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Iraq-Jordan
Militia Offers to Cede Control of Shrine
2004-08-21
Mighty generous of them.
A rebel cleric's militiamen kept their guns outside a holy site Friday after issuing a surprise offer to give up control of the Imam Ali Shrine to Shiite Muslim religious leaders, but negotiators wrangled into the night over getting the militants out of the compound. The removal of weapons and pledge to hand over keys to religious authorities was seen as a big step toward a resolution of the two-week faceoff in Najaf that has killed dozens of people and wounded hundreds in fighting between Muqtada al-Sadr's militia and a joint U.S.-Iraq force. Offering a face-saving way out of the crisis, a peaceful pullout mediated by religious authorities would allow Iraq's interim government to keep its pledge not to negotiate and let the militants say they had not capitulated to U.S.-led troops.

The development came just a day after al-Sadr's militants rejected a government ultimatum to withdraw from the shrine or face an assault on the walled compound. Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi backed off the threat after the new offer from al-Sadr, and his national security adviser reiterated that the government wanted al-Sadr to join the political process. Al-Sadr has said previously he would not give in to the government demand to disband his militia and take up politics. It remained unclear how the government would react if that demand went unmet.
Posted by:Fred

#8  in world war one it was common to fight over the same terrain multiple times, and ditto in the American Revolution. Sometimes its not politics that causes that, but the tactical situation on the ground. Theres still too much fog of war to judge the military tactics. Again I think we underestimate the difficulty of establishing a cordon in a dense urban area, and I think it turns out that siege in the sense of cutting off food and water was never the military strat anyway. So far the JArs and cav in the old city have been attriting the thugs away, while the politics marches on. And i read somewhere that the thugs are getting lower on ammo.
Posted by: liberalhawk   2004-08-22 12:35:00 AM  

#7  SH - Well, I have to say that this operation in Najaf is the most muddled thing I've seen in some time. Apparently there never was any double cordon, that they boogied on back to their base every night, and that Tater and The Tots were free to come & go as they pleased except for the few hours each day when the Jarines & Cav decided to sweep out of the barracks and advance. The place never was sealed up and Tater is free to fuck Allawi again if he get the funding to pay his "loyalists" as the press morons call them.

Almost everything I saw in my mental picture - which was shared by most here based upon their comments - was completely irrelevant.

Y'know, I thought we had gotten away from that idiotic Vietnam Era idea of paying for the same real estate multiple times, but I guess not. In this case, it seems our dependence upon Allawi for a go-ahead at each phase made this op not much different than the old Johnson-McNamara crap... you can bomb these trees (suspected truck park - right) over here and take that hill (suspected tunnel entrances) over there, but don't go thru this area - those rubber plants cost the US Govt $90 a pop. And at night - the no-fire zone has a hundred campfires. Fuckin lunacy - and it seems we're doing it again.
Posted by: .com   2004-08-22 12:09:32 AM  

#6  .com, I imagine that we could move again at a time of our choosing. It would be interesting to see what kind of enviroment we have given them: whether they are ringed by tanks, left in the dark or lit by spotlights, probed periodically or left in silence.
Posted by: Super Hose   2004-08-21 11:59:09 PM  

#5  Cool - and Thanx!!! This will save having to copy what I've written, pop back out, and re-click the story link when I realize I should've grabbed a quote from the story. Too quick to close the windows, heh. It's save beaucoup trips to the RB server!

Thx, again!
Posted by: .com   2004-08-21 11:11:22 PM  

#4  Comments page has been modified.
Posted by: Fred   2004-08-21 11:07:08 PM  

#3  SH - I'm getting the All Quiet on the Najaf Front from most storylines (via google news / world). I guess they're all at the O-Club in the Green Zone - sneering at the dry-throated reporters, heh.
Posted by: .com   2004-08-21 1:00:14 AM  

#2  Are AC-130 flights continuing during negotiation?
Posted by: Super Hose   2004-08-21 12:53:07 AM  

#1  Lol! Arabs. Sigh.

I saw this title over at BBC:
"Tension reigns in Iraqi holy city"

My first thought was cue the skeery music... lol!

Fred - could you do a big favor? In the comments.asp script, could you make the title still hot to the story and display the poster's name? So many stories, so little time.
Posted by: .com   2004-08-21 12:28:12 AM  

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