...And in other news, the survivors of Carthage today celebrated their rousing victory over the departed Romans by pouring the salted-Earth remains of their razed city over their heads...
Posted on 06/18/2004 3:19:15 PM PDT by M. Peach
Hundreds of fighters loyal to Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr have heeded his call to leave the city of Kufa.
Before returning to their homes elsewhere in Iraq, the al-Sadr loyalists gathered for a rousing and jubilant Friday prayer at the Kufa mosque during which they proclaimed their continued support for the Shia leader.
The unarmed fighters chanted outside the mosque that victory had been theirs and they could now return home.
A recent ceasefire deal between al-Sadr supporters and US occupation forces ended weeks of fighting which had left hundreds of Shia fighters dead.
They appeared to have interpreted the deal as having vanquished the US forces which have returned to their garrisons outside the city.
Al-Sadr - who led a two-month uprising in Iraq - denounced interim Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawir as a US-installed puppet and called on the government to end its alliance with the occupation forces.
The Shia leader told al-Yawir in comments read by an aide during the weekly Friday sermon at the Kufa mosque: "Your alliance with the occupation will bring only shame and disgrace to you".
In a turnaround last week, al-Sadr had said he would support the new government, due to assume power 1 July, but only if it worked to end the US presence in Iraq.
Al-Sadr's uprising, launched in April after US occupation authorities closed his newspaper, has left hundreds dead in clashes with US troops.
Local fighters
The Shia leader ordered members of his Mahdi Army who don't live in the cities of Najaf and Kufa to leave the holy cities last week - a key part of an agreement to end fighting there with American forces.
Most of al-Sadr's fighters in the two cities are believed to be from the area and not covered by the order.
Although calm has returned to the holy Shia cities of Najaf, Kufa and Karbala, Baghdad's al-Sadr City has become the new battleground for the Shia insurgency.
The poor Shia suburb of the Iraqi capital has seen pitched battles in recent weeks between US forces and al-Sadr loyalists.
Is that what they call victory?
...And in other news, the survivors of Carthage today celebrated their rousing victory over the departed Romans by pouring the salted-Earth remains of their razed city over their heads...
I'm sure we have lots of them on video. Just find them and kill them retail.
Didn't the Indians have the same shortcoming?
They understood victory in a pitched battle, but couldn't comprehend extended campaigns.
I'll feel more comfortable with my analogy if we continue to take 'em out in places like Sadr City and Fallujah and Bakuba...that part remains to be seen.
Great, now let's kill him.
Can we make an exception to US honor and shoot these unarmed men in the back? .... just askin
"You shot him in the back!"
"His back was to me."
Southack wrote:
...And in other news, the survivors of Carthage today celebrated their rousing victory over the departed Romans by pouring the salted-Earth remains of their razed city over their heads...
I'll borrow my daughter's favorite quote in response to their claim of victory: "Yeah, whatever."
I remember, some years back, seeing others from this gene pool firing their guns in the air in a "victory" celebration as they boarded ships taking them from Lebanon after the Israelis beat them to a pulp.
The beat goes on.
The Carthage quote was pretty neat.
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