It’s not us, and its not the elected Iraqi government. It is the people who control when the fighting stops and starts.
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr offered Sunday to pull his fighters off the streets of Basra and other cities if the government halts raids against his followers and releases prisoners held without charge.
The offer was contained in a nine-point statement issued by his headquarters in Najaf.
An Iraqi government spokesman welcomed al-Sadr’s order, saying it was “positive and responsive.”
The Republican mantra and the beliefs of the foreign policy establishment and the mainstream media has been: “the surge is working”. We need to amend that strongly.
The surge is working… when Muqtada al-Sadr allows it to — which means it ain’t working.
That’s the way it has been all along. Resistance has its own tempo - it fights when it wants to, not when the US forces says it should. Petraeus with all that expensive education just does not seem to get it, but then again, Petraeus is a “political” general. You don’t to where he is without knowing how to play the Washington game.
What’s going to happen when all those “Awakening Councils” and “Concerned Citizens” groups decide that they have had enough of US $?
The US is so F@#%&* in Iraq, it’s not funny anymore.
“when Muqtada al-Sadr allows it to”
Exactly right. Steve Gilliard would have been all over this.
Steve woud have predicted this. In fact, I think he did.
Exactly right. Steve Gilliard would have been all over this.
As great as Steve was, a 5 year old could tell that Iraq is FUBAR. The only reason the surged was working was because Al-Sadr stood down for 6 months. The reason that people don’t know that is because of our stupid TradMed.