Apr 17 2008
Maliki’s Government Reinvigorated After Taking On Sadr’s Mahdi Army
As with all declarations of defeat in Iraq coming from the SurrenderMeida, the results of Maliki’s efforts to take on (and take out) the Mahdi Army thugs working for Sadr (and apparently Iran) has reaped huge benefits for Iraq. Some of the news the SurrenderMedia is afraid to highlight is still out there as the ever dwindling number of true journalists attempt to do their job – informing the West on all aspects of the situation in Iraq.
Let’s start with the overall result from the Basra crack down – a stronger and more unified Iraqi government:
A top Iraqi official said the political situation in Iraq favors reconciliation as the Iraqi Accordance Front agrees to return to the central government.
Montaser al-Emareh, the head of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, said a new political environment came out of the conflict in Basra.
He said Basra gave Iraqi politicians a renewed sense of confidence in the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Al-Alam reported Wednesday.
This new unity crosses sectarian lines and is a sign that once the Mahdi are eliminated or controlled there is the chance for a very bright future in Iraq:
Iraq’s main Sunni Muslim political bloc has agreed in principle to return to the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki nearly nine months after quitting the Cabinet, lawmakers from the group said Thursday.
A return of the Sunnis would be a boost to al-Maliki, who has struggled to keep together the disparate factions of his government and attempt to reconcile Iraq’s feuding Shiite and Sunni politicians.
Salim Abdullah, a lawmaker and chief spokesman for the Sunni Accordance Front, said that after “positive negotiations” with al-Maliki’s government, a deal in principle was reached under which the Front would hold five Cabinet posts, in addition to a deputy prime minister position.
The Front agreed to return in part because of the security offensive that al-Maliki launched last month against Shiite militiamen in the southern port city of Basra, said Omar Abdul-Sattar, another Accordance lawmaker.
And there is reconciliation breaking out with the Kurds as well:
Iraq’s central government and the Kurdish region have reached a deal on an oil law, including a method for weighing the validity of the oil deals the Kurds have signed with foreign firms, the top government spokesman said yesterday.
Ali al-Dabbagh said an agreement also has been reached on the classification and funding for the Kurds’ security forces, the Peshmerga, which will become a battalion within the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. And he said the sides agreed to allow the U.N. process for determining the future of oil-rich Kirkuk and other disputed territories to play out.
This agreement illustrates the differences (for those with the intellect to keep and open mind) that the Mahdi Army is not the same as other militias that have been integrated into the national security forces. Many naive leftists still think the militias will form the bases of a civil war, when in fact they have formed the elements of the national security resources that are making Iraq more secure.
Yes, there will be horrible acts by terrorists on their fellow Muslims, but all that does create an even larger divide between the emerging Democracy of Iraq and the Islamo Fascists inflicting the atrocities to gain news headlines. Too bad the SurrenderMedia cannot give equal time and space to all these enormous steps in progress as they do to their ghoulish body bag counts.
And let’s be clear about those national security forces and their loyalty to the new Iraq. Contrary to the hyperventilating SurrenderMedia. Not that many Iraqis left their posts or folded at the prospect of gaining control of the southern regions of Iraq from the thugs in the Mahdi Army:
The recent fighting in Basra and Baghdad exposed the divided loyalties within the Iraqi police and Iraqi army. The Iraqi government announced Sunday that it had fired more than 1,300 policemen and soldiers who refused to fight Shiite militias in the south, and in some cases, even switched sides.
By contrast, the Iraqi National Police had just 50 out of their brigade of more than 1,000 leave, despite suffering the highest percentage of casualties among the Iraqi security forces, according to Col. David Boslego, an adviser in the headquarters of the National Police Transition Team. The overwhelming reason they left was because their families had been threatened, he said.
“The model of the national police is loyalty to country and that idea is what is the motivating factor for the program,†Boslego said.
Iraqi National Police soldiers, unlike their U.S. Army counterparts, can leave freely, much as civilians are allowed to quit their jobs, Boslego said, noting that those who left are not technically deserters.
Media ignorance or media lies and disinformation? Americans are going to have to figure that out as we sift through the ‘news’ from both journalists and propagandists – all with the same credentials. As I noted before, Basra is now a much better place after Maliki took action. The failure of Basra is another media myth that is being busted. Now we need to understand why the media got it so wrong, and whether there was some nefarious motivations behind their failures.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JD18Ak03.html
You can believe Strata, who has been wrong for years, or you can believe Hallinan who says Al Sadr’s victory over Maliki resembles,
shall we say, certain debacles foreboding the ultimate US defeat in the Vietnam War, a war which evidently taught AJ very little.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JD18Ak02.html
next,also from Asia Times, we have the inimitable Pepe Escobar outing the distortions of the Bush/Strata coteries’ “take” on Iran’s role and other salients of the lost Iraq War.
“Yes, there will be horrible acts by terrorists on their fellow Muslims, but all that does (is) create an even larger divide between the emerging Democracy of Iraq and the Islamo Fascists inflicting the atrocities to gain news headlines.”
Gee, AJ, “all that does” for me is show how wrong you were when you said,conservatively estimated, a year or more ago , that al Qaeda jihadists were beaten in Iraq.
Most sane people would consider 85% casualty losses over one year to be “beaten” but not our Truthy! He’s hanging in there for the super weapons to arrive. Important safety tip, Truthy: Better find yourself a deep spider hole.
You can no more eliminate all jihad or criminal/mafia elements in the Middle East than you can eliminate crime and criminals in the US. Truth’s banal banter holds no substance until the US can hold itself up to the perfection that Truth2 unreasonably demands. And that will be… of course… never.
However, like America’s intolerance to crime (except in Congress, of course), it is most assuredly a great success that Iraqis demonstrate increasing intolerance to those who strive to destroy their elected government…. whether jihad seeking control of the government, or internal mafioso seeking even local control.
In two days this week, several suicide bombers killed 110 Iraqi citizens. Yet Truth2 and ilk will still bemoan US unintended collateral as the more criminal. Pathetically sick. And opinions that render themselves more irrelevant for their lack of clear perspective.
Truthy thinks that crescent on crescent crime will actually HELP the Jihad cause and hurt the American cause. How’s that for brilliance!
HaHa Truthy,
“the inimitable Pepe Escobar outing the distortions of the Bush/Strata coteries’ “take†on Iran’s role and other salients of the lost Iraq War.”
You really need to branch out more. Another conspiracy theorist…oh but it’s not a conspiriacy…it’s the TRUTH!!!
http://www.counterpunch.org/escobar03212003.html
Mata
You’re a real sicko. You probably believe , if neighbors a block away
are having marital difficulties, but are of no threat to you, you should
take time away from your own marriage to butt in and help them solve theirs. Meanhwhile, not only do you bring more problems to theirs, you refuse to leave when they ask you to (as Iraqi majorities have wanted Americans to do for four years) even as you insist you can eventually solve their problems better than they can, including the problems you yourself brought to them.
Sick imperialist.
Marriage counselors are imperialist? Who knew?
Truthy,
“you can believe Hallinan who says Al Sadr’s victory over Maliki resembles,
shall we say, certain debacles foreboding the ultimate US defeat in the Vietnam War, a war which evidently taught AJ very little.”
So predictable. Hallinan writes for your favorite radical lefty sites:
atimes
counterpunch
alternet
antiwar.com
commondreams
and wait for it…the best yet…
TRUTHOUT! I bet you think Jason Leopold got a raw deal don’t ya?
I know truthy won’t get why that is hysterical since he’s been so brainwashed but Truthout of all places! BWAHAHAHAHAH !
Truth is a nutcase
That’s quite a leap from “intolerance to crime” to interfering in domestic issues, Truth. You’re nothing more than cyber flatulance, and your personal insults – a low and “sicko” blow from a desperate boob – roll off me like water on a duck. Blow it out your ear.
And BTW, you bozo… the Iraqi President has asked us to stay. Your Iraqi polls are not government decisions. Nor should they be.
When the Iraqi govt asks the US to leave, then I’m with you… we leave.
What an idiot loser…
http://www.counterpunch.org/lind04172008.html
As strategist William Lind of the Center for Cultural Conservatism outlines, there is no Iraqi government, and Basra proved it.
http://www.counterpunch.org/lind04172008.html
As William Lind of the Center of Cultural Conservatism outlines, there is no Iraqi government, and Basra proved it.
Whipped
Except Escobar is the truth-teller and the conspiracy theorists are those who e.g. libel Iran by portraying it as conspiratorially involved where it is not, e.g. portray bin Laden as conspiratorially involved where he is not–meaning the cynical Bush and Strata conspiracy theorists.
Truth can’t even form cognitive sentences anymore.
Me thinketh foaming, drooling, and spittle can’t be far behind.
Must be the Hukka pipe.
Little by little Truthy’s veil slips. He exposes himself as a true lover of evil, vile, monstrous beings who can’t even be classified as human. They use him, as others to justify the gruesome murders of thousands of innocents. What an empty shell Truthy has become. A wanderer with no soul. A pawn in a war between good and evil. When will he finally realize he has been duped? I suspect never…as it takes a strong heart and mind to overcome the type of hatred he has allowed himself to be a part of.
Truthy,
Don’t you mean libel Persia?
Whippet, it’s that very hatred that has brought America into the middle east. What an ironic twist of fate that radical fascists like Truthy are the very ones responsible for the secular and democratic movement that has now engulfed the region. He won’t have any friends there when this is all over. I suspect he doesn’t have too many now.
The Truth that Truthy is a lost soul is hard to take.
That last post implies an overindulgence in adult libations.
My guess is that he is too imbibed to assume the Norm.