Article

2004-04-05 Iraq-Jordan

Sistani tells Muqtada to hang it up, Muqtada sez no

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Posted by Dan Darling 2004-04-05 9:05:40 PM|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Fix is in - Sadr's a dead man

that makes me a very happy boy

Posted by Frank G 2004-04-05 9:09:31 PM|| 2004-04-05 9:09:31 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 He's in the #1 Holiest Shi'a site. We joke about this rock and that old tire as being lesser Holy Sites, but this is really a problem. We can't (according to CENTCOM) blow this place up. Can't do it. He might be in there for phreakin' months - inspiring the fodder.

I've looked and I can't find anything in the Qu'uran about Tear Gas or Flash Bangs (Something Little Mo' seems to have overlooked!), but I'm sure someone will whip out a fatwah or find some obscure reference and say it applies.

This will be a thorn.

Posted by .com (Abu PeeDee) 2004-04-05 9:18:13 PM|| 2004-04-05 9:18:13 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Another Arafish scenario? Great, just what is needed now. It will fester as an open wound. The timetable for self rule looks to be in jeapordy. I wish I was a fly on the wall in the Whitehouse discussing how to handle this right now.

Posted by Bill Nelson 2004-04-05 9:24:06 PM|| 2004-04-05 9:24:06 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 Aw Jesus...shoot that 'un agin... it's a twitcher!

Posted by Hyper 2004-04-05 9:26:35 PM|| 2004-04-05 9:26:35 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 hyper - seen Dawn of the Dead, apparently LOL

Posted by Frank G 2004-04-05 9:28:21 PM|| 2004-04-05 9:28:21 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 Well, the answer to this is the same answer the Israelis used at the Church of the Nazarene. You don't attack, you seal it off. Nothing in, nothing out. No food, no water, no communiciations. Nothing.

Sadr's a well-fed lad. We'll see how he does in oh, say two weeks, without his 4000 calories a day.

Posted by RMcLeod 2004-04-05 9:29:31 PM|| 2004-04-05 9:29:31 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Need to send in some baby wipes and red binder pronto...and mebbe some Glade air freshener. Sadr City's favorite meocrat will be ready to receive EU toadies!

Posted by Seafarious 2004-04-05 9:31:32 PM|| 2004-04-05 9:31:32 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 I'm not sure why you think the self-rule is in jeopardy. In my opinion, the real danger is that there is no person in Iraq with universal support - that does jeopardize success and unity.

The US forces will stay, just as in Afghanistan, and provide the security. We had a power-play by Sadr / Mad Mullahs and we have the Sunni Triangle - which is where I believe the CA Mil Cmd has really let us down. 600+ dead troopers gives me GREAT pause and heartache.

I believe 2 things:
We must utterly clean out the Triangle for that is the base of Ops for many of those deaths -and-
those deaths attributable to attacks and staging from the Triangle are on the tab of the Turks who betrayed us for an empty promise from the French and gave us a One Front War - which left the Triangle untouched and unbowed and unpacified.

So Sadr's an itch - he represents about 3K radicals according to CENTCOM and I believe they're right - and the Triangle's about to get the ass kicking they should've gotten during the war.

I think, eventually, we'll see partitioning. They've been killing and screwing each other over for a thousand years. They teach the same mentality to their children. It's not going away soon. A free and truly democratic and economically successful Kurdistan would give them something to think about - but they wouldn't get it - they're Arabs. They'd blame us for their failure to match the Kurds.

Posted by .com 2004-04-05 9:37:02 PM|| 2004-04-05 9:37:02 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 4 things...

1) This shows Sistani as the impotent he is, in that he cannot control a 30 year old hot head. But it also give him leave to move against the radical elements and the ones from Iran.

2) the stuff in Fallujah gave us the excuse we needed to conduct cordon, seach and clear operations. No political cover needed,a nd the locals will know why we are there - they provided the reasons themslves by violating Islamic Law regarding corpses. Fallujah clears the base point of the "Tikriti Triangle" over to Sadr City in Baghdad - whcih is the next area to be cordoned, searched and cleared. (Leaving only Tikrit, which can be easily isolated wiht its main support gone).

3) Sadr has just lost the backing of all the major Shiite leaders in Iraq and has exposed himself as a violent militant under the control of Iran - that will win him no friends at all Iraqis who bascially hate the Iranians. But it has drawn the most radical elements to him - where they are now exposed and can be isolated, and then destroyed in detail.

4) Holing up in the Mosque is great - the Shiites themselves will want to clear him out. We surround it and blockade it, starve them down, then let the local Iraqi police do the takedown. With the Mullah's blessings.

All we have to do is continue to clear Fallujah, and any other pockets where the Mahdi exposed themselves (none live to tell or esle go to jail). While doing that, isolate Sadr City, and blockade Sadr up in the Mosque and train up the Iraqi forces to do the takedown.

Opportunity awaits those who can grasp it.

Posted by OldSpook 2004-04-05 9:48:53 PM|| 2004-04-05 9:48:53 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 OS - I too believe this is an opportunity...to take out the blackhats in Iran supporting Sadr. Looks like an act of war to my ~~uneducated~~ eye. Find some squealers, make them talk on TeeVee and push an extra 50,000 troops against the eastern border (announce that on unblocked Iranian TV) - see what happens

Posted by Frank G 2004-04-05 10:12:51 PM|| 2004-04-05 10:12:51 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 WOW maybe there is hope for them yet!

Posted by Cyber Sarge 2004-04-05 11:11:30 PM|| 2004-04-05 11:11:30 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 I wouldn't rule out Sistani's influence just yet, OS.

Sadr is a rogue, self-appointed leader leveraging his father's name and a great deal of support from Iran. The fact that he has only managed to organize 3-5000 militia suggests that leaders like Sistani -- who both speak for the Shia against the Coalition and who don't advocate armed resistance -- are indeed having a substantial influence.

I agree -- let the Shia deal with Sadr himself in Najaf. Anything else would be massively provocative. However, anybody who steps outside, or who we catch outside -- well, they're fair game. Meanwhile, we do what we should have done a year ago (and would have done if we had come in on two fronts as planned), namely we clean up the Sunni triangle starting with Fallujah.

Posted by rkb 2004-04-06 9:08:34 AM|| 2004-04-06 9:08:34 AM|| Front Page Top

23:57 Zenster
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