Too often our University trained military officers and State Department employees overlook the lessons of WWII and buy into the myth of diplomacy. By conceding ground to Muqtada al Sadr in an effort to have him 'buy in' to the process of creating a nation, we have let a dangerous man create a radical Islamist fiefdom. From
Not long after, Sadr was implicated in a massacre in the gypsy village of Qawliya. His Mahdi army tried to abduct a woman accused of prostitution in order to try her in SadrÂ’s kangaroo religious court. When the men of the town resisted, 20 were killed and the town nearly leveled with machine guns, mortars, and RPGs, after which the survivors were beaten and tortured.
Sadr’s victims are not only his fellow Iraqis. The Mahdi army often attacks Coalition forces, on one occasion turning a Sadr City marketplace into a “300-meter-long-kill-zone” in a battle that claimed the life of Sgt. Yihjyh (Eddie) Chen. Many more Americans have died fighting his goons in Najaf and Karbala.
Sadr is accused of being a pawn of TehranÂ’s mullahs as well, helping them subvert the progress of Iraqi democracy. If military action is taken against IranÂ’s nuclear weapons program, SadrÂ’s Al-Mahdi militia could counterattack within Iraq.
One can only imagine how the restive Sunnis in central Iraq fear the prospect of SadrÂ’s growing influence. Why would they support a new Iraqi government that, favoring the Shiite majority as it must, might eventually make Sadr their de facto ruler?
. This Clinton W. Taylor dude is one sharp playah. It's surprising to learn he got through his grad school classes with an attitude like that. He must read the Jawa.
1
Sadr is a useful tool to show the Sunnis that we aren't the enemy. Once we have the Sunnis back on the reservation, then it'll be time to go after Sadr. One fight at a time is the smart way to do it, enlisting allies from former enemies.
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at August 26, 2005 04:07 PM (0yYS2)
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No. He filled his blue books with things he knew were wrong and did his dissertation on a plain vanilla topic. Bet me.
Posted by: Rod Stanton at August 26, 2005 06:20 PM (03F0I)
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I read a report recently that Sadr's goons are mixing it up with SCIRI. Looks to me like Tubby McFatwah has had a falling out with with his supporters in Iran, or possibly there's a power-struggle in Iran for control over their attempts to destabilize Iraq.
Posted by: Cybrludite at August 26, 2005 08:41 PM (FRvw6)
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Rod, WTF? Over. Did you post that to the wrong topic or did it just go over my head?
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at August 26, 2005 11:03 PM (0yYS2)
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No - the Dr. said he wondered how he got through grad school. I am explaining to Rusty. As if he did not know already.
Rusty said,"Posted by Dr. Rusty Shackleford at 03:50 PM | Comments (9) | SandcrawlerTracks (0) | This Clinton W. Taylor dude is one sharp playah. It's surprising to learn he got through his grad school classes with an attitude like that."
I am explaining how he gamed grad school.
Posted by: Rod Stanton at August 27, 2005 08:39 AM (03F0I)
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Rod's right. It's the only way he could have kept from being failed given the political climate in our "institutes of higher learning".
Posted by: Oyster at August 27, 2005 08:43 AM (YudAC)
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Dr. Shackleford, Sadr will not be Sistani's replacement. He doesn't have the genetics, and besides, he is an Iranian sock puppet.
We tried to have him arrested for the machete murder of a competing cleric just after Gulf II, but couldn't do it. And we don't do assassinations.
;-)
Posted by: matoko kusanagi at August 27, 2005 11:50 AM (ha08A)
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Take him out? Dr. Rusty, you've been watching 700 Club again ... besides the fact that al-Sadr is a nasty little bugger, he happens to be the nasty little bugger on the side of OUR nasty little bugger, Ahmad "You tell me, I'll tell the Ayatollah" Chalabi. Their alliance is just ONE of the U.S. military's big problems in Iraq (the others being the insurgency, the sunnis, the shiites, the Iranians, the oil, the kurdish separatists, the oil THEY've got, the former baathists, the foreign fighters, the Iraqi population and Donald Rumsfeld) ... al-Sadr and Chalabi try to lend each other legitimacy, despite the fact that supposedly, the REAL power in Iraq, Iranian ulta-mullah Sistani, supposedly can't stand either man.
So the question is, if we "take out al-Sadr" what will that really buy us? the answer, to quote Jeb Bush during his failed 1994 gubernatorial campaign, "probably nothing."
Then again, I may not be up on who our scurilous allies are in Iraq these days, since I try to avoid the Neocon drivel on NRO and the Weekly Standard unless I absolutely have to... (or ate too many cheeseburgers over the weekend and am looking to make myself throw up...) /note to any of my lefty friends who happen to be reading Jawa, I was just kidding on that last one. please don't protest outside my house.../
Posted by: JReid at August 27, 2005 03:38 PM (X4Img)
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maybe he wants to "take him out" on a date. Rusty might think Sadr has "pretty lips".
Posted by: Mr. K at August 27, 2005 06:47 PM (aFc8I)
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By your implication, Rod, Rusty did exactly the same thing in grad school.
JReid, I was still kind of on the fence about Chalabi --I know smart people who are for him and against him--but that was before he took up for Sadr. I think AC's worn out his welcome.
Posted by: See-Dubya at August 27, 2005 07:27 PM (ttYIJ)
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