Posted on 08/27/2004 5:25:17 PM PDT by blam
Pilgrims hail Najaf's peace as Allah's gift
By Toby Harnden
(Filed: 28/08/2004)
At first light the street named "Revolution of 1920", which had been a mile-long battleground for three weeks, was suddenly thronged with pilgrims hailing the peace deal over the holy city as a gift from Allah.
The rising sun behind them, they chanted "God bless Mohammed and his household" as they streamed past the charred shells of hotels and souvenir shops.
They stepped over an unexploded mortar shell embedded in the pavement and flowed past three artillery shells daisy-chained together to make a roadside bomb.
The closer the crowd moved to the Imam Ali shrine, Shia Islam's holiest site, the more Najaf began to resemble a moonscape. In some places, the devastation equalled that in Beirut two decades ago.
Concrete pillars supporting shell-pocked buildings had been hit by so many bullets that at points only their steel cores remained.
"We've been doing some remodelling," said a young American marine, grinning and chewing tobacco.
Looking on from alleys and doorways were Mahdi army fighters, still clutching their weapons despite the agreement to disarm by 10am. They professed loyalty to their leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, who had endorsed the deal, but seemed sceptical that it would hold.
The journey to the mosque completed, the pilgrims queued up to be searched. Many kissed the door frame as they passed through it.
Tiles and brickwork on the building had been damaged by bullets and explosions but, compared with the destruction all around, its breathtaking beauty seemed almost miraculously intact. One old man just stared, his eyes filling with tears.
Inside, the faithful knelt on Persian carpets in the open courtyard and prayed.
Almost everyone in Najaf seemed happy yesterday that the feared assault on the shrine had been prevented, even if the Mahdi army gunmen had refused to disarm.
"We hope that the coalition forces, the Iraqi government and the clerics will work together to bring peace back to this city," said Khadil Adnan, 50, a teacher from Basra and supporter of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
The Sadr adherents proclaimed the deal brokered by the more senior cleric to be a triumph for their man, the young pretender. "Moqtada, Moqtada," they sang. "He raised the flag of Islam and brought us victory."
Just 300 yards further to the west, Charlie Company of the 1st Bn 4th Marines looked far from defeated. Standing near an Abrams tank bearing the word "Malice", Capt Matt Morrisey, company commander, said he had expected a tougher fight.
"I'd say Sadr has lost a bit of face today," he pronounced. "After the fighting in the cemetery and the fighting in the city, I welcome the peaceful ending."
Had Sadr's men remained in their positions, he added, they might have been more of a match for the marines. "This place is almost impenetrable," he said, pointing at the warren of streets from one of three wrecked buildings where his 150 men had just spent three days.
In addition, marine snipers had claimed about 65 "kills". L/Cpl Joshua Cash, 21, from Orlando, Florida, a machine-gunner, explained how close the Americans had come to launching a final assault on Sadr's gunmen, which could have led them streaming into the shrine - an act which would have set the whole Shia world on fire.
At least twice they had been within hours of launching a final assault.
"The plan was stood up and then stood down a couple of times," he said. "There were nights we'd load up in our vehicles and then we were told 'Never mind' and we'd get out again."
They had been ready, he said, to move into the shrine if Iraqi forces had been unwilling or incapable. "Worst case scenario and everything goes wrong we were going to have to take the mosque ourselves."
After 10am, the pilgrims left the mosque and retraced their route. Along Revolution of 1920 Street, stood the same Mahdi army militiamen. This time, their identifying headbands and black scarves had been removed and they were putting their guns and rockets in sacks to be spirited away.
Peace had at last descended on Najaf. But enough Mahdi army men were alive and free, with ample weaponry still at hand, for another battle to be fought another day.
Umm... The peace is never interrupted by the government or the coalition forces. Try and tell Al Sadr to turn himself in and disarm his militia. They're the ones who always start the shooting.
This guy doesn't understand how these ragheads think. To us, it's a defeat. To them, it's a "victory," since al-Sadr stood up to the "evil" United States and lived to tell the tale. He will be a hero in the eyes of other terrorists in Iraq.
But enough Mahdi army men were alive and free, with ample weaponry still at hand, for another battle to be fought another day.
And since they've seen that we don't have the cojones to finish the job, it's guaranteed that they will.
Until we stop playing footsies with these ragheads, they will continue to attack us and kill our troops with impunity. It's not that complicated.
Agreed, this has gotten completely ridiculous.
I'm kinda holding out hope that the Iraqi gov't will 'accidentally' forget their clemency for al-Sadr and arrest him.
The fact that Sistani's move has helped the American position shows that he is indeed our friend in Iraq (at the very least, not our enemy).
The thing we have to do is to see to it that Sadar is never allowed back into the Shrine. It's only if he can get into these very holy places that we are stopped. Therefore the Hawza, or whatever it's called, must get together and forbid him entrance to the 3 holiest mosques. Any other mosque he hides in can be taken down.
Good luck. It seems every city in Iraq is a "holy city" from the way the media reports it. And hell, what are we supposed to do? Surround every mosque? The media would have Bush and our troops pilloried for that.
Right now it looks like we can't do squat about al-Sadr since it looks like the Iraqi governing council has granted him clemency. (And this whole mess started when we were supposed to arrest this dumbass.)
Looks like the Mahdi and Sadr saved face (and weapons) and Alawi's government is safe.
I think that Sadr and the Mahdi will probably be a very difficult political force to contend with, but assuming we never vacate the Shrine area again (big if) as we agreed to do in the peace deal, they will never be such a big military problem again.
I think that this is about the level compromise one would expect after the Fallujah lesson.
Not a single "Thank You"?....
If this was, indeed, "Allah's Gift", He was working through the agency of the United States Marines.
I vaguely remember the adage. “Ala, Country and Corps”,… or something like that.
"the Americans had come to launching a final assault on Sadr's gunmen, which could have led them streaming into the shrine - an act which would have set the whole Shia world on fire. "
More arab anger crap....bs if you ask me. How does this writer know that this would set the "Shia world on fire?"
This Sadr pig boy needs a 5.56 through his fat skull!
Tell it to the 25 plus bloated bodies of those Sader MURDERED in the mosque.
That is essentially what General Paul Vallely said in an interview on the O'Reilly Factor the other night (and the host disagreed with him, of course). I tried to get a transcript of the interview on O'Reilly's website, but that particular one is curiously absent.
You're right on...The bad guys win again.
And John Kerry says he wants to run a more sensitive war...ha.
Any more sensitive and we'd be sending them flowers to decorate their mosques.
The West is doomed.
No one wants to take on Mohammedanism. No one.
I've wondered (since shortly after 9/11) what it would take to gain the necessary national will to deal with the problem decisively. I suspect we'll find out one way or the other. .....perhaps soon.
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