu Deraa, a man considered one of the most notorious death squad leaders. The soldier and Abu Deraa both were believed by the U.S. military to be in Sadr City."
The U.S. military does not have a tradition of abandoning its own soldiers to foreign militias, or of taking orders from foreign governments. No commander-in-chief who actually walks the walk, rather than swaggering the swagger, would acquiesce to such a thing. The soldier appears to be of Iraqi descent who is married to an Iraqi woman. Who authorized abandoning him to the enemy? Who is really giving the orders to the U.S. military in Iraq? These are real questions about honor and sacrifice and a war that is now careening out of any control. They are not phony questions drummed up by a partisan media machine to appeal to emotions to maintain power.
And where, by the way, is McCain on this? Silent on Cheney's "no-brainer" on waterboarding. Silent recently on Iraq. But vocal - oh, how vocal - on Kerry. It tells you something about what has happened to him. And to America.
San Antonio 04/03, Raleigh 04/03, Dallas 06/03, Gorge 09/05, Vancouver 09/05, LA II 07/06, Tampa 06/08, Chicago II 08/09, ACL 10/09, Vedder solo 1&2 10/12, Dallas 11/13, ACL 10/14 1&2, OKC 2022, ATX 9/23 1&2
If we would have ignored the PM I'm almost certain you guys would be talking about the imperial power being imposed on the Iraqi Gov't. There is no way, anyone, would ever be able to explain to you that we were simply acknowledging the wishes of a sovereign nation.
"What I lack in decorum, I make up for with an absence of tact."
Camden 5-28-06
Washington, D.C. 6-22-08
to be livin here today.
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom,
and they can’t take that away.
And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
If they aren't ready to run their own country they should stop giving our military orders. If they are in a position to control our military operations it sounds like they're ready to go it on their own. Good luck to them - let's get the hell out of there.
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
to be livin here today.
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom,
and they can’t take that away.
And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
www.amnesty.org.uk
What is the point where the JOB IS DONE?
What are the WINNING CONDITIONS?
Civil war is going on in Iraq, Terrorist organisations moved their headquarters from Afghanistan to Iraq, the world is not safer, Iraq had no WMD, Iraq can't be solved by the American army, get out and admit the failure, oh, also apologize and PAY for the problems you CREATE in Iraq.
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
to be livin here today.
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom,
and they can’t take that away.
And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me.
I thought we did. Wasn't it 5/2/03?
http://www.bartcop.com/mission-accomplished.jpg
haha, be proud, more violence and war please, it's the solution to a healthy america, until america fall...
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
no, no, no...don't you remember, bush blamed that all on the navy, b/c THEY were the ones who actually hung the banner...<nevermind his ppl MADE and BROUGHT the banner...>
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
how is the war raging down there in Mobile Alabama? it looks like your a few miles from the front lines. you think it is bullshit that there is a civil war in iraq? you think it is bullshit that the country is in more chaos than it was under Saddam? you think it is bullshit that it is a haven for terrorists? you think it is bullshit that the civilian population of iraq is afraid? you really think none of this is true? that makes you and donald rumsfeld. look, you can cheerlead for this war from your porch in Mobile all you want, but do you need to be completely unaware of anything going on over there? have you heard any updates on this war since 2003? now, i know you are afraid that if we dont fight them there, they will hit their number one american target.....Alabama...... so if you want to argue that tired old GOP lie, at least it is debatable, but for you to act as if all of the facts stated about the situation in Iraq are lies, and everything is going well.... what can anyone say to you?
This is a dangerous position to take... relieving command and control of the military due to political pressure and/or homefront public opinion. You want U.S. Military commanders to make the call, not political leaders of a foriegn nation, even IF our military is on their soil. Who cares what people here say, when military personel lives are on the lines over there... if you are in the military and feel that way... you should get out of the miltary.
...
The situation we have created if Iraq is a mess that cannot be solved with military power. This is a Nation Building effort... of which... I thought we were NOT in the business of Nation Building. We have also created a power vaccuum that we should have anticipated... and that many Americans and others in the world foresaw as a probable outcome... but, our leadership refused to acknowledge. We should have foreseen the 60% Shi'ite majority in Iraq as the ones most likely to succeed into power... the same Shi'ites that brought us the Islamic Revolution of Ayatollah Khomeni... the same Shi'ites that rule Iran... the Shi'ites of Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad... and the Iraqi poster boy of the Shi'ites, Muqtada al Sadr.
Our guys are getting caught in the middle of a vengence that has 30 years of payback stored up in it. What are they supposed to do? Pick a side? Which side? Kill them all? Or do what they are doing... hunkering down in the Green Zone til the fucking politicians in Washinton and Baghdad get their heads out of their asses and come up with a clearer definition of what the 'JOB' that is supposed to git done is supposed to be. 'Stay the Course' means keep on doing this fucked up shit that ain't working out so good... great fucking plan, President Asshole.
I say the Job is fucking done... Rumsfeld says 300,000 'Trainned iraqi' forces are standing ready... can't 300,000 of them replace 140,000 of us? Apparently, 300,000 of them isn't enough to send one of us home... how many of those fucking assholes do they need over there.
Bottom line... it's fucked up over there... admit it... it's a fucked up pile of steaming shit that is 12 feet deep and getting deeper with every step we take in this same course we are on. Change fucking direction... that's a start on getting our asses our of there.
Hail, Hail!!!
The 'Job'... what the fuck is that? What is the Job that's supposed to get done over there?
Hail, Hail!!!