Posted on 04/17/2008 11:19:14 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
As with all declarations of defeat in Iraq coming from the SurrenderMeida, the results of Maliki’s efforts to take on (and take out) the Mahdi Army thugs working for Sadr (and apparently Iran) has reaped huge benefits for Iraq. Some of the news the SurrenderMedia is afraid to highlight is still out there as the ever dwindling number of true journalists attempt to do their job - informing the West on all aspects of the situation in Iraq.
Let’s start with the overall result from the Basra crack down - a stronger and more unified Iraqi government:
A top Iraqi official said the political situation in Iraq favors reconciliation as the Iraqi Accordance Front agrees to return to the central government.
Montaser al-Emareh, the head of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, said a new political environment came out of the conflict in Basra.
He said Basra gave Iraqi politicians a renewed sense of confidence in the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Al-Alam reported Wednesday.
This new unity crosses sectarian lines and is a sign that once the Mahdi are eliminated or controlled there is the chance for a very bright future in Iraq:
Iraq’s main Sunni Muslim political bloc has agreed in principle to return to the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki nearly nine months after quitting the Cabinet, lawmakers from the group said Thursday.
A return of the Sunnis would be a boost to al-Maliki, who has struggled to keep together the disparate factions of his government and attempt to reconcile Iraq’s feuding Shiite and Sunni politicians.
Salim Abdullah, a lawmaker and chief spokesman for the Sunni Accordance Front, said that after “positive negotiations” with al-Maliki’s government, a deal in principle was reached under which the Front would hold ........
(Excerpt) Read more at strata-sphere.com ...
More progress ping.
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BAGHDAD, April 17 (UPI) -- A top Iraqi official said the political situation in Iraq favors reconciliation as the Iraqi Accordance Front agrees to return to the central government.
Montaser al-Emareh, the head of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, said a new political environment came out of the conflict in Basra.
He said Basra gave Iraqi politicians a renewed sense of confidence in the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Al-Alam reported Wednesday.
Emareh emphasized Maliki did not target the militia loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, the Mahdi Army, but instead focused on "anti-government armed groups" in Basra, noting Maliki stood by Sadr in the call to deny political parties that retained their militias a role in the political process.
Meanwhile, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front agreed to return to the Maliki government.
"The Sunni parliamentary bloc agreed to return to the government and presented its candidates' names to Maliki to select those who will be appointed as ministers in the government," Dabbagh told Voices of Iraq.
Kurdish leaders reach oil-law deal with Baghdad
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UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Iraq's central government and the Kurdish region have reached a deal on an oil law, including a method for weighing the validity of the oil deals the Kurds have signed with foreign firms, the top government spokesman said yesterday.
Ali al-Dabbagh said an agreement also has been reached on the classification and funding for the Kurds' security forces, the Peshmerga, which will become a battalion within the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. And he said the sides agreed to allow the U.N. process for determining the future of oil-rich Kirkuk and other disputed territories to play out.
Iraq’s Moment of Truth in Baghdad and Basra
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April 15, 2008 - by Mohammed Fadhil
The battle between criminal gangs and the state continues, yet the war is far from being over. Public statements keep coming from both sides and they don’t seem to promise a diplomatic resolution for the crisis. The latest exchange included a pledge for a “final battle” by Sadr’s spokesman Bahaa Aaraji and an assertion by Maliki that the government will not stop pursuing gangs militarily and politically. Telling Sadr that his movement cannot take part in elections unless he disbands his militias and surrenders weapons is a turning point in Iraqi politics, especially because a broad political front including leading Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish powers emerged to back this new trend in dealing with this issue.
I think what encouraged Maliki to push the limits of the conflict to this unprecedented level was the first-of-a-kind success of the Political Council for National Security — an entity that includes the president, PM, and leaders of major parliamentary blocs — to reach consensus on a decision. This entity managed for the first time a week ago to overcome the impotence that had halted its mission since its inception. Evidence of the newfound potency of this entity is that Ayad Allawi, who had refused being part of it for a long time, is now sending delegates to negotiate terms for his membership.
The ongoing confrontation highlights a dramatic change in the inclination of the Iraqi leadership, which decided to face the challenge with unwavering resolve instead of shrinking away. We have learned from the experience of the last five years that unresolved fights tend to be very costly in the long run, as we will have to deal with recurrent fights over and over again. It can be understood from Maliki’s words that he came to realize that the decision to disband or exterminate illegal military entities should have been made a long time ago.
At this point neither side is happy with the results and I think that both have made up their minds to go to war because each one thinks his side is closer to winning and has greater backing from the public than his rival. However, I believe that Sadr is making the mistake of thinking that what worked for previous battles would be equally effective in future ones. I strongly think that if a final battle is to take place, it will unfold with a bitter defeat for Sadr militarily and politically; the balance of power by far favors the state in spite of the difficulty of the situation.
The Iraqi leadership represented by Maliki is standing before a historic opportunity to strengthen the foundations of the rule of law. This opportunity has been made available by the decision of the Shia to renounce and expel the extremists amongst them, a decision that was long avoided because of sectarian considerations that were proven wrong later.
Everyone has come to realize that allegiance to the country provides more security in the long run than sectarian entrenchment does, and in my opinion the awakening of the Iraqi west and the uprising against the perverted violent practices of co-religionists have provided an example for a similar awakening among the Shia — of course, with the main difference we outlined in an earlier post; that is, while in the west we had a tribal uprising against extremist religious powers, in the south the uprising is religious-on-religious, with the target highly identified with one particular group.
I believe that another promising sign further emphasizes, to the government and people alike, that putting sect and tribe above country is a bad idea. Today 1,300 police and soldiers who disobeyed orders or, worse, sided with the enemy in Basra will get to taste the consequences of that, the same way that the commanders who were in charge of recruiting them did.
This housecleaning is not limited to security forces; Maliki also issued an order to fire Habib Sadr, the director general of the Iraqi Media Network, obviously over the disgraceful coverage of the battle. I didn’t follow the coverage of Iraqiya TV, but there was a lot of misplaced sympathy for Sadr on the government-owned al-Sabah, and the reader could indeed feel that the network was apologizing for, if not defending, the militias.
Back to the awakening theme. In both cases, extremists did not look after their brethren and tried to impose their radical views and practices upon everyone else around them. That’s why although the sect was perceived as a source of security in the first place, people got to realize with time that those extremists who held the banner of the sect had a different agenda from the provision of security for their people.
No Iraqi leader since 2003 has had the same broad support for a policy that Maliki has right now. For the first time a leader has the support of a majority of Shia, along with the approval of the Sunni and Kurds in addition to the sympathy of the public, which has grown tired of the recklessness and violence of Sadr’s movement. For the first time the leader appears more like a leader of Iraq than a leader of a particular sect, party, or ethnic group. Moreover, he has won the support of the coalition to further build an unprecedented consensus among all concerned parties.
I see that Maliki and the government are standing before a chance that will not come again to move the country forward. I’m optimistic about Maliki’s promises and determination more than ever and I totally agree with him that the solution is in disbanding the Mahdi Army (or al-hal hoa al-hal; literally, “the solution is in the [dis]solution,” in a play on words of which Iraqis understand the implicit meaning). Again, the main element in a resolution for the battle should not be exclusively military through disarming the Mahdi Army, nor exclusively political by excluding the movement from the political process. It has to be also judiciary.
The rule of law must be established and emphasized through prosecuting the heads of the movement who are involved in major atrocities. Evidence is abundant and damning; the movement repeatedly took up arms against the state and caused the deaths of many thousands of civilians and security personnel. In fact the movement itself keeps offering free confessions every time they boast of their militiamen’s performance in battle. If we actually succeed in putting the leaders of the militia on trial, then I believe that all others who illegally carry arms will be facing a serious challenge. As the Arabic proverb says, “Hit the big and the little will be frightened.” Right now the Mahdi Army is the biggest among insurgents, so defeating it will make others think more than twice before they take up arms against the legitimate institutions of the state.
I hope the Iraqi leadership benefits from this moment of unity, not only to quell violence but also to promote political reconciliation. I agree with observers in Baghdad who say that we’re witnessing a political spring. The most important event so far has been Maliki’s meeting with VP Hashimi to discuss the revival of the national unity government. Actually, a political breakthrough is now more likely to take place than ever, especially since all rivals have acknowledged Maliki’s role as a leader of a central government that has the exclusive right, and the obligation, to restore the prestige of the state and establish the rule of law.
Again, it’s a great opportunity for making substantial progress in the process of building the state and we must not waste it.
Mohammed Fadhil is PJM Baghdad editor. His own blog is Iraq the Model.
Sadrists vow to keep the Mahdi Army
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The Sadrist movement said it will not disarm and disband the Mahdi Army unless senior Shia clerics order it two weeks after the Iraqi government said political parties with militias could not participate in the upcoming provincial elections.
"The Mahdi army will not allow anyone to disarm it and al Sadr could not disarm the Mahdi Army except if top Shiite clerics gave directives to do that," Basem al Marwani, a senior leader in the Sadrist movement in Najaf told Al Hayat. Marwani also said the Mahdi Army would "continue its armed resistance against the foreign occupation" despite the ceasefire ordered by Muqtada al Sadr in late February.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the senior most Shia cleric in Iraq, has already said it was Sadr's responsibility to disband the Mahdi Army, as he was responsible for forming the militia. Sistani said the militia should be disbanded as “the law is the only authority in the country.”
Only Mahdi Army and al-Qaeda hit the army and state – Head of Badr organization
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Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
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Thursday , 17 /04 /2008 Time 10:10:38 |
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| Baghdad, Apr 15, (VOI) – The head of Badr organization, affiliated with the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC – Shiite political entity), stressed on Wednesday the necessity that the Sadr movement dissolves "Mahdi Army militias," if it wants to participate in the political process, saying that only the Mahdi Army and al-Qaeda "carried weapons" against the state and army. "No side raised weapons in the face of the state and government, other than the Mahdi Army and al-Qaeda," Hadi al-Amiri, lawmaker of the Unified Iraqi Coalition (UIC – parliamentary bloc headed by SIIC), said in a press interview with 'Asharq Alawsat' international daily, the Saudi issue. He clarified, "The Sadr movement should announce that it has no armed militia, and should clearly say: If you arrest any Sadr movement's personnel who carries a weapon illegally, then detain him, and that's what we did," in Badr Organization. Badr Organization represented the armed wing of the SIIC, before it became a disarmed organization that participated in the parliamentary elections that took place in Iraq at the end of 2005, as part of the UIC's slate, to win a number of parliamentary seats. "It is not possible to participate in the political process on the one hand, and carry weapons in the face of the government, and disturb the security and political process, on the other hand," al-Amiri proceeded. He asserted "For five years, there have been no parties that illegally carry weapons, other than the Mahdi Army and al-Qaeda." He referred that some of his organization's elements "joined security forces, according to a governmental decree, others retired or joined civil institutions." "Currently, we are not a military force at all," al-Amiri said. Concerning the statement of the Sadr movement's leader, Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr, who commands the Mahdi Army, that attributed the issue of dissolving Mahdi Army to the religious clergies, al-Amiri said, "The religious clergy was not consulted when the Mahdi Army was formed, and the clergy did not form this army, in fact it stresses the importance of limiting guns to the government's hand, and this is a clear demand to dissolve all illegal armed militias." Al-Amiri denied that "any political component or Iraqi party currently has an armed militia, excluding the Sadr movement." He mentioned that dissolving the Mahdi Army "does not mean punishing its members or arresting them, but they should join the political process as a party or political organization, not an armed militia." MH/SR |
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Iran is playing it’s game....
Very good.
All of which does nothing for the American problems with incompetant government led by Pelosi and Reid.
The biggest thing holding up eventual success in Iraq are the American democrats and the liberal american media.
One can only wonder if the US had to hold these guys down on a table and beat their feet with pipes or if they actually are starting to get smart and see the potential a united Iraq could have for them all.
Allawi?...I need to read more carefully that which I post.
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