A Calmer Iraq: Fragile, and Possibly Fleeting
That's one of the Times' famously deceptive headlines!
"Mr. Sadr, who has only three months to go on his pledge, has issued increasingly bellicose pronouncements recently.
See?
Joost Hiltermann, an Iraq analyst at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based research organization:
"We are in a holding pattern. The military solution has gained enough peace to last through the U.S. election, but we have a situation that is extremely fragile. None of the violent actors have either been defeated or prevailed, and the political roots of the conflict have not been addressed, much less resolved.”
Oh, there will be peace in Iraq through the next election, huh?
And HOW DOES HE KNOW THAT?! Need I say case closed, readers?
Because that's what shit the MSM is going to shovel this coming year!
Bush won Iraq!
Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni and one of Iraq’s two vice presidents:
"I am really afraid what will happen if these local troops are frustrated and are not paid by the government and brought into the security forces. I am really afraid. They might change their attitude. You should expect anything."
Oh, maybe it will be "Al-CIA-Duh," then!
The situation with Mr. Sadr has a different dynamic. He has long had two roles on the Iraqi street. He has fought Sunnis who he believed were attacking his community, and in the process fueled the cycle of sectarian brutality. But he and his militia have also fought the rival Shiite political force in Iraq, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, many of whose members are in the government security forces. The silence of Mr. Sadr’s militia has quieted both struggles, but ended neither.
In the last two weeks there have been several violent outbreaks in areas of the city where Mr. Sadr’s militia has traditionally been active. Despite his militia’s pause, Mr. Sadr’s two main projects remain unfinished: consolidating Baghdad as a Shiite city and gaining power over the Supreme Council.
Mr. Hiltermann, the analyst:
“The Sadrists have not been in an aggressive posture since early this year. They have taken the position, ‘We will only fight if we are attacked.’ But that doesn’t mean they are gone. The real struggle in the longer term will be between Moktada Sadr’s mass movement and the Supreme Council, which is extremely well equipped, well financed and well trained. This fight is still shaping up.”
Isn't SCIRI an ally of Iran?
Why don't we just let the Iraqis sort the thing out, anyway?!
After all, IT IS THEIR COUNTRY, right?
"In June, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, told the newspaper The Times of London that he believed that the five Britons were being held by the same Iranian-backed “secret cell” of the Mahdi Army, a Shiite militia loyal to the cleric Moktada al-Sadr, that is suspected of killing five American soldiers during a raid in Karbala in January (New York Times)."
MSM will be talking about the surge in violence due to al-Sadr!
You heard it here first, folks!
Mark my words!
Look at them tossing Iran and Sadr in together in "secret!"
I am tired of war propaganda, readers!
