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| Iraq |
| What Happens When Defeat Devours One' Will |
| 2008-04-08 |
| By Nibras Kazimi, Visiting Scholar at the Hudson Institute Not only has Maliki not backed down, but newly emboldened with wide political backing he’s begun to smash through Sadr City itself and is threatening to banish the Sadrists to a political Siberia. Muqtada al-Sadr, the guy the media has us thinking had won, has prostrated himself at the feet of Grand Ayotallah Sistani, promising Maliki that he would indeed demobilize his militia if the wise old men of Shi’ism would have it so. Gone are the millenarian certainties of taking orders from the Mahdi, the messiah. Gone is all that bluster of al-Sadr’s virile, confident ‘Outspoken hawza’ contrasted with Sistani’s supposedly feeble and retro ‘Silent hawza’. And he sends out his plea for clemency from Iran. FROM IRAN?!! .... Sadr surrendering his fate to Sistani and submissively muttering, “Do as you please, Sir.” Who would have imagined? It is almost as baffling as Maliki’s abrupt transformation from an incompetent administrator into a wartime commander-in-chief! And yet, the Sadrists keep sending out confusing signals signifying the confusion within their ranks. It happens, when defeat devours one’s will. “We will not disarm”. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #3 They're doing this mostly by themselves, when they can do it all by themselves we can pull most of our guys out of that toilet and get on to frying some bigger fish. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-04-08 08:28 |
| #2 Thanks, Mike. But I think you left out a good part - Yes, you miserable souls{of the press}: keep writing in that passive tense, that “Fighting rages” dodge. Never mind that Maliki and the Iraqi Army are actively picking a fight with the outlaws, a fight that the government is winning, and that’s the reason why the bullets are whooshing by. And tales get unspooled. And narratives implode. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2008-04-08 06:09 |
| #1 FREEREPUBLIC/TOPIX /OTHER > MULLAHS TELL SADR TO KEEP MILITIA + MEHDI ARMY/SADR MILITIA WILL NOT DISBAND. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-04-08 00:29 |