Sadr orders militia heads out of Iraq : president

[denverbill]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered heads of his Mehdi Army militia to leave
Iraq and asked the government to arrest "outlaws" under a U.S.-backed crackdown, Iraq's president said on Thursday.


President Jalal Talabani made the remarks after Iraq closed its borders with Iran and Syria and as U.S. and Iraqi troops tightened their grip on Baghdad, searching neighborhoods and setting up checkpoints that searched even official convoys.

Talabani said he was unaware of Sadr's whereabouts. The U.S. military has said he is in Iran, but his aides insist he is in Iraq's holy Shi'ite city Najaf. An Iraqi government official said he was in Tehran, but only for a short visit.

"I think many of his top Mehdi Army officials have been ordered to leave Iraq to make the mission of the security forces easier," the president was quoted as saying in a statement from his office. It added Sadr supported the crackdown and had given the government the go-ahead to arrest any "outlaws."

<snip>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070215/ts_nm/iraq_border_dc_8

Wow. This story keeps getting weirder. Why would Sadr order his own guys out of the country? Where is Sadr?

I get the feeling if Sadr truly did rein in his militias, the situation in Iraq would improve dramatically. Here's hoping for that, because I'm getting the feeling the only way we are getting out of there anytime soon is if Shrubby's 'plan' actually works. Congress sure as hell won't get us out.

[Kagemusha]

1. Sadr's faction has already said this was not an order

but Talibani is entitled to his own opinion, which if you read the piece and not the headline, is what he is fully acknowledging: this is what he thinks, ergo, it is his opinion.

Edit: And if they lie low all the better to return once the Sunnis have had their resistance largely crushed. That's best case for Sadr anyway. Why get in the way of the US Military smiting his enemies.

[rodeodance]

2. the militia said ealier-they are hiding their guns till the surge is over.

[Jacobin]

4. Exactly

They live there. We don't. They have all the time in the world.

This thing needs to end now. Our efforts are worse than useless. They are counter productive

[denverbill]

9. Wouldn't surprise me a bit.

But I guess as long as they are stashed away, they aren't roaming the streets rounding up innocent Sunnis. Maybe it will slow them down enough that the Iraqi army actually CAN take over. It'd take 100-1 odds for me to bet on that outcome though.

[atreides1]

3. This way it forces the US

To concentrate on the Sunni insurgents, and to pick a side. Which means that money and equipment will be coming from places that are not Iran.

It's a brilliant strategy, it forces the US to side with the Shia against the Sunni, and puts the crosshairs on Saudi Arabia and other Sunni nations in the region, and it takes the Iranians out of the picture.

As for improving the situation, you seem to have forgotten about the Sunni insurgents who will now be able to concentrate on US and Iraqi forces and not have to worry about fighting Shia militias!

More people will die, and the US will be resposible for setting up Iran Jr., great plan!!!

[thereismore]

5. They are really playing us, using us to set up a Shia dictatorship. nt

[denverbill]

7. The US has been focused on Sunni insurgents all along.

We've been siding with the Shiites against the Saddam loyalist Sunnis, since the Sunnis presented 95% of all the initial resistance. Now we've armed the Shiites to the teeth, and they are routinely murdering Sunnis with the weapons we gave them. The Saudi's pretty much ordered Bush to reign in the Shiites and not withdraw, because if we withdraw, the Shiites are going on a killing spree and Saudi Arabia will intervene, and Iran will intervene to help the Shiites, and things would get real messy then.

'The plan' isn't the problem. The problem was the initial invasion. I opposed this war from the start because I predicted the most likely outcomes were either another brutal dictator being installed or a bloody civil war. The civil war is pretty much assured already, and if 'the surge' doesn't stop it, I think it will eventually escalate into a regional war. God only knows how that will end up.

We have 2 courses of action - stay or go. Bush refuses to go. Congress has refused to force him to go.

That means we are stuck there until one of two things happens - Bush decides we can go, or Bush gets replaced in 2009.

That means the only way we can leave before 2009 is if Shrubby's plan miraculously succeeds, which I highly doubt. But since there is a tiny glimmer of hope that an all out civil war, regional war, or genocide can be averted, and since I don't have any fucking choice in what course of action we are about to embark on, I choose to pray his plan works.

[Jacobin]

12. Eggggzactly so

They have all the time in the world. Its their country

[poverlay]

6. They're probably all coming over here. ... nt

[Eugene]

8. Jalal Talabani is a US puppet. Anything he says comes from the US embassy.

Aides to PM Nouri al-Maliki say that Sadr is on a regular visit to Iran.
He is expected back soon and his departure is a non-story.

Other reports say that the Sadrists have changed into civilain clothes,
stashed their weapons, and blended into the general population.

[applegrove]

10. So Sadr's army are the ones getting the suppposed bombs from iran? Is this correct?

[denverbill]

15. I have to assume so. Shiite Iran isn't going to arm the Sunnis.

Either the bombs are going to the Shiites or to al Quaida, which is also Sunni, so again, that's not too likely.

[applegrove]

16. Exactly.

[ohio2007]

11. He who fights and runs away

will be alive to fight another day.
That is they will return when the surge subsides

jmo

[DaveofCali]

13. This is Disinformation: meant to throw off Congress by making it look like the "Surge" is working nt

[Boo Boo]

14. "I think many of his top Mehdi Army officials have been ordered to

leave Iraq to make the mission of the security forces easier."

:rofl: That's some major league spin!