Posted on 10/25/2006 6:24:56 AM PDT by zippy the razor
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's Shi'ite prime minister pledged on Wednesday to crack down on illegal militias but criticized a U.S. raid on a Shi'ite militia stronghold that killed at least four people.
A day after U.S. officials assured Americans the prime minister had agreed "timelines" to help end sectarian militia violence, Nuri al-Maliki used his own news conference to dismiss talk of any "timetable" for action.
(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.com ...
Not just them but everyone. Terrorists have shown they are slimey enough to use women and children to do their dirty work.
Good point. Someone should do a "down freeper memory lane" thread on that one. I can imagine the resultant sea of red faces facing keyboards. Another worthwhile "down memory lane" thread would feature the once humorous "quagmire alert" threads. Where are those folks now? Any volunteers want to step forward.
in regards to a time for iraqi'a to make the bench marks, al-Maliki says no on dictates time ti iraqi's
Peace and liberty can only exist in the long run if the people, taken together, are willing to pay the price for it. Until the majority of Iraqis are prepared to fight and die to preserve their liberty and democracy, they won't be able to keep them.
They are especially fearful of Iranian growing influence in the Middle East, especially if the Americans should leave abruptly.
Actually, I said Saddam had to go. He was funding Palestinian terror attacks in Israel and part of the world terror network.
Once gone, I think for our own interests we need to make sure Iraq and its oil don't fall into Iranian hands.
In fact, I will take it one step further...Ahmadinejad and the mullahs must also take a dive.
As to your point of American blood and treasure...if any of it is being wasted, it because we are fighting a PC war.
IMO, we should take of the gloves.
True.
In fact, islam, being a religion of hate, has no mechanism for forgiveness or removal of hatred. It only knows rage and revenge.
If you are talking about massive civilian deaths, ain't gonna happen.
The problem is that the Shiites do not want to share power with the Sunnis their former masters. There is ingrained hatred on both sides. Iraq has become a struggle between two religious groups. Iraq is also not a cohesive nation and never will be. I believe the best solution may be to partition Iraq into three countries a Kurdish north, a Shiite south and a Sunni west.
I am talking about militia deaths...do you consider the mahdi army to be civilian.
There used to be a country called Yugoslavia. Tito held it together by brute force, and demanding that different groups place worship of Communism in front of their ethnic heritage. It sort of worked for a while.
Rush was talking about an Iraq Manhattan Project the other day; this is my submission. Hey, it could work :)
Security is what's needed now not democracy
Al-Maliki, who relies on political support from the cleric Muqtada al- Sadr, said the strike against a figure in al-Sadr's Mahdi militia in Sadr City "will not be repeated."
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/25/D8KVP9U80.html
Wow...you should post that article.
Thanks for specifying but it is not always easy to tell here what people mean by statements like "take the gloves off." I am thinking of the frequent posters who hold forth on the merits on using "nukes" or "carpet bombing" entire cities.
Having said this,your more targeted solution is likely to lead to heavy civilian deaths since members of these militias do not wear uniforms, often have "day jobs," and live among civilians like other Iraqis. Especially in a country where nearly Iraqi male has an automatic weapon in his houses, separating the civilian from the militia member is an almost impossible task.
I agree. And I have this question and I hope someone could give me an answer: would taking out Sadr and his militias help quell Sunni insurgency? Afterall they've been at it for three and a half years. This month 93 American soldiers were killed in Iraq. Can anyone name a single incident of these in which Sadr's militias were responsible?
Having said that I agree that the Iraqi government must stand firm against ALL militias. I read today that Maliki is postponing action until after a reconciliation conference on Nov 4th.
Falusia(sp?) (someone please spell that for me)....we finally went in a fixed that hell hole. Take the gloves off, clean the place up and leave it to them to screw up on their own. We can't do much more than that for a bunch of people that don't know what they want themselves.
We can't make them want democracy, we can only lay the groundwork and offer it to them. Then they can mess it up and we can say...well it was there's to lose, not ours.
Something tells me it ain't gonna happen though....no heuvos in American politics...just spin, lies and give me more money. (just my opinion anyway...)
Unfortunately, I agree. Enough is enough.
This stinkhole cannot be saved. Let them all kill each other! Not our guys and gals, NO MORE.
The job is done, Mr. President.
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