The ‘fragile’ escalation.
The ‘fragile’ escalation.
The New York Times reports that “officials” attribute the decreased violence in Iraq in part to “a six-month halt to military action by the militia of a top Shiite leader, Moktada al-Sadr.” Sadr, who has three months to go on his pledge, isn’t giving any indications that his followers will accept a long-term “enduring presence” of Iraq:
“I say this to the evil Bush – leave my country,” Sadr said in the Shiite holy city of Najaf. “We do not need you and your army of darkness,” he said.
“We don’t need your planes and tanks. We don’t need your policy and your interference. We don’t want your democracy and fake freedom. Get out of our land.”
UPDATE: Max Bergmann wonders: “What sense did it make to institute a strategy that was not sustainable from the get-go?”
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Hehehe. He talks funny. Like Bush, all that evil and darkness lingo cracks me up.
The only difference is that there are no Sadr’s militia men in DC.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:41 amwe dont want that piece of crap here either sadr.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:41 am“We don’t need your planes and tanks. We don’t need your policy and your interference. We don’t want your democracy and fake freedom. Get out of our land.â€
Yup, surge is sure workin great.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:43 am3885
another 3 soldiers killed today
Iraq is now a “Non- Story†and quickly becoming irrelevant to the presidential campaign.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:44 amWait, was this before or after the flowers thrown at the soldiers’ feet?
December 5th, 2007 at 10:44 amIt wouldn’t matter it everything turned rosey overnight cause THE WHOLE ENDEAVOR IS A FARCE, DEVICIVE, DIS-HONEST, AND TOTALLY CORRUPT.
OUT NOW.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:45 amGlad to see the MSM finally taking this into account. Al-Sadr’s unilateral moratorium on attacking our forces is probably second only to the success of the ethnic cleansing of Iraq, “mission accomplished” Iraqi style.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:45 aminstead of being greeted with flowers looks like its Rocket propelled grenades for the next 50 years
December 5th, 2007 at 10:45 am#4, you couldn’t be any more wrong. there is nothing new to debate about the illegal occupation regarding iraq. everyone has made up their mind.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:46 amLech leha. Get thee out.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:47 amFrom JuanC: “Hehehe. He talks funny. Like Bush, all that evil and darkness lingo cracks me up.”
From an Iraqi perspective, ours is an Army of Darkness. “Darkness” is a pretty good word for what we’ve brought to Iraq.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:48 am3886 gone up 1 already – thats 4 today
December 5th, 2007 at 10:48 amYea, that’ll do it. Bush will start redeploying troops any minute now.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:49 amFrom an Iraqi perspective, ours is an Army of Darkness. “Darkness†is a pretty good word for what we’ve brought to Iraq.
Comment by boreas — December 5, 2007 @ 10:48 am
Now that’s not entirely accurate. Iraq isn’t dark ALL the time. They get sunlight probably 10-12 hours per day, and electricity a good 6 hours per day.
Army of Intermittent Darkness, perhaps.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:53 amAlledged Objective
1 Saddam Hussein Hanged and No Cheap Oil
Cost to American and the other Coalition of the stupid
$2 trillion
3886 Dead US Troops
38,164 Wounded and Air lifted
1156 US Contractors dead
310 Dead Coalition Troops
1.2 Million Iraqis dead
2 Million Iraqis in wheelchairs
Americas Integrity is now MUD worldwide except in was it Bulgaria a nation of watch thieves
————-
And Bush still says it was worth it, all because he never experienced losing a child
December 5th, 2007 at 10:58 amThinking back, I can remember when the US (or at least Shrub) wasn’t aware of the Sunni / Shia thing.
Currently, from the media, I get the impression that the Iraqi govt is possibly an all-Shia govt as some Sunnis felt left out. But the Shia at least are in on this. (similar to how all Protestant Christians are on the same page ?????? NOT!)
Now, will it hit home that Shia doesn’t mean one united group ?
As Shrub is so solidly in the theory of unitary executive power, in a land where there have traditionally been 2 main parties (repub, demo and of course a handful of smaller parties), can he deal with the idea that a country may be composed of innumerable splinter groups ?
With a foreign policy head (Condi) whose background is in a land where there was strong centralized power (Soviet Bloc) ?
December 5th, 2007 at 11:02 amGordon Brown has loyally bought $125 billion of US Treasury Bonds in the last few months to help shore up his ally, with my money. Brown is a man who prides himself on economic prudence, that is a move he will come to rue.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:02 amAnd Bush still says it was worth it, all because he never experienced losing a child
Comment by Bush Cover Ups — December 5, 2007 @ 10:58 am
Somehow I get the sense that if Bush did lose a child, he’d use his mother’s precedence and not bother attending the funeral.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:04 am“We don’t need your planes and tanks. We don’t need your policy and your interference. We don’t want your democracy and fake freedom. Get out of our land.â€
Neither do we buddy, get in line.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:04 amNeither do we buddy, get in line.
Comment by Namtillaku — December 5, 2007 @ 11:04 am
Now serving number 387,456,812…
December 5th, 2007 at 11:05 amLast month, in a humiliating turn of events, the central bank in Iraq, four years after the United States invaded, stated that it wished to diversify reserves from a reliance on dollars.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:07 am“Cost to American and the other Coalition of the stupid”
In your list you firgot to mention 4 million Iraqi refugees.
“And Bush still says it was worth it, all because he never experienced losing a child”
No, but remember, he did lose a sister. If you remember how that went down you’ll gain some possible understanding of how Bush’s brain works – or doesn’t work.
When George and Bar came home from the hospital, where their daughter had just died, they never said a word to Junior about it. Not a word. Then they went out and played a round of golf.
No wonder Bush used to blow up frogs with M-80s and torture fraternity pledges. No wonder he thinks nothing of torturing captives. No wonder he seems utterly disinterested in GI funerals and doesn’t want to see flag draped caskets in the news.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:07 am22/ In your list you firgot to mention 4 million Iraqi refugees.
I suspect these are reserves just in case US troops kill everything in Iraq, somebody needs to claim the land and Oil back as the rightfull aires
December 5th, 2007 at 11:18 amSadr is a force to be reckoned with. We should be sitting down right now to see if any middle ground could be established to prevent the holocaust that may erupt when his cease fire expires.
As noted in an earlier thread, Israelis see the NIE report as a ‘reason to use diplomacy against them! That thinking mirrors the Shrubster; diplomacy has somehow become a ‘weapon’.
Personally, I think Bush became mildly retarded from cocaine and booze. At the very least, he sees a world many of us are not familiar with. Not rose colored glasses, but perhaps, money colored glasses?
December 5th, 2007 at 11:31 amThe Bush administration went with an unsustainable, short-term plan in order to quiet things down just long enough for the Democrat in office to get blamed when the “surge” fails. I can already see the headlines blaming the new Democratic President for the increase in violence, and blaming that increase on the new President drawing down forces (instead of the fact that the Al Sadr militia only agreed to a short term truce).
Bush is trying the same strategy on the economy. In his “bailout” for home buyers facing rising interest rates, his Treasury Secretary is trying to get lenders to freeze rate increases for 2 years. So they’re basically just passing the problem onto the next administration. They’re not solving the problem at all, just passing the buck yet again.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:41 am“we don’t need your war machines. We don’t need your ghetto scenes.”
Has anyone ever seen a picture of Burton Cummings standing next to Maktada al-Sadr?
December 5th, 2007 at 12:41 pmGlad to see the MSM finally taking this into account. Al-Sadr’s unilateral moratorium on attacking our forces is probably second only to the success of the ethnic cleansing of Iraq, “mission accomplished†Iraqi style.
Comment by boreas
You also need to add the fact that our military is not sending our soldiers out on patrol on IED mined roads any longer. They are now just bombing the shit out of the country.
A combination of the al Sadr moratorium, ethnic cleansing and not sending our troops out to get killed by IED’s is the reason for the drop in military deaths. Oh, I almost forgot another factor. We are paying bribes to sheiks to not kill us.
December 5th, 2007 at 1:25 pmMuqtada al-Sadr is a dangerous, lazy, semiliterate, semi-retarded cats’ paw of Iran –he and Bush have much in common
December 5th, 2007 at 1:35 pm