al-Sadr's followers refuse to disband militia in Iraq

Tampa Bay Online | Apr 20, 2008 | ROBERT H. REID

[skully]

BAGHDAD (AP) -- Followers of hardline cleric Muqtada al-Sadr raised the stakes Sunday in the showdown with Iraq's government, refusing to disband their militia as the U.S. military reported an "uptick" of fighting in the Iraqi capital.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, meanwhile, assured visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that he will not back down in his confrontation with Shiite militias, even as mortar shells fired from Shiite areas struck the U.S.-protected Green Zone.

In a sign of that resolve, Iraqi soldiers took control Sunday of the last stronghold of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in the southern city of Basra, where an Iraqi offensive last month triggered the current wave of Shiite fighting.

Al-Maliki, a Shiite, has demanded that al-Sadr disband his Mahdi Army, the country's biggest Shiite militia, or his followers will not be allowed to run in provincial elections this fall.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Careful.....you might like the new story line....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Good grief...we are battling IRAN...and the MSM is helping cloud that issue....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

It’s difficult to imagine they are so blatantly antiAmerican!

See this :

Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left

And a review:

**********************************

By	Kat Bakhu (Albuquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left (Hardcover)

I had long wondered why people on the Left had the propensity to speak more positively about people who would slit their throats than they do about their own country, which affords them more freedom and opportunity than anywhere else. David Horowitz has answered that question thoroughly and convincingly in his Unholy Alliance. Where I felt bewildered and confused, I now feel crystal clear. Unholy Alliance is such a great book.

It begins with the leftist movements at the beginning of the 20th Century, and works its way up to the present day, exploring the anti-American attitude of these movements in detail. Horowitz shows that the enemies of the US back then are largely the same group today, operating under the same misperceptions, making the same mistakes, and pursuing the same impossible utopia.

Individual chapters are included on the Patriot Act (I was persuaded that it is a GOOD thing); the democratic flip-flop on Iraq once G.W. Bush implemented what they agreed with Clinton needed to be done; the driving components of the current anti-war movement; as well as chapters on individual personalities who are major spokespeople of the Left. Horowitz covers a lot of ground, and he covers it concisely and clearly. Unholy Alliance is richly informative without ever being boring or plodding.

This book is so illuminating that I simply cannot do justice to it here. I love people who reason so clearly that they help me get my own reasoning clear. Horowitz is just that type of person! In the terrain of mindless clichés (no-blood-for-oil, etc.), he is a breath of real fresh air.

[eyedigress]

Don’t tell the moonbats, they go all crazy on us, Oh....... Nevermind!

[eyedigress]

I shall purchase and read said book. Thanks

[Gondring]

I think it was wrong of the USA to even try to set up some sort of a divided “religious” government.

Exactly. I agree with the former governor of Texas who pointed out that it's not our job to go around the world nation-building!

[DrGunsforHands]

So the Iraqis will become obsessed with American culture like Japan and South Korea after WWII and the Korean War, respectively? That would be pretty awesome. Turned out pretty well for Japan and South Korea.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

sandrat pointed out a good companion book ...:

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning (Hardcover)

**************************EXCERPT*****************

And a review:

By David McCune "self-deprecating and proud of it"
And boy, does Jonah Goldberg have himself some enemies.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I think you are wrong in this case.....

It is in the National Interest to have a Friendly Democratic Nation in the Middle of the Islamic Heartland....

[PzLdr]

Then kill them. All.

[oneolcop]

WhackAMookie

[meanie monster]

lol

[oneolcop]

Hey, hey! What kind of a name is meanie monster? Sounds like you are very insensitive!

[DGHoodini]

Good! The sooner they fight, the sooner they die.

[meanie monster]

I am the artist formerly known as puddle duck who forgot my password and had to make a new account. I was mad at the fact of becoming a newbie again. So meanie monster seemed fitting. hehehehehe

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

It's probably the groupies who keep them going. Jihotties love them martyrs.

[onedoug]

Better that we should have been at war with Iran as we would have beaten them into the ground by now. But alas, we don't do that sort of thing anymore.

[mainerforglobalwarming]

The U.S. and Iraqi army keep disbanding al-Sadars militias, and people on the left act like we're losing. By the end of the summer, after many hard fought battles, its over for al-Sadr and his Iran backed militias. They are acting like democrats now, threatening to do all sorts of crazy things, with little power to do anything. The reality is that our troops with the help of the Iraqis are systematically taking them down. Not without great costs, valiant soldiers are paying a high price. But they are getting the job done.

[roaddog727]

He needs to be killd, and have his head mounted on a pike and prominently dispalyed at the “gates” of Baghdad.

[Admin Moderator]

Please include links when you post an article, especially in Breaking News.