Moqtada Al Sadr wins again!… this is getting boring!

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Moqtada Al Sadr wins again!… this is getting boring!

Posted: 8/27/2004 2:12:41 PM EDT

So once again Al Sadr is allowed to walk away unscathed when he's within an ace of destruction. And once again he is seen as having 'faced down' the Coalition and won… this is starting to turn into an ongoing farce thats wearing thin. Allawi talked tough and blinked, now we are going to have to start the whole battle with the Mahdi Army Revolt thing again within a month…

Andy

BBC analysis……

Najaf shows government's weakness

By Roger Hardy
BBC Middle East analyst

Where does the peace agreement in Najaf leave the Iraqi government, the Iraqi Shia and the country's uncertain progress towards stability and democracy?

Sadr's men have not disbanded

For the Iraqi prime minister, Iyad Allawi, there is relief but little celebration over the outcome of the standoff in Najaf.

The agreement, after all, was not his doing, but came after the swift and unexpected intervention of the country's most revered religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

Indeed the resolution of the crisis exposes the limitations of what the Allawi government can do.

Sadr's influence

Both the Americans and Mr Allawi had wanted to avoid the kind of unsatisfactory compromise which ended an earlier uprising by Moqtada Sadr's supporters in the spring.

So in this crisis, Mr Allawi and his top ministers talked tough, threatening a military assault to remove Sadr's forces from Najaf's holy shrine.

But when the assault never came, their credibility was dented.

Now, once again, Moqtada Sadr's prestige has risen. Once again, he has walked free. Once again, he has refused to disband his militia.

The Sadr movement may have the support of only a minority of the Iraqi Shia, but this crisis has shown it is a force to be reckoned with.

So the Najaf agreement represents a truce, rather than a solution.

It gives the government a breathing space, but little more.

Unfinished business

On the security front, Mr Allawi and the US-led multinational forces (as they are now officially described) still face a familiar mix of challenges.

Sunni violence, centred on Falluja and other towns in the so-called Sunni triangle north and west of Baghdad, continues.

Anger centres on the US presence in Iraq

So do the suicide bombings, the mortar and rocket attacks, and the drive-by shootings, temporarily eclipsed by the three-week drama in Najaf.

The common feature of the anger driving different Iraqi groups, whether Sunni or Shia, is resentment at the US military presence in Iraq - and a feeling that the Allawi government is a puppet of America.

Most violence appears to be home-grown. But Islamist fighters from outside the country still seem to be active.

Responsibility for the recent, unsuccessful, assassination attempts against two government ministers was claimed by the militant Islamist group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The Jordanian-born Zarqawi is a somewhat shadowy figure, considered an ally of al-Qaeda.

Many Iraqi Sunnis and Kurds have shared the indignation of the Shia over American actions in Najaf.

Political future

Night after night their television screens have shown death and destruction in the holy city.

Among the non-Shia, Ayatollah Sistani's intervention may, however, trigger mixed feelings.

Even if they share the general relief that the Najaf crisis is over - at least for now - Sunnis and Kurds may not welcome the new role being played by the country's most illustrious Shia cleric.

To some, his intervention suggests that the new Iraq will be less secular than the old.

It also underlines that the days when the Shia were the underdogs, and the country was run by a Sunni elite, are well and truly over.

As the authorities prepare for parliamentary elections due in January, plans for a new census are under way.

The Shia are confident this will show they represent at least 60% of the population.

Ayatollah Sistani insists the clergy should guide but not rule. Not everyone is reassured.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3605100.stm

Posted: 8/27/2004 2:14:10 PM EDT

[#1]

yup, this guy needs to get dead asap.

Posted: 8/27/2004 2:14:54 PM EDT

[#2]

Don't worry . . . they'll get him next time.

Posted: 8/27/2004 2:15:08 PM EDT

[#3]

yeah, we'll hear from sadr again soon. probably next week around wednesday.

Posted: 8/27/2004 2:17:34 PM EDT

[#4]

They just had to get him out of the shrine, his ass is grass soon.

Posted: 8/27/2004 2:32:35 PM EDT

[#5]

i hate see us troops fired on by this sack of crap, and then seeing him walk away

someone in the government here and in iraq is a pussy and needs to stop interfering

Posted: 8/27/2004 2:34:32 PM EDT

[#6]

oh yeah, if there wasn't an election in november, sadr would be dead right now.

Posted: 8/27/2004 2:43:08 PM EDT

[#7]

ya bush wants those million arabic american votes. =(

Posted: 8/27/2004 2:48:59 PM EDT

[#8]

Field artillery. NOW!

Posted: 8/27/2004 2:51:39 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
ya bush wants those million arabic american votes. =(

no, it would cause a shitstorm in iraq thus giving the impression that iraq is totally out of control thus giving the impression that bush is totally out of control and doesn't know what he's doing. we're walking on eggshells over there as it is.

Posted: 8/27/2004 2:51:56 PM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
Don't worry . . . they'll get him next time.

I thought that was supposed to be the answer THIS time

Posted: 8/27/2004 2:56:15 PM EDT

[#11]

I guess this is the kind of "sensitive" war that only Kerry would fight?

Just KILL the guy already!!!

My hat will be off to our leaders if he mysteriously shows up dead in a few days - but so far, this looks like ass!

Posted: 8/27/2004 3:00:03 PM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:
yup, this guy needs to get dead asap.

November 3rd 2004...

Posted: 8/27/2004 4:54:12 PM EDT

[#13]

fucking gov't pussies
let the military do what they need, and are willing, to do
this is going to become another vietnam like conflict, and just like nam it will be because of fucktard politicians
should have moabed that mosque and when the liberals/peaceniks/hippies/muslims bitched about it, told them to be mad at the terrorists for hiding out in the mosque

Posted: 8/27/2004 7:08:10 PM EDT

[#14]

We can't blow up a whole mosque and that's where Sadr stays all the time.

GunLvr

Posted: 8/27/2004 7:18:57 PM EDT

[#15]

You don't want to kill this guy. He's a magnet for like-minded road apples. Once you get four or five hundred around him, it's harvest time.

This guy is bait.

Posted: 8/27/2004 7:28:03 PM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
We can't blow up a whole mosque and that's where Sadr stays all the time.

GunLvr

Hmmmmm, This sounds familiar, when was the last time certain targets were off limits ???
Seems like about 35 years ago..........

Posted: 8/27/2004 7:48:02 PM EDT

[#17]

Reminds me of parents who dicipline their children by yelling "stop it! I *mean it* this time!" over and over.

Posted: 8/27/2004 7:53:23 PM EDT

[#18]

Smart move at this time---Sadr dead = martyr. Not good! He'll disappear. Just a matter of time.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Moqtada Al Sadr wins again!… this is getting boring!

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