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2004-05-05 Iraq-Jordan
Iraqi Shi'ite leaders tell Muqtada to hang it up
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Posted by Dan Darling 2004-05-05 12:16:36 AM|| || Front Page|| [11126 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Interesting. The fact that we are willing to talk to the Sunnis and do the Fallujah deal gets the Shiites off the dime on al-Sadr. They want power and they're afraid we'll give it back to the Sunnis.

We're playing the middleman now, not Sistani, and this was predicted in a Belmont Club article last month.

We go into Najaf now ONLY if the Shiites demand it. And they should lead the way themselves and take a few bullets...
Posted by RMcLeod  2004-05-05 1:04:20 AM||   2004-05-05 1:04:20 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 RML - Indeed, Wretchard discussed triangulating to bring Shitstani down out of his clouds - and maybe it is working. I must say, however, that there is far too much machination and far too little straight-shooting, of both types, for my taste. If it works, okay - they're wizards. My gut tells me we should be about 5x more hardcore with Sadr and in Fallujah - kicking ass right up to the moskkk door, at least. Anything less will magnify the jihadi bandwagon effect. Just my 2 cents.
Posted by .com 2004-05-05 1:41:01 AM||   2004-05-05 1:41:01 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 What about all the holy shit. We might enflame the street. Might take years to get the Mo's to calm down. Holy crap Batman! Perhaps we should take a knee, ask a mullah about perceptions maybe, don't know, what!
Posted by Lucky 2004-05-05 2:29:47 AM||   2004-05-05 2:29:47 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Go Lucky!
Posted by Shipman 2004-05-05 7:49:48 AM||   2004-05-05 7:49:48 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 Beers all around for the CIA & Special Forces Thulfiqar Army.
Posted by AzCat 2004-05-05 9:28:14 AM||   2004-05-05 9:28:14 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 RM

Bingo! Hats off again to Wretchard.

Sadr is, ultimately, Sistanis problem. We seem to have finally manipulated Sistani into dealing with his problem. A neat middle ground between treating Sistani with kid gloves, and treating him as an enemy. If Bremer was behind this i must take back some things I said about him elsewhere. Although I would repeat again that I hope that to the extent we can reduce Sistanis influence, it will be to increase the influence of Iraqi local councils, and, yes, pro-democracy pols, and NOT typical Arab nationalists Anti-Israel types like Adnan Pachachi.

And BTW, yeah, the Thulfiqar army thing sounds very like something Spec Ops would have a hand in.
Posted by Liberalhawk 2004-05-05 9:36:00 AM||   2004-05-05 9:36:00 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 Wretchard has a good post today, too.
Posted by eLarson 2004-05-05 11:31:47 AM||   2004-05-05 11:31:47 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 Pssst - Mullah al-Sadr, dude. ..
Chill out.

In near 100-degree heat in the late afternoon, few of the Shiite speakers stirred much enthusiasm. But the strongest murmurings of the meeting came when Taqlif al-Faroun, a tribal leader from Najaf, said Shiites should give the American forces a green light to go after Mr. Sadr in the holy cities. "Najaf is not Mecca," he said. "The Americans don't want to go into the shrines. They want to get rid of criminals and thieves. So what if they enter the city?" Across the roof, dozens of men responded approvingly. "Yes, yes!" they said.

Taqlif al-Faroun? I like this guy.
Posted by BigEd 2004-05-05 11:47:32 AM||   2004-05-05 11:47:32 AM|| Front Page Top

#9 The primary mistake made in Fallujah was one of procedure. We should have reduced the "insurgent"/Jihadi garrison in the Golan first, and THEN proceed with the installation of a Sunni hard boy. Following that up with rumors and leaks from the Green Zone of how well Sunnis manage civil affairs, Sunni wizardry with troops in the field, etc. A couple weeks of that, and Sadr'd be swinging from Najaf lamp post.

Fallujah, as Old Spook has mentioned at Rantburg and at other venues, has a special place in the hearts of most Iraqis. It is not, however, a happy place. We should have finished the thugs off two weeks ago, while suffering minimal fuss from the Iraqi 'street'.
Posted by mrp 2004-05-05 12:08:28 PM||   2004-05-05 12:08:28 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Big ed - yeah, me too

The clerics wont go as far as a Najaf tribal leader, methinks. Sadrs real base of support is NOT in the south, but in the poor Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, notably Sadr city. Southern tribals dont give two ****s about Sadr City, it seems, but the clerics still wont write off influence over such a big chunk of the Shiite population.

The Shiite clerics - NOT our friends, NOT our enemies. A group of cautious men, who very carefully monitor which way the wind is blowing.
Posted by Liberalhawk 2004-05-05 12:17:45 PM||   2004-05-05 12:17:45 PM|| Front Page Top

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