An Opportunity Amid Crisis
If the relationship between Sadr and Maliki is not clear to you yet, read the following:
Iraq’s civil war worsened Friday as Shiite and Sunni Arabs engaged in retaliatory attacks after coordinated car bombings that killed more than 200 people in a Shiite neighborhood the day before. A main Shiite political faction threatened to quit the government, a move that probably would cause its collapse and plunge the nation deeper into disarray.The massacre Thursday in Sadr City — a stronghold of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr and his Al Mahdi militia — sparked attacks around the country, reinforced doubts about the effectiveness of the Iraqi government and U.S. military and emboldened Shiite vigilantes.
In a sermon Friday, Sadr, a strong opponent of the United States, said the Pentagon’s refusal to grant full control of Iraqi security forces to the Baghdad government was leaving the populace vulnerable to insurgent attacks.
And as Sadr’s militiamen took matters into their own hands in battles with Sunni Arabs, his political representatives demanded that Prime Minister Nouri Maliki signal his displeasure with the U.S. military occupation by canceling a meeting with President Bush next week in Jordan.
Sadr’s representatives said they would withdraw from Maliki’s government if the prime minister did not meet their demands.
If this government were to fall, that woud be the best thing that could happen in Iraq right now, believe me. However, it probably won’t, because if the past is any indication of the present, Malkiki will cave and do the bidding of Sadr. Nevertheless, by bringing the government’s subservient character into sharp relief, even this will be an improvement.
One bold chance for action presents itself: we should begin a search for Iraqi partners willing to move that nation and our cause forward. That means making cause with and throwing our weight behind a new parliamentary alliance that will break ties with Sadr, and allow the United States and Iraqis to take on the militias head on. I don’t expect this outcome to take place, necessarily, but until Maliki is no longer in power, our mission will not succeed…
Comrades,
I’ve posted in the past that the only way to deal effectively with the militia situations is to use whatever force is required to disarm and disband them.
Sadr needs to die, and soon. He and his thugs are as much a threat to Iraq as is Al Qaida and Iran. Maliki needs to be sat down and the situation explained to him once and for all, and I don’t care how that looks to the eurbians in France. There has been too much blood and treasure spent to clean up Iraq to let it all dissolve in chaos because some quivering PM is too terrified to act.
Disarm the militias. Make it absolutely illegal for any civilian to carry arms in public, or outside of his/her home. At this point, I’d even go for a complete ban on the ownership of weapons outside of the military and Iraqi police force.
Take the gloves off of the US and Iraqi military. Remove Mosques and madrassas from the no-go list. Enter and search EVERY Mosque and if weapons or pro-terrorist literature is found, then raze the building to the ground.
Kill Sadr and every militia leader. No trial, no hesitation. Track them down and kill them like the outlaws and thugs they are. We did it in this country to Bonnie and Clyde, to Dillinger, and Baby-Face Nelson. It was how we cleaned up Chicago and the mid-west. It’ll work fine in Iraq.
Iraq isn’t in a state of civil war yet, Mark. It’s in the middle of a gang war, and that’s an important decision. The majority of iraqis WANT peace, they WANT the government to stand and to develop. They WANT a nation they can be proud of. Unfortunately, the thugs and militias can’t stand the thought of not being in power and will fight to keep it. The populace is caught in the middle, and our own quisling press ain’t helping matter with their slanted coverage of the issues.
Iraq can still be saved. It’s people deserve the chance to have their own nation, but they need us and the Iraqi army to do what’s needed right now to stop the gangs and militias. We can do it, and we must.
Respects,
Gwedd, ditto. Take the damn gloves off. We should be as ruthless as the terrorist wanna be.
Use the mosque as a munitions dump? We’ll blow it up.
No point in using women & children as shields if we’ll still take you out. Try that a couple of times and see how welcome the insurgents will be in a given community.