Posted on 08/29/2007 7:04:54 AM PDT by jveritas
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
BAGHDAD — Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered a six-month suspension of activities by his Mahdi Army militia in order to reorganize the force, and it will no longer attack U.S. and coalition troops, aides said Wednesday.
The aide, Sheik Hazim al-Araji, said on Iraqi state television that the goal was to "rehabilitate" the organization, which has reportedly broken into factions, some of which the U.S. maintains are trained and supplied by Iran.
"We declare the freezing of the Mahdi Army without exception in order to rehabilitate it in a way that will safeguard its ideological image within a maximum period of six months starting from the day this statement is issued," al-Araji said, reading from a statement by al-Sadr.
In Najaf, al-Sadr's spokesman said the order also means the Mahdi Army will no longer launch attacks against U.S. and other coalition forces.
"It also includes suspending the taking up of arms against occupiers as well as others," Ahmed al-Shaibani told reporters.
Asked if Mahdi militiamen would defend themselves against provocations, he replied: "We will deal with it when it happens."....
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,294990,00.html
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Yes...we all know AQ or the Iranians could do that.
But...here comes the but, it will give the Iraq Government and their Army six months more time to solidify. I for one count that as a plus.
Besides...we all know how these guys work, they say they are winning until they are completely decimated. Right now I see no declaration of victories from any extremists. In fact, the extremists have already lost the major overall war in the ME because the moderates did not rise up with them in magnificent numbers.... in six years of an overt global terrorism campaign!
The Surge is Working and the Terrorists are in the Trap
Looks like the only terrorists left are in congress.
Pray for W adn Our Troops
Watch as the MSM try all they can to not spin this as a success...or to try and not act like this is further tremendous progress for our side....
The Media isn’t even going to acknowledge this, and if they do, it will ONLY be in passing....
There are FAR more important things to cover. Have you heard about the Gay Republican Senator?
Just more proof that the surge is working and imho better than anyone expected.
As we discussed on the other thread....
CARTMAN to SADR: “I’m just saying you’re just a little wuss, that’s all.”
Of course I would regret it in the morning.
Unfortunately Mookie doesn’t really control them anymore.
from the article on the other thread:
“The diplomat said the seven Iranians included an embassy staffer and six members of a delegation from Iran’s Electricity Ministry.”
“Iran’s Electricity Ministry.”.......6 of ‘em! Now THERE’s an interesting wild card.
This would be the agency in Iran that pursues the “peaceful” nuclear program for generating electricity.
So I suppose that they were in Iraq to prepare to repair and upgrade the pathetic condition of the Iraqi electrical grid. Right.
Hopefully the release of them to ‘iraqi authorities’ is the equivalent of rendering......but then, there are iraqi authorities and there are ‘iraqi authorities’.
Would seem to be the Sadr army may have had it’s payroll cut. Iran won’t fund them if they’re not killing Americans, and they’re not just going to sit around waiting in reserve mode.
My real concern is that this is a rethinking of strategy. As a standalone entity they’ve become too visible and easy to hit. “Disband” for 6 months and join up with the Iraqi army, receive training, support and insight into the US-Iraqi plans, then strike from within.
I see this as jumping from a suicidal strategy of near frontal assault, with diminishing public support, into one that places them back into alignment with the Iraqi street. Staying irregular is no longer serving them well as Iraqi nationalism grows and fatique over civilian casualties at the hands of non-US attackers grows as well — only by transforming themselves into an army of regulars can they continue with their mission of “expelling the occupiers” while operating under the auspices of working for the “greater good” in Iraq. This right after Iran announcers that they are about to step into the “power vacuum” to propel Iraq forward from within. Just days ago the plan was announced and here it is.
Foreign terrorist elements (Saudis, Pakistanis, Iranians, Syrians, etc), on the other hand, are invested in making sure that "America learns its lesson", and seek primarily to prevent the public relations "disaster" (from their perspective) of American victory (which, IMO, America can already claim - too bad our media is so invested in declaring defeat for political reasons...but I digress); their other major aim is to kill as many Americans (troops and civilians) as possible.
I just hope that the bar for victory is not defined as Iraq being a stable secular capitalist democracy, leading a region-wide political transformation.
Yep..this is not as good as admitting defeat..but it will do!
first time I ever saw a mushroom cloud coming from a (french?) champagne bottle, LOL
The surge is working, attacks are declining, tips from the iraqis are increasing at a fantastic rate, they have had enough and more and more our guys are capturing and killing the islamo facist terrorists.
Give it a few more months and its time to put the president to touch down on another aircraft carrier!
The rats are hating every minute of it.
I’ll second that!
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