My head is spinning - who the hell did we fight today in Iraq?

[w8liftinglady]

CNN-we fought Sunni/Shiite/Doomsday Cult/foreign fighters/thugs/criminals...
the iraqi army lead/with the US "helping out"..the model for our troops in Iraq...what a load of CRAP

[Dracos]

1. I thought I was

going crazy I was asking myself the same question

[w8liftinglady]

2. this statement from our fearless leader makes me even MORE suspect

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2007/jan/29/012906731.html
"My first reaction on this report from the battlefield is that the Iraqis are beginning to show me something," Bush told NPR.

[liberal N proud]

3. Well, they were terraist

They want to attack us and fly planes into our building ... or is it; we are fighting them over there...

Truth is the regime will paint all mid east peoples as terrorist and continue to tie them to 9/11

[w8liftinglady]

4. they are spinning this like some big joint Iraqi-US mission

a model for future battles

[MzNov]

5. This new "surge" seems to mean kill anything that moves

and call it an insurgent, thus, hundreds now dying at once instead of tens.

It's the most evil despicable occupation that ever was....

[fooj]

6. Is this the SAME Iraqi army that couldn't wipe their ass a few weeks ago?

Bullshit.

[aquart]

7. Have the Kurds shown up?

Because pesh merga soldiers CAN wipe their own asses and blow yours off.

[fooj]

12. Wow.

Watch the hostility. Did I mention the KURDS anywhere? Didn't think so.

[aquart]

16. What hostility? Bush is planning to use them.

I asked if they were there yet.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. An insurgent militia.

It was a probe.

[cynatnite]

9. I thought, 'Damn, we sure are fighting a lot of groups now' n/t

[librechik]

10. as I understand it, was a big blowup involving Sunnis, Shia, and Rosie ODonnell

and Barbara Walters died. Or maybe it was Barbaro.

But I am only reading "the official" version.

[MichiganVote]

11. Sorry..the rest of the list is classified

[TheCowsCameHome]

13. How can it be a civil war if nobody knows who the opposition is?

Just run out an kill someone, I guess.

[necso]

14. Some from column A,

some from column B...

The menu offers a rich variety (some largely untried). And so "we" go after this group or that, this person or that, based on who-knows-what intelligence (coming from who-knows-where) -- and serving who-knows-what end.

What happens and what we "hear" is in no small part a question of chance; who sticks their neck out too far at the wrong time -- what "makes prime-time".

These "new" guys (women? children?) apparently made a classic mistake (while opposing a force supported by modern heavy weapons) of concentrating in a static, rather-undefendable position; one where heavy weapons could be brought effectively to bear.

As for who attacked whom (first), what these people were really up to, etc, I don't expect to ever really know.

[leftchick]

15. Juan Cole tries to sort it out from Arab reports

http://www.juancole.com/2007/01/fighters-for-shiite-messiah-clash-with.html

This group is not the Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr, which bears no enmity toward the grand ayatollahs, but rather a separate and different sect altogether. Shiite clerics told the NYT that the sect is the Mahdawiya of Ahmad al-Basri (possibly Ahmad Hassaani al-Basri?). Although the NYT was told that this millenarian sect (it believes that the end of time is around the corner) was supported by Saddam, you can't pay any attention to that sort of allegation when it comes to Iraqi sectarianism.

It seems most likely that this was Shiite on Shiite violence, with millenarian cultists making an attempt to march on Najaf during the chaos of the ritual season of Muharram. But who knows? It is also possible that the orthodox Shiites in control of Najaf hate the heretic millenarians and the threat of the latter was exaggerated. Darned if I know. The reports of the Army of Heaven being so well armed make no sense if it was a ragtag millenarian band. But those reports could be exaggerations, too.

It seems most likely that the Mahdawiya is the sect of Sheikh Mahmud al-Hasani al-Sarkhi and that al-Basri was the founder of the sect. That would be a way of reconciling al-Zaman with al-Hayat.

The dangers of Shiite on Shiite violence in Iraq are substantial, as this episode demonstrated. Ironically, given Bush's mantra about Iran, the trouble makers here are a sect that absolutely hates Iran.