Iraqi Army Takes Last Basra Areas From Sadr Force

The Virginian/NY Times ^ | 4/20/2008 | Moneyrunner

[moneyrunner]

There is little that puzzles the savants at the NY Times since they know everything. They just can't figure out why Mookie" Sadr, who they and the rest of the MSM declared the winner in Basra, is fading away.

Via Belmont Club

Despite the apparent concession of Basra, Mr. Sadr issued defiant words on Saturday night. In a long statement read from the loudspeakers of his Sadr City Mosque, he threatened to declare “war until liberation” against the government if fighting against his militia forces continued.

But it was difficult to tell whether his words posed a real threat or were a desperate effort to prove that his group was still a feared force, especially given that his militia’s actions in Basra followed a pattern seen again and again: the Mahdi militia battles Iraqi government troops to a standstill and then retreats.

Why his fighters have clung to those fight-then-fade tactics is unknown.

[Elsiejay]

It would be greatly desirable that he be taken out by a means that could not be traced to a U. S. trigger puller or other operative, to avoid a fearsome and bloody reaction.

[SolidWood]

I’d prefer Sadr being tossed into the river.

[Lurker]

It would be greatly desirable that he be taken out by a means that could not be traced to a U. S. trigger puller or other operative,

I vehemently disagree. We need to reinforce the lesson that if you kill American troops or order the deaths of American troops, you die at the hands of an American whenever and wherever possible.

Preferably in a very public and spectacular fashion.

L