Posted on 04/20/2008 11:49:28 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
BAGHDAD --
Iraqis here marked the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad -- and of their liberation from Saddam Hussein's tyranny -- in eerie silence and fear. Though April 9 was officially a national holiday, Baghdad's shops were shuttered and its streets deserted because of the emergency curfew declared by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, the head of Iraq's government, who in late March attacked the forces of his fellow Shiite, radical cleric Muqtada Sadr, in the southern port of Basra with no warning to either his Cabinet or his American protectors.
As I drove through the capital in an armed convoy of vehicles with blue and red flashing lights, Baghdad was silent except for the Muslim call to prayer that ricocheted from the city's minarets, the sound of mortars or rockets falling somewhere in the distance, and the thumping of American helicopters flying fast and low over the shuttered city.
For a journalist who had not visited Baghdad since the invasion, the scene was devastatingly surreal. Few buildings downtown remain untouched by the war or its far-bloodier aftermath. In the once fashionable Mansour district, the theft of steel rods from the gargantuan Mosque of the Merciful made one of its 75 domes collapse. But the rest of the mosque, which was under construction when the war began, was such a wreck -- with debris and chunks of gray concrete scattered throughout the site -- that the latest damage was barely noticeable.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
*******************EXCERPT***************************
Could things get worse? Yes. And they very well might if Washington, in the name of supporting the democratically elected Maliki government, gets our forces further embroiled in a battle among competing Shiite factions.
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MSM is picking up the Story Line that IRAN wants to convey to the USA ....
I need the Drudge Alarm Graphic.....
Vote in House coming up on funding...
Hey Judy Judy Judy, the US HAS BEEN in a dangerous spot for quite sometime now. Dumb @$$!
You need a barf alert. Oh, wait; it's from the LASlimes, which is itself a barf alert.
I need the Drudge Alarm Graphic...
—
I need an aspirin...
“Could things get worse? Yes. And they very well might if Washington, in the name of supporting the democratically elected Maliki government, gets our forces further embroiled in a battle among competing Shiite factions.”
Oh, well, we’d better give up right away, then.
No point in fighting a war if people are going to get hurt.
Judith Miller???? Is this some kind of trverse psychology or apologia to the traitor Left? Gee, Baghdad on April 20th is qiet...well of course it is..there warfare going on in one of it’s suburbs...If things were as desperate as she wants it to appear to be, then the rest of Baghdad wouldn’t be quiet at all. And a city rocked by 5 years of war and terrorist bombings doesn’t rebuild overnight. IO am reminded of Rather, after the fall of Baghdad, *before* the viiolence started, outside at night, giving a report in a dire voice, looking around the peaceful nihght scene, like he was ijn the middle of a fierce battle...what a lying lil demolib MSM (w)ussy
“Stuck in the middle - The United States has put itself in a dangerous spot”
Ms Miller has the adverbial phrase - stuck in the middle - on the wrong object - the U.S. - it is Maliki who is in the middle and so far he is negotiating it as best he can, incrementally.
Fortunately, it is Mr. Maliki and his government that is in the middle of this issue - which is to have either elected government or government by thugs - and also, fortunately, Maliki realizes this as does a majority of the political leaders among the Shia. Sadr must give up his thuggery and win or lose with his friends and allies in a constructive political process, or Maliki will politically isolate Sadr and with that isolation gain what he needs to route Sadr, militarily if needed. Maliki knows and is sympathetic to the fact, as are a majority of Shia leaders, that the Sunni’s will become more enthusiastic partners when Sadr is no longer the leader of a militia, by choice or by force.
The U.S. is not “in the middle”. We are the helpful ally on the sidelines ready to help where needed.
I think she got something stuck up her... well I’ll let it go at that.
roflmto...now I don’t have to say it..lol
BAWHAHAHAHAH...exactly...
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