Anti-US cleric renews Iraq withdrawal call [Would We Go?]

MSNBC, FT ^ | 5/25/07 | Steve Negus

[Sleeping Beauty]

Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shia cleric, made his first public appearance in months on Friday, telling supporters in his home town of Kufa to campaign peacefully for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

Mr Sadr's disappearance at the beginning of this year coincided with a US-Iraqi crackdown on his Mahdi Army militia – accused of involvement in sectarian death squads.

US officials claim the firebrand cleric had been in Iran, along with many of his lieutenants, while his movement claims he never left the country.

Regardless of where he was, both the Baghdad government and Mr Sadr may have found it convenient for the young leader to be out of the picture as US and Iraqi troops moved against what they usually described as "rogue" members of his ­network.

Mr Sadr may have given approval for the removal of particularly disobedient or violent commanders in-volved in sectarian killing, whose actions risked both triggering a wider confrontation with the US and made it difficult for him to reach out to Sunni communities.

Now, with support for the Iraqi government ebbing and with domestic pressure mounting on the US administration to withdraw troops, he may calculate he needs to take a more hands-on approach to the leadership of his movement.

In a sermon on Friday, Mr Sadr demanded the "withdrawal of occupation forces or the creation of a timetable for such a withdrawal", but condemned fighting between his Mahdi Army militia and Iraqi government forces.

He said his followers should turn to peaceful demonstrations rather than attacks, which "served the interests of the occupiers".

Mr Sadr pulled his six ministers out of Prime ­Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government last month to protest at its failure to produce a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces.

[Sleeping Beauty]

So, here's the question:

If the Iraqi government officially asked us to leave their country, would we?

If so, where would we find the new front in the War on Terror.

[SF Republican]

If the Iraqi government officially asked us to leave their country, would we?
YES
If so, where would we find the new front in the War on Terror.
Next door: Iran, Syria, Lebanon

[Sleeping Beauty]

Next door: Iran, Syria, Lebanon

Would those nations allow us to occupy them in order to fight Al Qaeda?

Or are you suggesting that we invade them and topple their governments?

[FormerLib]

This guy sounds like he could be Hussein Obama’s running mate!

[SF Republican]

No, I was answering your question:
where would we find the new front in the War on Terror.

[Sleeping Beauty]

Gotcha. And I agree.

[TheDon]

If so, where would we find the new front in the War on Terror.

In the USA!

[Thoro]

I love how the MSM tells us all about "why" sadr wants us out of there, or rather how they don't. You'd think from the tone of this article that he's just a poor unfairly persecuted dissident who wants his country back. The truth is that he's made his intentions abundantly clear. He wants us out of there so he, backed fully by Iran, can proceed unabated with a bloody takeover of the country and turn it into New Iran which will make the Taliban look like a girl scout troop and which will entail a body count that will dwarf even Sadam's various conveniently forgotten massacres.

Then again, I forgot the equation:

Muslim kills Muslim = Zero Casualties

U.S. kills Terrorist = ((Casualty * 1000) x 10^1000) + 1.

So it's foolish of me to consider the true death toll and consequences of lending a sympathetic press to this piece of human scum.