Sadr Offers Truce In Basra

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government has welcomed an order by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to pull his fighters off the streets.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Iraqi state TV in an interview that the decision is "positive and responsive.
...Al-Sadr also called on the government to stop what he calls haphazard raids and release security detainees who haven't been charged.

It's clearly too soon to tell what this means. Sadr (well, his Iranian masters) could be playing some deep games here or they are getting their ass kicked or something else.

Personally, I thought this was an effort to piss in the soup ahead of Petraeus' upcoming testimony in Washington. If it was, did they miscalculate or think they made their point?

Posted by: DrewM. at 10:46 AM

Comments

1 I hope this post is serious enough for Steve.

Posted by: carin at March 30, 2008 10:49 AM (s1XiY)

This little hissy fit was nothing more than Sadr's standard negotiating tactic. He was positioning himself. For what, no one outside ot Maliki and Ryan Crocker probably knows. But when you look at Sadr's history since the war this is his Standard Operating Procedure.

It's tough for people like Pelosi, Obama, and Reid et. al. to understand but sending your followers to die in pointless street battles in order to secure a negotiating position really is how they roll in the Middle East.

Because they don't understand that, and never will, they're not qualified to lead. Their approach to foreign policy is he same as Rodney King's.

"Can't we all just get along?"

Answer: "No"

Posted by: Sean Bannion at March 30, 2008 10:53 AM (daA0w)

3 The good guys ought to finish thumping his butt and send the lot back to Iran. Easy for me to say, I'm not there. But as we have learned at the Berlin Wall, the 40th Parallel, and a number of places, drawing a line to define a safe place for the bad guy to regroup behind does not work out as well as advertized. Bullies need to have their will to fight surgically removed.

Posted by: Larry Sheldon at March 30, 2008 11:00 AM (IV88c)

I would say they were getting their butts kicked. And perhaps, the Iraqi gov't said something like, "You know, we could just kill your fighters, or maybe we could find someone else to kill. Nice house you got here. It'd be a shame if something were to.... happen to it."

Posted by: Veeshir at March 30, 2008 11:01 AM (ThMnZ)

That's essenially what happened Veeshir. Every few years Muqty waddles out, thumps his chest and demands R-E-S-P-E-C-T. He usually gets it in the form of large caliber weapons. After a sufficient number of his psychotic colleagues minions are killed he pulls an Emily Litella ("Never mind!") and waddles back into Iran.

I guess he figures sooner or later he's going to get lucky on one of these drills and be named hereditary Master of Time, Space and Dimension.

Good luck with that.

Posted by: Sean Bannion at March 30, 2008 11:05 AM (daA0w)

6 This is the same Maliki / Sadr tango that was going on when I was there in '07. It's like the behind-the-scenes games Democrats and Republicans play but with a higher body count.

It's well known that Maliki is, essentially, as much of an Iranian puppet as Muckty.

Each one has a different facade to present to the public: Maliki is the face of the 'legitimate' Iraqi government and Al Sadr is the face of 'legitimate' Shia Islam. In reality, they both answer to Tehran.

As for the 'why' of what they do? I have no idea. I heard a lot of theories. The most prevalent is that the mullahs need to stir up just enough shit in Iraq to keep us focused there (instead of on Iran) and not enough to force us out (through attrition of American public support for the war).

Either way, Al Sadr hasn't been calling the shots for a long time. Meaning the Iranians must have some reason to want things to chill for awhile.

Posted by: Muledriver at March 30, 2008 11:19 AM (5ykTL)

7 If you are kicking butt you don't surrender and ask for a truce.

Posted by: Mark E at March 30, 2008 11:24 AM (W4zkU)

7 If you are kicking butt you don't surrender and ask for a truce.

I take it you don't know any Democrats.

Posted by: Veeshir at March 30, 2008 11:30 AM (zXUuJ)

9 Sean,

Props for that comment, it had me cracking up.

Posted by: Mastiff at March 30, 2008 11:30 AM (uYanL)

Awww, Mookie's getting his ass whipped. My Heart Bleeds For You, Mookie.

@ Muledriver,

Ah, so that's what the Badr Organization is up to these days.

Posted by: Hank Rearden at March 30, 2008 11:38 AM (eXk2G)

11 Hudna. These guys don't mean cease-fire in the way we commonly understand it.

Mohammad's hudna ended with bazillion dudes marching on a rival tribe in Arabia. A major point of contention was the locals not wanting to call Mohammad "God's messenger".

The treaty was broken after a skirmish that just so happened to give Mohammad the moral right to dictate terms for surrender. Shortly after this he took Mecca and scrubbed it of all non-Islamic stuff.

Posted by: tachyonshuggy at March 30, 2008 01:08 PM (IVUjc)

12 he's getting his ass thumped (well, not his, cuz he's hiding under a kid's bed in Iran) and by Iraqi forces, not American or Brits (well, a little bit, heh). He doesn't have the red flag of "fighting the infidel crusaders" to wave, so it looks like a political loss as well. I like Sean's post though...keep whacking the Tater Tots, and block the retreat to/ resupply from Iran

Posted by: Frank G at March 30, 2008 01:38 PM (Ydps9)

13 Mookie is a negotiator in the pattern of any tin-pot dictator like the late Hussein and that fashion icon Long-Duck-Dong there in Ko-rea. Shout 'Rabble! Rabble!' and induce the empty-heads that collect your salty pubes off the bathroom floor to behave as Rage Against the Machine directs them to do. 'So raise your fist and march around.' What fools. I yawn in their general direction. Drive a truck fulla turkeys there and give them what Mookie cant give them. Save the bullets for Mookie himself. It's nice to see Iraqi's taking care of business, albeit with American close air support.

Posted by: art at March 30, 2008 04:32 PM (5+uph)

To paraphrase Ralph Peters:

...of course, KILLING is not the answer to every problem, but...

killing the right people makes the problem infinitely MORE manageable.

Missed opportunities--starting with late 03--hell, even Bremer found an acorn on THAT particular 'forest' floor then. Same with Fallujah.

Posted by: Occasional Poo flinger in the rafters at March 30, 2008 05:18 PM (xWFo/)

15 Mookie knows that there's a Hellfire missile with his name on it - probably waiting to be dropped from a Predator on his house or vehicle he gets around in.

OT Question: If I have parts from a Chinese Long March missile, and parts from a north Korean No-Dong missile, and put them together to make a new missile, can I call it a Long Dong Missile?

Posted by: Eeyore's Swinging Sack at March 30, 2008 08:24 PM (I6QiV)

16 This morning local paper headline above the fold,

"Al-Sadr defiant in face of attacks
Shiite leader refuses to surrender weapons:
US bombs more targets"

First paragraph has line,
"U.S. jets struck.... to bolster faltering Iraqi offensive"

As always in our press the enemy is valiant and proudly defiant and we and our allies are faltering, weak and clumsy. Iraq disappeared from our local front-page while the surge worked. Now they are back with this narrative.

I expect that this means that Al-Sadr will be defeated in the next couple of weeks. I figure the press is as usual 180 degrees away from reality on Iraq.

Posted by: Geoffb at March 30, 2008 09:00 PM (YQJc4)

17 What it means in the short term is that bad guys out in the open are in a personal free fire zone.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at March 30, 2008 09:09 PM (tvnQf)

18 Wait a day and it will be No-March.

Posted by: Geoffb at March 31, 2008 01:47 AM (YQJc4)

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