The "Success" Unravels

by Steve Soto

AP photo of Iraqi forces giving their weapons to al-Sadr’s representative Saturday.

It was just two hours ago that one New York Times story carried the American line that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was bravely going after Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army in Basra, after George W. Bush said this battle would be the defining moment for a free Iraq. The story went on to say that al-Sadr was losing support among the Iraqi people, and that it was al-Maliki who was fiercely going after him. Now two hours later, another NYT story points out that al-Maliki has blown the Basra operation, lost support among his own people, and al-Sadr is now in control of a large part of Basra, pitching a message that it is time for Iraqis to band together, Sunnis and Shia against the occupiers and their native allies who would kill fellow Iraqis. Al-Sadr now says his forces will not lay down their arms until an Iraqi government pledges to evict the occupiers, undermining the stability of the al-Maliki government. Moreover, after al-Maliki smeared al-Sadr as being worse than Al Qaeda, which sounds like it came from the White House, al-Sadr alleges that al-Maliki used the Iraqi military to delay elections and cripple political rivals in the south.

There is even evidence that in the same vein as Bush’s tragic and stupid “bring them on” boast, his boosting of al-Maliki’s efforts to battle the Mahdi Army and belittling them as criminal elements led the Mahdi Army to stop negotiations with the government. On the eve of General Petraeus and ambassador Crocker’s “all is well” speeches in Washington soon, the developments in the south and inside Baghdad, where Iraqi security forces are now giving up their American-provided weapons to side with the Mahdi Army, only point out that American and Iraqi government efforts to forge a united and reconciled Iraq over the last year have failed, if they were ever attempted at all.

While the Bush Administration has demonized al-Sadr and the Mahdi Army since the invasion, it has never acknowledged one simple fact: between the two main Shiite factions in the country, Bush backs the one directly tied to Iran. Al-Sadr on the other hand is a nationalist, who will accept support from Iran but will never be an Iranian puppet.

Hat tip to Firedoglake