Posted on 09/02/2007 1:04:08 PM PDT by james500
Muqtada al-Sadr's surprise decision to stand down his Mahdi Army for up to six months was designed to stop a Shiite-Shiite rift from spiraling out of control and to weed out infiltrators in his militia's ranks, according to aides of the radical Shiite cleric.
Al-Sadr issued his surprise declaration last Wednesday following two days of deadly clashes in the holy city of Karbala between his Mahdi Army and the rival Badr militia of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, the country's largest Shiite party and a U.S. partner.
Involvement in inter-Shiite fighting has hurt the image of al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army, chipping away at the young cleric's reputation as an uncompromising nationalist leader seeking to restore Iraq's full sovereignty and undermining his bid to become a national leader.
Al-Sadr also realizes that a full-fledged fight against Badr and the Iraqi security forces is likely to draw the Americans into battle, threatening his Mahdi Army with a rout similar to that of 2004 when thousands of his militiamen were killed.
For all those reasons, it was better for al-Sadr to take a principled stand for Shiite unity and suspend his militia's activities -- at least for the time being. To promote unity, it is better to blame the Americans than rivals in the Shiite community.
...
The U.S. military welcomed al-Sadr's move. But it appears the U.S. has no plans to reciprocate, continuing raids to capture suspected Mahdi militants that American commanders say are linked to Iran or involved in sectarian violence.
The raids led to a stern warning late Saturday by one of al-Sadr's prominent lawmakers, Bahaa al-Araji, who told Alhurra television that the "freeze" could end "within a day or two" if the raids and arrests did not stop.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Thank God! I am so relieved the US is not buying Sadr’s ‘make nice’ ploy...Only the Democrats believe this one.
Go get Mookie NOW!!!OOOO-ooowish we could find him in a spider hole too!!!
This reads like a press release written by Al Sadr himself.
Double Barf Alert.. please!!!!
Heal Shiite Rift = Fall back and reload.
Can’t we pay off this Al-Sadr so he switches to our side? I don’t understand how he is still operating, we should give him 2 options: either work with the US or assasinate him. I’m tired of all this politically correct stuff that is getting our troops killed.
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