UK TimesOnline: This will be a Sunni insurgent confrontation, al Maliki not taking on al-Mahdi Army

[sabra]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2543371,00.html

<snip>

Officials insist that the joint US-Iraqi Baghdad crackdown will aim at both sides. But although some raids have been launched against Hojatoleslam al-Sadr’s al-Mahdi militia, the Government appears to have little appetite for a full-on confrontation.

One al-Maliki aide told The Times that the Baghdad offensive would first concentrate on outlying Sunni insurgent strongholds that “choke” the capital — such as Abu Ghraib, Latifiya and Salman Pak — rather than taking on al-Mahdi Army.

“The Prime Minister has said that if the surge is used to tackle the areas sending car bombs into Baghdad he will approve it, but if it is used to do the same as before, he would not be very enthusiastic,” he told The Times.

“He argues that the way to deal with the Mahdi Army is to bring down the level of terrorist attacks so ordinary Shia don’t feel the need for the Mahdi. Right now they think the Mahdi is bad, but without them they would be killed by al-Qaeda and the others.”

After four to eight weeks — once ordinary Shias see a reduction in insurgent killings — the Government would be in a stronger position to persuade the militia to disband. While the plan’s exact timing and focus are being kept secret, Lieutenant-General Nasir Abadi, the Iraqi Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff, confirmed to The Times that it would “definitely” hit Bagh dad’s outer ring, where insurgents operate safely within Sunni neighbourhoods. “That is why we need the extra troops, to have operations inside and outside simultaneously,” he said at the Defence Ministry in Baghdad. “Some we will be bringing from our own forces in the north and south, and some may be from the coalition.

...

In the giant Shia slum of Sadr City, the Baghdad stronghold of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, his al-Mahdi Army is ordering every man aged 15-45 to register for combat. One al-Mahdi fighter told The Times’s Iraqi staff that they had been put under orders not to seek confrontation. “We expect this new American plan to try to take on our leadership, not to go after every fighter, weapon and vehicle. We will keep our leadership in safe areas.”

http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,383554,00.jpg

[sabra]

1. morning kick

:kick:

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Get the US out

and let the Iraqis sit down and talk to each other and maybe the killing will stop.

Most of the arms and explosives are coming directly from the US. Turn off the supply of weapons and turn back on the electric. This the only way there we'll even be a chance for peace in Iraq.

[ck4829]

3. As we all predicted, there will only be fighting against Sunnis

[PA Democrat]

4. Stupid Bush will allow US troops to be placed under the control of

al-Maliki's corrupt government. It's outrageous that the US is sending our soldiers to participate in what will appear to be ethnic cleansing of Sunnis. Bush is an idiot if he plans to go along with this.

Al-Sadr is not going to walk away and give up power once the Sunni insurgency is quelled. Al-Maliki is playing a very dangerous game with al-Sadr and a lot of Americans will be killed in the process.

[Avalux]

5. I'm going to post this yet again, with critical area bolded:

Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq
Frederick Kagan (PNAC nutcase)
American Enterprise Institute

-snip-

Victory in Iraq is still possible at an acceptable level of effort. We must adopt a new approach to the war and implement it quickly and decisively.

We must act now to restore security and stability to Baghdad. We and the enemy have identified it as the decisive point.

There is a way to do this.

* We must balance our focus on training Iraqi soldiers with a determined effort to secure the Iraqi population and contain the rising violence. Securing the population has never been the primary mission of the U.S. military effort in Iraq, and now it must become the first priority.
* We must send more American combat forces into Iraq and especially into Baghdad to support this operation. A surge of seven Army brigades and Marine regiments to support clear-and-hold operations that begin in the spring of 2007 is necessary, possible, and will be sufficient to improve security and set conditions for economic development, political development, reconciliation, and the development of Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) to provide permanent security.
* American forces, partnered with Iraqi units, will clear high-violence Sunni and mixed Sunni-Shia neighborhoods, primarily on the west side of the city.
* After those neighborhoods are cleared, U.S. soldiers and Marines, again partnered with Iraqis, will remain behind to maintain security, reconstitute police forces, and integrate police and Iraqi Army efforts to maintain the population’s security.
* As security is established, reconstruction aid will help to reestablish normal life, bolster employment, and, working through Iraqi officials, strengthen Iraqi local government.
* Securing the population strengthens the ability of Iraq’s central government to exercise its sovereign powers.

http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.25396/pub_detail.asp

It's clear this is the plan Bush has decided to follow; and operations will target Sunni 'insurgent' neighborhoods. They won't take on Al Sadr's people; in fact, I expect they'll make a deal and tell them if they hold their fire, we'll take care of the Sunnis for them. Amounts to nothing more than mass killing; I'd even call it ethnic cleansing.

The result will be a temporary drop in violence; but by then I fully expect Bush will have widened the conflict to include Iran. It is, after all, PNAC's desire to destabalize that entire region, and Bush will continue to do their bidding (although for his own selfish reasons).

[sabra]

7. thanks for the post.... the writing is on the wall :-(

[pdxmom]

6. So Bush is going to make us complicit in ethnic cleansing. Just keeps

getting better and better. There has to be a way to stop this before it starts.

[leesa]

8. Cracks me up...Al-Mahdi were Bush's buds about a year ago.

I remember he was using them for some killing errand.

[dogday]

9. Sunni insurgent is the word of the day

make sure to repeat it as often as possible :sarcasm: