al Sadr Accepts Cease Fire Conditions

Fox news | 8/18/04

[cake_crumb]

Well stated.

[cake_crumb]

"Darn. I was really hoping these terrorists would all be killed now rather than play this same game later."

What makes you think we can play diplomatic games with dead men?

[RedEyeJack]

There is a rat here! These guys are playing for time or something. They are still trying to negotiate while the "spokesperson" says they accept. The Kabuki dance continues... Hopefully all water, electricity, food, and telephone calls to include cell phones have been cut off. Hopefully they are surrounded and hopefully anything that moves inside the cordon is shot unless it is visibly demonstrating that it (he) wants to surrender to justice. My guess is that they will get away with this again...

[freeangel]

I thought the conditions were to just let everyone of the terrorists walk.

[EricT.]

I am going to reserve judgement on this whole deal until I find out how many of his thugs are now at ambient temperature.

[Capt.YankeeMike]

yeah, BUT...has he actually left the shrine yet???? Did we see him walking out??? I DOUBT IT.
The Capt.

[easonc52]

yeah, BUT...has he actually left the shrine yet???? Did we see him walking out??? I DOUBT IT.

The Capt.

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No, he's not.

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On Wednesday evening, however, Safiya al-Suhail, an independent Shiite delegate at the conference, said she had received a letter from al-Sadr's Baghdad office saying he accepted the proposal.

"Muqtada al-Sadr has agreed on the conditions set by the National Conference," she said reading the letter to the conference.

"We call on the Iraqi government and the National Conference to participate in implementing what is proposed by Muqtada al-Sadr, otherwise everybody will bear the responsibility," the letter said.

She's making the statement as if there was a negotiation and they need to adhere to alSadr's demands. I hope that's not likely.

[epluribus_2]

that sounds exactly like the old Saddam - I Accept Unconditionally the UN Demands - and I am prepared to discuss negociations for implementing the UN resolutions...

[pt17]

These "everybody" people are they related to Katie Couric's "some people"?

I was referring to the much of the rest of the arab world, some significant part of the greater world and much of the left here in the U.S. Get real! The handling of al Sadr has been a disaster and we're the ones who are perceived as being unable to handle him.

[XJarhead]

yeah, BUT...has he actually left the shrine yet???? Did we see him walking out??? I DOUBT IT.

Of course we didn't. All I'm saying is that its wrong to point at this as some kind of defeat/surrender/capitulation on our part until we know what is actually going to happen. I'll get ticked if we pull back our forces prior to his departure. But since that hasn't happened yet, I'm willing to see how this pans out before condemning it.

[edchambers]

(This weird Kabuki dance Middle Easterners do is so illogical by our standards, yet if our goal is a democratic Iraq we need to let them handle their own countrymen.)

You're right of course but if they don't immediately surround that mosque and post a permanent guard force there to keep this from happening again they're idiots.I also wouldn't put it past Allawi to infiltrate his "political movement" and quietly take him out at a later date.

[don'tbedenied]

They really ought to do just that. Sadr will make some new trouble I'm sure, probably at another Holy site.

[tame]

What makes you think we can play diplomatic games with dead men?

We can't. Neither can they. That's the point.

[DannyTN]

I'd like to think that this constant on an off again battle is just more operation fly-paper.

[elfman2]

" if our goal is a democratic Iraq we need to let them handle their own countrymen. "

There’s a second half to that goal. Our goal is both a democratic Iraq that is not aggressive and one that is an example to reformers across terrorist breeding grounds in the Middle East.

A democracy with two insurrections even at a slow and perhaps manageable boil with no end in sight (the Suni Triagle and Najaf/Sadr City) is not sellable by reformist as an example to their nation.

I agree that there is no political/moral will to override and destabilize the interim government in order to fix this. It’s too late. It had to be done in April/May, and Rumsfeld/Brimer/Sanchez decided to go this route rather than threaten the turnover date.

I’ve resigned myself to this. Sure, it’s better than Saddam, but not all it could have should have been. Maybe we’ll learn that this will always be the result of an enemy nation not being defeated before it’s rebuilt. Or maybe we’ll just fight among ourselves over the meaning of this war, and that lesson will be lost in the noise.

[Mr. K]

what... again??

[asgardshill]

Its being reported that he rejected them on this thread. I'm sooooooo confused!

[kinghorse]

And so he escapes. We are such suckers.