Fizzling Out
Let's Pile On
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Iraq | Moqtada al-Sadr | The Surge | War — Comments (9) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The reconstruction effort in Iraq continues to be a difficult task, one that entails a great many challenges. Part of the frustration in examining the reaction to those challenges in this country is seeing just how frightened commentators get by any adverse development whatsoever.
One recent adverse development was the decision by Muqtada al-Sadr to allow his followers to revolt in Basra. Instantly, this was proclaimed as proof that the surge and the implementation of the American counterinsurgency effort had failed.
Well, maybe not:
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Sunday that he was pulling his fighters off the streets nationwide and called on the government to stop raids against his followers and free them from prison.
The Iraqi government quickly welcomed al-Sadr's apparent move to resolve a widening conflict with his movement, sparked Tuesday by operations against his backers in the oil-rich southern city of Basra.
Al-Sadr's nine-point statement was issued by his headquarters in the holy city of Najaf and broadcast through loudspeakers on Shiite mosques. It said the first point was: "taking gunmen off the streets in Basra and elsewhere."
He also demanded that the Iraqi government stop "haphazard raids" and release security detainees who haven't been charged, two issues cited by his movement as reasons for fighting the government.
Followers handed out sweets in Baghdad's main Mahdi Army militia stronghold of Sadr City.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh called the statement "positive and responsible." But he also warned in a telephone interview broadcast on Iraqi state TV. that security forces would continue to target those who don't follow the order.
"We expect a wide response to this call," he said. "After this announcement, anybody who targets the government and its institutions will be regarded ... as outlaws."
Now that this development has taken place, are we allowed to go back to thinking that the surge is a success? It would only make sense; after all, if the surge was pronounced a failure because of the temporary Sadrist revolt, shouldn't it now be deemed a success since we see that the revolt appears to have come to an end?
It is probably more accurate to state that there will continue to be tough slogging ahead in Iraq. But thanks to the surge and the counterinsurgency effort, the reconstruction effort is proceeding more successfully than it was in the past. And just as commentators gnashed their teeth in despair over the brief Sadrist uprising, one would now expect them to rejoice over the fact that the uprising seems to have come to an end, and to make as big a deal about that end as they did of the beginning.
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Fizzling Out 9 Comments (0 topical, 9 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
the MSM will trumpet the call by Al-Sadr to lay down arms as a positive sign? Why am I not that confident they will?
I'm glad this is happening, however, I think we should have "accidentally" had a bomb drop on Muqtada al-Sadr a looonnnggggg time ago.
Sure, some would be engaged, but enough people would have seen the consequences of trying to destabilize the government. I think it would have been a short lived uproar and then silence.
"I ain't never votin' fo another Democrat so long as I can draw breath! I'll vote for a dog first!" - Leola Thomas
fat ass charlatan already. Why bother putting up with such scum?
"Nothing works like freedom, Nothing succeeds like liberty"
Kyle
and after starting it the dope realized it. Good as long as it lasted for our unquestionably patriotic Democrats and media but all good things must come to an end.
al-Sadr's quickly discovered statesmanship may have had something to do with the presence of U S troops, the British were probably having their tea, and the use of U S aircraft strikes.
A shame in a way, a lost opportunity to kill more of the filth. But the media can always hope.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
I must have missed the MSM story with a bad guy body count. Oh, that's right there were only a few stragglers and mostly civilians killed- suure.
Honestly, the real story is the Iraqi's, with some support from us, were smoking Al Sadr's boys by the bushel. Frankly, he can't win a war of attrition or afford to have his Iranian links further exposed. AS also takes a political hit every time there is a flare up from his acolytes.
While there are more bumpy roads ahead, this is a defining moment for Al-Maliki and the current government. Yet, the MSM sucks their collective thumb and again displays an extraordinary lack of world affairs comprehension and impartiality; congratulations.
"Nec Aspera Terrent"
bene ambula et redambula
Contributor to The Minority Report
Al-Sadr has not surrendered. He hasn't given up.
All he has done, is declare a hudna, a temporary truce in the classic Islamic pattern.
The use of the hudna when the odds of victory appear too low, goes all the way back to the time of Mohammed. He was notorious for making peace treaties with his enemies when he believed he was too weak to continue fighting, and then breaking those treaties as soon as he had reconstituted his forces sufficiently to continue the war.
But a hudna is always intended to be temporary. It is never intended to last more than ten years. Its purpose, now as in the time of Mohammed, is to give the Muslims a breathing space in which to reconstitute their forces--and resume hostilities. It is NOT intended as some stepping stone to a peace process, which is what Westerners regard a cease-fire or truce to be.
The threat from Al-Sadr's militia will not end until he is dead. Like the Japanese militarists of World War II, he simply does not know how to surrender. Unlike hudna, that's not something Muslims do in jihad. It's fight to the death so that they can enjoy their afterlife in Paradise.
but I think that Al-Sadr may actually be . . . for lack of a better word . . a "wuss."
He wants to live.
All the sudden our mainstream media is captivated by a southern African nation they have chosen to mostly ignore while it has suffered immensely. I live abroad- all I heard on the major English- speaking news networks: CNN, BBC, and Deutsche Welle were long segments on the mortgage travesty and Zimbabwe. But don't worry when Sadr launched his revolt that's all they talked about.