Coincident?
Posted on 05/01/2007 8:18:26 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The powerful Iraqi cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr called President George W. Bush the Antichrist on Saturday and urged him to heed calls by the opposition Democrats to withdraw from the chaos of Iraq.
In fresh violence on Saturday, 14 people were killed and 39 others were wounded in a suicide car bombing in the holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala south of Baghdad, a hospital said. A Reuters witness said he saw tens of casualties.
Sadr, whose ministers quit Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government this month, renewed his demand for a U.S. pullout a day after Bush pledged to veto legislation that would require U.S. troops to begin leaving Iraq by October 1.
Calling Bush "the greatest evil," Sadr said in a letter read out by a Sadrist MP in parliament that an eventual U.S. pullout would be a "victory for the Iraqi people."
"Here are the Democrats demanding that you withdraw at least with a timetable and you are stubborn against them," said Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia fought two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004.
"You are like the one-eyed Antichrist. You look with one eye and refuse to look with the other," he told Bush.
Maliki, under pressure from his Washington supporters to pass key power-sharing agreements to reconcile Iraq's warring communities, met a Democrat-led Congressional delegation in Baghdad on Saturday.
A statement from Maliki's office quoted him as telling the delegation that his government is committed "to building its armed forces and taking over the security portfolio all over Iraq in the quickest time."
Bush has refused to set any timetable for a withdrawal, calling it a "surrender date." More than 3,300 U.S. troops have been killed in the increasingly unpopular war since the invasion in 2003.
Defying the veto threat, the Democratic-controlled Congress this week approved a $124 billion war spending measure that would require U.S. combat troops to leave by March 31, 2008.
They have promised to send the bill to the White House on Tuesday, the fourth anniversary of Bush declaring aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln: "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended" after Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003. The aircraft carrier was decorated with a large "Mission Accomplished" banner.
"SADDAM IS DEAD"
In Awja, the small town north of Baghdad where Saddam was born, young children gathered with men and women on Saturday to celebrate the birthday of the once-feared dictator, who was executed on December 30 for crimes against humanity.
"The children brought candles, but we didn't light them because Saddam is dead," said Faten Abdulkader, one of the children's supervisors, as flowers and banners were laid on Saddam's tomb in an extravagant, marble-floored mosque hall.
Four years after Saddam's ouster, Iraq has been riven by sectarian violence between majority Shi'ites and once-dominant Sunni Arabs that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and pitched the country close to all-out sectarian civil war.
A total of 27 bodies were found in different parts of the religiously mixed and volatile Iraqi city of Baquba on Saturday, including 15 that were handcuffed and with gunshot wounds to the head, police said.
Iraq has become the "central front of al Qaeda's global campaign," General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, told reporters in Washington on Thursday.
Sadr rallied tens of thousands of Iraqis in the holy Shi'ite city of Najaf last month to protest against the presence of more than 140,000 U.S.-led forces in Iraq.
A firebrand cleric who draws large support from impoverished Shi'ites, Sadr ordered his six ministers to quit Maliki's cabinet in protest at the prime minister's refusal to set a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal.
Sadr's Mehdi Army has been blamed for widespread killings of Sunni Arabs, but it but has kept a low profile during a 10-week-old, U.S.-backed security crackdown in Baghdad.
The crackdown is seen as a last-ditch attempt to impose order and buy time for political reform and reconciliation.
While quitting the government, Sadr has kept his 30-seat block in parliament, where analysts expect him to play the role of a spoiler.
“Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?”
He deserved Saddam...
Coincident?
Didn’t Sadr himself leave Iraq months ago ..... LOL!!!
So many morons with a microphone.
All I can say is, if they don't like being called a terrorist, they shouldn't give me a reason to do so.
Naaa. Can't do that. Just let him cross the Mexico/US border and grant him amnesty. That way he can monitor more closely his friends in the islamo-fascist cells already here in America; who will also be given amnesty. Washington loves terrorists in our country.
ROTFLMAO!!!
I'm sick and tired of them all. F*ck 'em.
...the hard way; in the ass.
Bah. This fat pansy-girl needs to hear the sound of banjos coming up behind him..
The conservative movement? Patriotic damage? Tugging at the heart strings?
Unless you have served as an infantryman on patrol in Iraq, you have no idea how callous your words are. People are dying over here—our people—every single day, sacrificed on the altar of “Politics.” I had over half of my company in mortal danger for several hours last night under constant machine gun fire. Not a single round was fired in retaliation against the enemy b/c we couldn’t pinpoint the exact spot the firing was coming from. Why didn’t we hit it with area weapons (i.e. artillery and JDAMs)? Because of politics and playing nice. Who knows how many U.S. Soldiers those hajis will kill later on with those weapons since we had to let them go? Who cares? At least we’re advancing a certain agenda, right?
He’s living the high life in Iran now. Of course he sounds like Harry Reid to me.
Shouldn’t that be the Anti-Mo?
Call me crazy, but if Dubya is the antichrist.......doesn't that make him a friend to Mookie?
Sounds like the makings of some good Republican campaign ads. Unfortunately, most Pubs missed the class on dirty fighting.
The article said — “Here are the Democrats demanding that you withdraw at least with a timetable and you are stubborn against them,” said Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia fought two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004.
—
Welll, he sure picked that up in the MSM pretty quickly. Is he on the faxing list for the Democrat Party?
You asked — “When are we going to kill this guy?”
If we were going to do it, it would have already happened. Obviously we’re not...
I think we all know that we could firer one missile that could pin point at least seven targets and when they strike they will turn their targets to glass (over there). We have chosen to hoe the hard row instead. I am sorry that it is this way. I myself am more of a Patton man. You would have to wait a long time before you could start spending lots and lots of money to rebuild the entire country after I was through. But we have chosen to love our enemy. We have chosen to try to bring hope and a future to a people. If they don’t want this, then I would not expect you to try any longer. I would expect you to go and protect yourself and use all the fire power necessary to protect yourself. Warriors live to fight another day.
And remember this too. On Iwo Jima, we averaged a thousand losses a day for 21 straight days. Four years into Iraq, we are equal to the third day on Iwo. I think you all have done an outstanding job. I am damn proud of you. Keep up the good work. We have not shot a tank, plane, or uniformed soldier in a long time. We are now dealing with one less enemy. And we are also dealing with another enemy.
Our enemy is not terrorism. Terrorism is a tool. Our war is against Jihad. We have to select our targets and engage them well. We have to hoe the hard row. May God Bless you for this service. It is imperative to find our resolve and bring peace and hope to a people. At least try.
If we choose to pull out, a Taliban type like Government could take over. They will say to the Europeans, "you will turn a blind eye to what we are about to do to Israel, or we will turn your oil off". The new Taliban Government may or may not be friends with the Iranian Government, but I bet they have one common goal. That is jihad against Israel. Think about what Iran could give this new terrorist state and what they could do to Israel.
So, the job you are doing is mighty important and I thank you for it.
Keep up the good work. Tell your men that I support them too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.