Posts with the tag 'Sadr'
Always best to avoid shallow MSM reporting about Iraq - they’ve written it off as a failure for a long time now, and so will not take anything which contradicts their defeatist narrative…but the truth about Basra has been there for the asking, and Austin Bay points out the ramifications:
…understanding Knights Charge is an integrated political-military operation. Maliki made it clear that this multidimensional operation was planned and executed by the Iraqis themselves and that the United States was not consulted. For this, his insta-critics chastised him. But Maliki knows his enemies, particularly Mahdi Army chieftain Moqtada al-Sadr.
Sadr would tout U.S. “prior approval” as proof Maliki is “a puppet.” Instead, a democratically elected prime minister who happens to be a Shia ordered his nation’s troops to strike a Shia gangster. The Iraqi government took the initiative — now it stands to reap several impressive political benefits.
Even attempting Knights Charge signals increasing Iraqi confidence in their own capacities. Confidence does not ensure competence — cockiness can get you killed — but experienced military trainers and teachers know achieving trainee or student competence requires building confidence.
Knights Charge, however, was much more than a confidence-building measure; it may be the most decisive example of a country-building measure we have seen since Saddam fell in April 2003.
Knights Charge involved 15,000 soldiers deployed in six Iraqi Army combat brigades and one police brigade, or roughly two divisions of troops. I have helped plan division-sized mobile operations. Basra and Baghdad are complex urban terrain; moreover, they are politically complex, which amplifies risks. Planning the movement of seven brigades is itself a sophisticated task; executing the plan requires a sophistication that only comes from experience.
Knights Charge put boots and wheels and tracks on roads and into combat. Units coordinated supporting fires and maneuvered in close combat. Sometimes they failed. They needed U.S. and British artillery and air support — but note they called for it. Here’s the battle’s bottom line: The various Shia gangs performed much worse. On April 20, The New York Times ran a story that said the Iraqi Army had taken the last Mahdi Army-controlled neighborhood in Basra.
This was, after all, the first major Iraqi military effort in the post-Saddam era - after much training and expenditure of effort, the Iraqi government has a military instrument ready to hand…but no matter how well you train, you’re never 100% ready for your first battle test, and that some units and individual soldiers in the Iraqi army flunked is absolutely no indictment of the overall Iraqi military, the Iraqi government or the American effort in Iraq. American troops some times ran away during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, you know? Raw armies have a habit of such breakdowns…the key, as Bay points out, is how well the Iraqis learn the lessons - indicators are that they have; by cashiering 1,300 or so troops and police, the Iraqi government isn’t hiding the fact of defects but is, instead, putting it right out in front, and shaming those troops who failed to do their duty. In an honor-bound society like Iraq’s, the humiliation of public shaming will not be something that other Iraqi soldiers want to experience - but, also, a lot of Iraqi forces performed well, and those troops who did so will now provide a leaven of experienced, victory-flushed and proud soldiers who can serve as an example to the waverers.
Basra was a victory, and while the left will deny it until they are blue in the face, the facts are the facts - and it was Sadr’s headquarters which was taken, not Maliki’s. And while the Iraqis had our assitence, they did the hard work on their own - showing that there are, for certain, Iraqi troops who are completely loyal to the central government, and willing to give battle in defense of Iraq’s fragile, young democracy. The Iraqis have risen to the challenge and done those things we most required they do - to cut out o them now would be the most shameful betrayal imaginable…in some ways, even worse than our abandonment of South Vietnam.
The seal the deal just requires some time and pressure - and not too much more time, and not too much more pressure…but the exact amount of time and the exact amount of pressure is unknown, and the enemy must always believe that we will stay as long as it takes…and therein lies the danger in a Democratic victory…a win by the Democrats in November will be a signal to the terrorists that it is ony a matter of time before we’re gone…a win by McCain will demonstrate that their cause is hopeless, and that will hasten an end to the Iraq campaign all the faster.
Choose wisely in November, fellow Americans - a lot is at stake. Indeed, our very national honor rides on November’s result.
Tags: Basra, Iraq, John McCain, Sadr
April 24th, 2008
From Bill Roggio:
Iraqi and Coalition forces are pressing the fight against the Mahdi Army in northeastern Baghdad and the southern port city of Basrah. Iraqi troops have cleared two Mahdi Army strongholds in Basrah and reportedly have surrounded three others as they prepare to press the operation. In Baghdad, the Iraqi Army and US forces continue to clash with the Mahdi Army while forces have moved into southwestern Sadr City and set up a “demonstration area” to distribute aid and provide local security.
The battle for Sadr City
The Iraqi government signaled that it was willing to take on the Mahdi Army inside its Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City and the outlying neighborhoods since Muqtada al Sadr ordered his militia to cease fighting six days after the Basrah operation began in March. Last weekend, Ali al Dabbagh, the spokesman for the government of Iraq, said Iraqi and US forces would “continue [operations] until we secure Sadr City.” Multinational Forces Iraq said it was backing the Iraqi government and military in its efforts.
The operation involves more than military operations, as the Iraqi government seeks to wrest control of the Mahdi Army’s grip on public services inside Sadr City. “The aim now is to launch an ambitious plan of 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day public works and services-improvement projects designed to convince the local population that the Iraqi government -– and not Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia –- is best able to improve the quality of life in an impoverished expanse of pot-holed streets, open sewers, and joblessness,” the Christian Science Monitor reported. “US and Iraqi military are now set up and living among the Sadr City residents in the ‘demonstration’ area of the southern third of the sector.”
The MSM is still reporting the Battle of Basra as an Iraqi defeat - I wonder how long they’ll keep that up? Probably until November, I guess.
Tags: Basra, Iraq, Sadr, Sadr City
April 17th, 2008
This will just get them all kinds of upset:
Basra residents welcome Iraq army crackdown
BASRA, Iraq (AFP) — Three weeks after Iraqi troops swarmed into the southern city of Basra to take on armed militiamen who had overrun the streets, many residents say they feel safer and that their lives have improved.
The fierce fighting which marked the first week of Operation Sawlat al-Fursan (Charge of the Knights) has given way to slower, more focused house-by-house searches by Iraqi troops, which led on Monday to the freeing of an abducted British journalist.
Residents say the streets have been cleared of gunmen, markets have reopened, basic services have been resumed and a measure of normality has returned to the oil-rich city.
The port of Umm Qasr is in the hands of the Iraqi forces who wrested control of the facility from Shiite militiamen, and according to the British military it is operational once again.
Yep, the Sadr militia really kicked a** and took names, let me tell you!
Tags: Basra, Iraq, Sadr
April 15th, 2008
Desperately on the run from Sadr’s all powerful militia, the Iraqi army has been reduced to this:
BAGHDAD (AP) - A kidnapped British journalist was rescued by Iraqi troops on Monday after two months in captivity in the southern city of Basra, the Iraqi military said.
Richard Butler, who worked for CBS News, was found with a sack over his head and his hands tied inside a house in Basra, Lt. Gen. Mohan al-Fireji said. He said Butler was in good condition.
Butler was found during an Iraqi military sweep in the Jibiliya area, a Shiite militia stronghold in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad…
…In recent days, Iraqi forces have started house-to-house sweeps for arms, weapons, drugs and criminal elements in several parts of Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city. The military said it has uncovered an improvised explosive device factory, along with significant arms caches and numerous roadside bombs, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
And what was the next sentence in the MSM report?
Serious fighting in Basra abated since a failed government offensive last month to dislodge militia groups.
If the offense failed, then why is the Iraqi army doing house to house sweeps and rescuing kidnapped journalists? Shouldn’t the Sadr militia - allegedly called off just short of total victory by the peace-loving leadership of Iran - be preventing the Iraqi army from doing any such thing in Basra?
The critics of the war and the MSMers who write about it are getting more divorced from reality by the day…
Tags: Basra, Iraq, Sadr
April 15th, 2008
And yet more evidence that Sadr lost big time in Basra:
Iraq’s Cabinet ratcheted up the pressure on anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr by approving draft legislation barring political parties with militias from participating in upcoming provincial elections.
Al-Sadr, who heads the country’s biggest militia, the Mahdi Army, has been under intense pressure from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, also a Shiite, to disband the Mahdi Army or face political isolation.
Al-Sadr’s followers are eager to take part in the local elections because they believe they can take power away from rival Shiite parties in the vast, oil-rich Shiite heartland of southern Iraq.
And in a new move to stem the flow of money to armed groups, the government ordered a crackdown on militiamen controlling state-run and private gas stations, refineries and oil distribution centers.
It is believed that gas stations and distribution centers, especially in eastern Baghdad and some southern provinces, are covertly controlled by Shiite militiamen dominated by the Mahdi Army.
While the linked MSM report goes on to claim that Sadr won, the fact that Sadr is under increasing pressure from Iraq’s political class to quit indicates the true state of affairs. And here’s something from Michael Yon - who has spent a lot of time in Iraq over the past five years - about the attitude in Iraq:
The change goes far beyond the statistical decline in casualties or incidents of violence. A young Iraqi translator, wounded in battle and fearing death, asked an American commander to bury his heart in America. Iraqi special forces units took to the streets to track down terrorists who killed American soldiers. The U.S. military is the most respected institution in Iraq, and many Iraqi boys dream of becoming American soldiers. Yes, young Iraqi boys know about “GoArmy.com.”
As the outrages of Abu Ghraib faded in memory – and paled in comparison to al Qaeda’s brutalities – and our soldiers under the Petraeus strategy got off their big bases and out of their tanks and deeper into the neighborhoods, American values began to win the war.
Iraqis came to respect American soldiers as warriors who would protect them from terror gangs. But Iraqis also discovered that these great warriors are even happier helping rebuild a clinic, school or a neighborhood. They learned that the American soldier is not only the most dangerous enemy in the world, but one of the best friends a neighborhood can have.
You liberals - you just keep on saying its all been a disaster and that the only solution is a HillBama-orchestrated surrender. On our side, we’ll rejoice in a President who had the courage to do the right thing, and a nation which can produce the men and women who made the turn-around in Iraq happen.
Tags: Iraq, Michael Yon, Sadr
April 14th, 2008
Rich Lowry over at NRO’s The Corner received this e mail:
On the political front, Sadr now finds himself completely isolated. Key leaders of his own movement are now urging him to accept the Maliki government’s demands to disband the militia entirely.
Saturday, Iraq’s president and two vice-presidents, along with every other major political group in Iraq (except the Sadrists) joined in the condemnation of Sadr’s militia, and endorsed Prime Minister Maliki’s demand that the militia disarm. Sadr’s militia is now virtually the only militia left in Iraq that still maintains an outlaw posture, the only one that still challenges the authority of the Iraqi Security Forces or the Coalition. (Other major militias have disbanded, transforming into political organizations and joining — or becoming — legitimate security forces, which explains why you never hear about any other militia in the news.)
The joint statement is dramatic and sweeping. Not only does it enshrine major concessions among the various factions in order to secure a united front against Sadr, but the insistence upon the rule of law and respect for central authority shine through in the clearest terms.
The e mail goes on to note that among the provisions of the statement, there is a call for all Iraqis to back the army and official security forces in their battle against the militias. Here is some of that political advancement the left says hasn’t been happening - mostly because the left adheres to an artificial set of political goals, rather than understanding the fluid nature of Iraqi politics and the resultant need to be patient.
If only the critics of the war would understand that it is flesh and blood human beings involved - it isn’t two-dimensional, party-line morality-play props. Real people are doing real things over there - things which our liberals can’t even imagine because they have been safe so long behind the might of others that they’ve forgotten what it really takes to be free and have a civil society (hint: it ain’t “community organizers” and lawyers who make things free and civil). Can’t you see it? Can’t any of you liberals figure out that after decades of tyranny and years of war and terrorism that the Iraqi people - Sunni, Shia and Kurd, just want an end to fighting? That they can see the US won’t budge, that the Iraqi government grows stronger by the day, that each group in the nation will get a fair seat at the table of power? Or are you on the left so wedded to your anti-war narrative that you won’t even look at the facts?
At any rate, I pray for a swift end to the fighting, and that the bravery of the American, Coalition and Iraqi forces are crowned with complete victory - a victory I see unfolding right before my eyes, and which is visible to anyone who cares to face the truth.
Tags: Iraq, Sadr
April 8th, 2008
Jack Kelly tells the story:
The Mahdi army has won by surviving, media analysts say. But it seems apparent the Mahdi army survived by quitting.
Mr. al Sadr offered the cease fire after travelled to Iran to meet with the head of the Qods (Jerusalem) force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the McClatchy Newspapers reported. The lawmakers urged Brigadier Gen. Qassem Suliemani to lean on Mr. al Sadr (who is in Iran) to offer the cease fire.
If true (Mr. Kazimi’s government source in Baghdad described it as a “naive fabrication”), the McClatchy story indicates the Mahdi army is under Iranian control.
Why would Iran want the fighting to stop?
“The Iranians have realized that they no longer can use the Shiite militia threat to force Washington’s hand on Iraq without jeopardizing their own interests,” speculated STRATFOR, a private intelligence service.
Fighting among Shia factions, and the increasing independence of Shia factions they thought they controlled has virtually dashed hopes Iran would be able to dominate Iraq through Shia proxies, STRATFOR said.
“The mullahs know that they are losing,” said Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute. “Their great dream of driving America out of Iraq, which seemed to be about to be fulfilled just a year and a half ago, has now turned into the nightmare of humiliation and defeat for the Islamic republic. The Maliki government is attacking the remnants of the Mahdi army in Basra, that same government the mullahs thought they had under control.”
One of my theories about what had triggered the intense fighting in Basra was that the Iranians had decided to try a spasm of violence as a means of recovering lost politico-military ground. Unfortunately, the miscalculated the Iraqi-American response, got whacked, and now have had to call off the dogs in hopes of salvaging at least some of their influence in Iraq. And so much for the lefty concept that Iraq was becoming a stooge of Iranian interests. Seems that Iraqis want to govern themselves - religious affinity is all fine and dandy, but just because most Americans and most Brazilians are Christian, it doesn’t mean that either nation wishes to be governed by the other…and so it is with Iraq and Iran; same religion, but different peoples who want a lot of different things (one of the more notable being that Iraqis don’t want to voluntarily enslave themselves to Iranian mullahs who govern with corruption and cruelty).
While the MSM will maintain the fiction for as long as possible that Sadr won in Basra, the facts indicate that the Iraqi government and military passed their first stern test on the road to being fully self-sufficient, and put a huge dent in the pretensions not just of Sadr, but of all wanna-be warlords.
Tags: Basra, Iraq, Sadr
April 7th, 2008
Austin Bay clarifies the situation:
For four years, the U.S.-led coalition and the Iraqi government have intermittently sparred with Sadr, sometimes in parliament, sometimes in the streets.
The Iraqi government’s strategy has been to bring former insurgents into the political process. Since interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi articulated that goal in mid-2004, the central government’s complex array of enemies has sought to thwart that program.
Saddam’s old cohorts managed to convince themselves that if they spread enough money around, killed enough people and hammered the U.S. electorate with bloody headlines the United States would leave and the Iraqi government would eventually collapse — and they would return to power. Saddam’s capture, trial and execution has all but snuffed out the old-line Baathists. Recall Maliki stoutly defended his decision to carry out the court’s sentence of capital punishment. He bet with Saddam dead the tyrant’s cult of personality would wither. It has.
Al-Qaida pursued the same strategy of blood for headlines. Al-Qaida in Iraq tried to ignite a sectarian war — its now-dead emir, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, made that goal explicit in February 2004. Al-Qaida massacred en masse, to the point that U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D for Defeatist) declared the war in Iraq lost. Then, the Sunni tribes in Anbar turned on al-Qaida. Sunni political integration is by no means complete, but al-Qaida has failed.
Now the Shia-led Iraqi government focuses on its chief Shia nemesis. How the Iraqi government handles Sadr matters. In August 2004, Sadr’s thugs grabbed the Grand Mosque in Najaf. Sadr was counting on Americans to bomb the mosque. The United States opted to follow the political lead of Shia Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Sistani’s aides told coalition officers: “Let us deal with Sadr. We know how to handle him and will do so. However, the coalition must not make him a martyr.”
The Iraqi way often appears to be indecisive, until you learn to look at its counter-insurgency methods in the frame of achieving political success, instead of the frame of American presidential elections.
One thing our domestic left doesn’t understand - and can’t understand, because their view of Iraq is colored by a series of lies they’ve told themselves over the years - is that Iraq is, indeed, its own country. We’re there to help, but we don’t dictate policy - President Bush very much knows that if the Iraqis won’t get themselves together, nothing the US can do will make it happen. This means that we have to allow the Iraqi politico-military situation to resolve itself over time - and some times this will mean great frustration for us. We can’t set their goals for them and we can’t set a time table - things don’t work like a machine in any social organism, and even less so in the chaotic social organism known as Iraq. A civil society is emerging in Iraq - but it is just that; emerging. It isn’t there yet in all its glory - it can’t be taken for granted, as we take our own civil society. But if we keep our promises and show the grit and determination necessary, then that Iraqi civil society will become predominant, and will be our great gift not just to the Iraqi people, but to all the peoples of the Arab/Moslem world.
Tags: Iraq, Sadr
April 2nd, 2008
As noted by Dave Price over at Dean’s World:
The media appear to be unanimous: by getting his butt kicked, surrendering control of Basra, and being mocked as an Iranian catspaw Sadr has… succeeded.
Many Iraqi politicians say that Mr. Maliki’s political capital has been severely depleted by the Basra campaign
Really? The same Iraqi politicians who were so opposed to Sadr they boycotted talks aimed at a peaceful resolution, calling it a “law and order” issue, thus preventing a quorum?
and that he is in the curious position of having to turn to Mr. Sadr, a longtime rival, for a way out.
Yes, how strange that he would talk to the enemy when negotiating that enemy’s surrender. Bizarre, yet. Perhaps even unique in the annals of war.
It’s hard to believe how reality-averse the analysis on this confrontation has been:
”Al-Sadr achieved what he wanted,” said Vali Nasr, an expert on Shiite politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. “He stood his ground, made his point and showed he has the real power in the south, not his rivals.”
He didn’t stand his ground, he ordered his men to hide indoors like whipped dogs. He showed he has the real power to… what, exactly? Lose hundreds of fighters in a few days, then surrender?
Al-Sadr, 34, was bold enough to place demands on al-Maliki’s administration.
Cute. Terms of surrrender are now “demands.”
At the end of it all, Price takes note of this from Bill Roggio:
571 Mahdi Army fighters have been killed, 881 have been wounded, 490 have been captured, and 30 have surrendered over the course of seven days of fighting
I’m of the opinion that Sadr was ordered to rebel by his Iranian masters in a desperate bid to prevent the complete destruction of Iran’s terrorist infrastructure in Iraq. It was a hope that Sadr’s forces could make it seem as though the Iraqi government was powerless to stop him. For the MSM - and the left - this worked like a charm; they really think that Sadr’s rabble can stand up to the Iraqi military. But for all those not sunk deep into BDS, it was clearly pretty quickly that Sadr’s troops were paying a high price - and, it would seem, such a high price that Sadr was forced to capitulate before his whole force was destroyed.
Congratulations are due to the brave men of the Iraqi security forces, and their American allies who backed them up during this sharp battle.
Tags: Iraq, Sadr
April 1st, 2008
Best to go to the source and see how an Iraqi is viewing the current battle:
Last but not least, it’s good to finally hear Maliki acknowledge the danger that Sadr’s militia pose to the country. Saying that Shia militias are “worse than al-Qaeda” signifies the ferocity of the battle and the enormous pressure it applies on the government. It makes me optimistic that the leadership has realized the extent and nature of the threat. In fact I hope that my expectation of a truce that spares the heads of evil proves wrong. Avoiding taking a battle to the end could cost us several times the price in recurrent outbreaks of violence.
While most influential parties seem to be in favor of the crackdown on Mahdi army (including Kurds who view Sadr as an obstacle to establishing the federal system that would grant them control over Kirkuk. Also recall that Masoud Barazani was so vocal in expressing his hostility to Sadr back in late 2003 when he was temporary president of the GC) Sadr’s old ally Ibrahim Jaafari stepped forward to call for an end to the fighting and to accept the Sadrists back in the political process. The statement was described by Maliki’s advisor Sami Askari as “inappropriate and meaningless“.
But ironically a similar call came from Adnan Duleimi of the Sunni Accord Front. In my opinion this came out of Duleimi’s concern about maintaining the balance of power among Shia parties—a Da’wa and SIIC with near absolute power in the center and south would put more power at the disposal of these parties in Baghdad with federalism again being the central issue.
I was going to stop here but now I see that Sadr finally decided to break his silence and make the first public appearance in several months. While the location of the interview remains undisclosed, the fact that he was interviewed by Ghassan Bin Jidou suggests that he’s either in Iran or is enjoying the generous hospitality of his Lebanese twin Nesrallah (can anyone check the recent stamps on Bin Jidou’s passport?).
I want to end this by saying that if we put together Sadr’s words that he’s in control of the Mahdi army and Maliki’s words that Shia militias are worse than al-Qaeda then the logical conclusion should be that Sadr must be dealt with in the same manner in which we deal with terrorist chiefs when we spot them.
I figure one of two things is happening:
1. The Iraqi government and Coalition forces decided to have it out with Sadr and his goons or
2. Sadr and his goons see their power slipping away, and hope a spasm of violence can revive their political prospects.
In either case, this is our chance to finally - and very, very belatedly - deal with Sadr. With AQI on the run and the terrorist networks getting shakier all the time, the final obstacle to a lasting political settlement in Iraq is the Iranian-backed Sadr and his militia. ItM does acknowledge there have been some desertions from Iraqi security forces, but this might just be Sadrist infiltrators showing their true colors as the crisis breaks. In reading this in-country report, the clear impression is that while its a sharp fight, the Iraqi government and coalition forces have the upper hand - and reporting over at Multi-National Force Iraq appears to confirm this view.
All we can do here, of course, is pray for our troops and our allies - truth and justice must triumph in Iraq, and I can’t see Sadr’s rabble beign able to dent the US military nor the Iraqi security forces.
Tags: Baghdad, Basra, Iraq, Iraq the Model, Sadr
March 30th, 2008
