what a sad case Rice is...She,like Cheney and Bush sneak into Baghdad in the dead of night yet she calls Sadr a coward. Only a fool....
Posted by T2 at April 21, 2008 12:39 PMSomeone should ask Condi, who arrived in Iraq secretly of course, when George Bush is gonna pick up a gun and put his life on the line right next to the soldiers he sent to "total war" in Iraqi.
I don't know if I've ever heard her say anything truly insightful in the 7+ years of this nightmare.
Posted by snark at April 21, 2008 01:21 PMFor those who no longer wish to support Obama sign this petition.
It will show Dean and the DNC how much support Obama has lost.
Posted by John C. at April 21, 2008 01:28 PMThe messages in words and bombs indicate that al-Qaeda remains determined to fight on the Iraqi front, which Zawahiri once again called “the fortress” of al-Qaeda’s terror campaign and will keep directing resources towards this purpose.
Al-Qaeda has made the Iraqi front its physical center of gravity, and so it’s exactly the place where we must fight, and win.
****
This time, the grand ayatollahs have declined to aid the incendiary cleric.
Three days into the Basra campaign, Grand Ayatollah Najafi issued a fatwa, or religious opinion or edict, that declared the Iraqi government as the only force in the country with the right to bear arms.
His son, Sheik Ali Najafi, left little doubt that the clergy had backed the Iraqi army operations.
“We see this as a positive improvement. . . . The people want the government to control the streets and the law to be enforced.
***
BAGHDAD, April 19 (UPI) -- The Mehdi Army's political cartel said it would discuss halting fighting in Sadr City near Baghdad.
***
Hasan Kazemi Qomi, Tehran’s ambassador, said his government backed Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s policy of hunting down “outlaws” but was against the American military’s way of executing the policy.
“No government should allow outlaws. We are encouraging the government to fight the outlaws. But we are against the way the Americans are implementing the policy by bombing and closing down Sadr City,” Qomi told reporters.
“In this way people are suffering. The wrong policy of Americans by bombing innocent people will yield bad results.”
***
The commander of Iraqi forces in Basra, Lieutenant-General Mohan al-Furaiji, told Reuters his troops had seized the centre of the Hayaniya neighbourhood, one of the main strongholds of Sadr’s Mehdi Army fighters.
“Our troops moved in there, and now they have reached the centre of Hayaniya. Now there are no confrontations, and anyone carrying weapons will be arrested,” he said.
“We are chasing fugitives and arresting them. We expect within the next few hours that the operation will be concluded successfully.”
***
Iraqi soldiers took control of the last bastions of the cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s militia in Basra on Saturday, and Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad strongly endorsed the Iraqi government’s monthlong military operation against the fighters.
By Saturday evening, Basra was calm, but only after air and artillery strikes by American and British forces cleared the way for Iraqi troops to move into the Hayaniya district and other remaining Mahdi Army militia strongholds and begin house-to house searches, Iraqi officials said. Iraqi troops were meeting with little resistance, said Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry in Baghdad.
***
HABBANIYAH, Iraq (Apr. 18, 2008) – Marines of third platoon, Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 1, can thank the local Iraqi people for the numerous weapons caches found from Apr. 7-11.
The Marines are grateful for the intelligence given by a local Iraqi, which lead to unearthing 6.5 tons of ordinance, ammunition and an abundance of enemy weapons from several cache sights; taking away an enormous amount of possible threats to coalition forces from the enemy.
***
ARAB JUBUR, Iraq (AFP) — Three months after US forces dropped tonnes of bombs on Arab Jubur and put Al-Qaeda to flight, farmers are everywhere out in their fields tending their tomatoes.
Homes in the Sunni Arab rural patch about 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of Baghdad, meanwhile, are being rebuilt, schools reopened, roads repaired and irrigation pumps renewed, even as shopkeepers happily dust off their shelves.
"It's the first time in three years I am able to work in my lands," said Ammar Wadi, a 30-year-old vegetable farmer who also runs a small dairy herd.
His lands, on the banks of the Tigris, are thriving. Besides tomatoes, he also grows ochre and wheat, while some of his 30 acres is devoted to pastures.
"When Al-Qaeda was here it was impossible to farm," said the jolly-faced farmer from under an orange cap while taking time out from his labours to visit his cousin's newly-reopened grocery store on a dusty rural road.
"They cut the power so we couldn't pump water," said Wadi. "We couldn't buy fuel. They would shoot at anyone they saw in the fields. They kidnapped and murdered many people. They destroyed life here."
***
Just a bunch of excerpts from various news services...sure. Our allies there are showing themselves well. Taking care of their country, or trying to with our help. Iraq seems to uniting around the government in Baghdad, Maliki's government. Why not post some of the positives our allies and our troops are accomplishing? There are many....
Love the lapel pin spin....
unsourced anectodal evidence is always fun, peter.
Posted by Turkana at April 21, 2008 01:38 PMMeanwhile...
Bloody Weekend: 32 Shot, 2 Stabbed, 6 Dead
CHICAGO (CBS) ― A violent and deadly weekend continues in Chicago. At least 12 people have been shot, two of them killed, since Saturday morning. Two others were stabbed in a home invasion. This comes after at least 20 people were shot, four of them killed, from Friday night through early Saturday.
I wonder where Senator Obama was last weekend while those he represents were rocked by this violence?
Posted by peter at April 21, 2008 01:43 PMah, yes- chicago is as bad as iraq. love the logic, peter. people also die of heart attacks and from cancer. every day. which must also mean iraq's not so bad.
Posted by Turkana at April 21, 2008 01:52 PMIt will show Dean and the DNC how much support Obama has lost.
Uhh...your petition has 100 signatures. The petition recalling Hillary votes has 997. Just saying that the DNC might be less than impressed.
I wonder where Senator Obama was last weekend while those he represents were rocked by this violence?
You mean to say those weekend killings in Houston and Dallas are the direct responsibility of the Mad King, idiot son of George? Nice logic...if you have some form of dain bramage!
Posted by phidipides at April 21, 2008 02:05 PMHey Turkana, don't knock the Iranian security - Ahmadinejad didn't seem worried in the slightest when he was there recently, and he wasn't even ensconsed in the Green Zone.
Jon C.: "petetion"?? (twice in the same paragraph no less).
Posted by redstater at April 21, 2008 02:20 PMOops -- Iraqi security. My bad.
Posted by redstater at April 21, 2008 02:21 PMredstater,
given that the party of bush's chosen puppet government has longstanding ties to iran, it's no wonder ahmadinejad was safe. oops.
Posted by Turkana at April 21, 2008 02:23 PMTurkana, I think you missed my snark.
Posted by redstater at April 21, 2008 02:31 PMah- sorry redstater. your username threw me off, even though i know you better than that. long night, last night...
Posted by Turkana at April 21, 2008 02:36 PMThanks Turkana. Being from Nebraska, politically speaking I need all the sympathy I can muster.
Posted by redstater at April 21, 2008 02:40 PMTurkana, did you see this from today's NYT...
Earlier this month, Iraq’s national security council issued a statement saying that all political parties must disband their militias if they wished to participate in provincial elections scheduled for October.
Some political analysts have said that what underlies the Iraqi government’s move against the Mahdi Army is a rivalry between two armed Shiite political groups, Mr. Sadr’s and the Badrists, the armed wing of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a large Shiite political bloc that supports Mr. Maliki. Many members of the Badr organization joined the government’s security forces early in the Iraq conflict, and they have been battling the Sadr-led forces.
But Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, who joined Ms. Rice at the news conference, drew a distinction between Mr. Sadr’s supporters and the Badr group. “The Badr organization, made the choice a while back that they were going to step away from a militia identity and move into politics,” Mr. Crocker said. “That’s the choice now in front of the Sadr movement.”
Mr. Crocker cast the Iraqi government’s initiative in Basra and Baghdad as “a defining event,” and said it represented “the state asserting itself against those who would attack the state.”
Yep, since Sadr and the Mehdi Army is not part of the state, and, the Badr Brigades which are part of the state, Sadr is the bad guy and must be put down by the 'good guys'... Don't you just love that Alice-in-Wonderland approach...? ;-)
Posted by CTuttle at April 21, 2008 05:08 PMctuttle,
even joseph heller wouldn't know how to write about this...
Posted by Turkana at April 21, 2008 05:24 PMBy the way everyone, after Lurch's passing, CTuttle has taken over at Main and Central.
Yay CTuttle! Those are big shoes to fill... literally. ;)
Posted by Seven of Six at April 21, 2008 06:36 PM