Posted on 04/06/2008 2:49:46 PM PDT by james500
Iraq's major Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties have closed ranks to force anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to disband his Mahdi Army militia or leave politics, lawmakers and officials involved in the effort said Sunday.
Such a bold move risks a violent backlash by al-Sadr's Shiite militia. But if it succeeds it could cause a major realignment of Iraq's political landscape.
The first step will be adding language to a draft election bill banning parties that operate militias from fielding candidates in provincial balloting this fall, the officials and lawmakers said. The government intends to send the draft to parliament within days and hopes to win approval within weeks.
"We, the Sadrists, are in a predicament," lawmaker Hassan al-Rubaie said Sunday. "Even the blocs that had in the past supported us are now against us and we cannot stop them from taking action against us in parliament."
Al-Sadr controls 30 of the 275 parliament seats, a substantial figure but not enough to block legislation.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
This is long overdue - Sadr is the #1 enemy of democracy in Iraq and a tool of Iran, so that makes him a terrorist in my opinion. I hope somebody takes Sadr out- it’s not enough to get him out of the political landscape, he’s a threat as long as he breathes!
There is not a political solution to Sadr. He disbands and reforms his militia more often than most people change socks.
If the other groups want his force truly neutralized for good, they will have to be defeated by force, and Sadr will have to be removed. He cannot be part of any political process unless you want him to eventually take total control.
“Sadr will have to be removed”. Removed from this earth would be good.
The tyranny of the minority ceases to exert its former clout when the minority becomes sufficiently small....
Only the threat of carrying violence to the streets has supported Moqtada al-Sadr for as long as he was a force to reckon with. The rest of the Iraqis have closed ranks against him, and he stands isolated, with no friends in Parliament.
I have an idea al-Sadr is having a very bad time. He's going to be defeated in the legislature and if he wants to pick another fight with the military, he knows what he's going to face -
Here's a feel-great video of a recent action in Sadr City with the Iraqi Army in the lead, our Spec Opts guys backup.
We done trained 'em good.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3tMDhVu-f2Q
See my following post for direct link.
Anyone who thinks anything less than his death will end his reign of terror is deluding themselves.
I’m glad the other factions are starting to get a clue, but the actions of Iraqi politicians towards Sadr remind me an awful lot of how the UN treated Saddam. You cannot try to handle a military situation with just political pressure.
But, but, but ... the MSM told me that Maliki, not Sadr, has the loser here. How could it be?
I love that video. Those laser lights are incredible.
If I ever run across an Iraqi military guy, I’m pretty sure he’ll understand “go, go, go.”
Malaki is backed 100% by the Iranian government the cease fire was negotiated by iran. that is how they got sadr to stop.
The article states Mookie is thought to be hiding out in Qom. Qom is known to be earthquake prone. For once I can regret God having infinite patience.
1. This is not the actions of a government that thinks it lost.
2. This is the action of a government and a PM that has power and is willing to use it.
3. Judicial cover for the elimination of JAM...
(Badr and Peshmerga have already been folded into ISF under the budget law. They are no longer officially militias.)
Sadr is now guilty of treason. Try him, convict him and hang him right next to the Iranian border as a message to his enablers.
“Malaki is backed 100% by the Iranian government the cease fire was negotiated by iran. that is how they got sadr to stop.”
As my mama used to say: “Boosh-wah!!”
Lot of lead.
This report is not true. There is no political progress in Iraq. So, this cannot be true. Stop posting these lies!
Ever heard of the term "Divide and Conquer"? Classic Counter Insurgency tactics. Split up the opposition groups into manageable bites. One of the reasons we failed in Vietnam was we drove all the various Nationalist and religious groups into the arms of the Viet Cong. The reason we are winning in Iraq is we have learned the lessons we should of learned in Vietnam.
Rather then try and fight everyone all at once, we broke the Iraq-Al Qeda groups into manageable bites. Now that the Sunni-Al Qeda groups backs are broken, it Mookies turn to put his head on the block and get wacked.
Too bad most the Dincons here in the USA are fully the idiots on Iraq we have been telling them they all are.
Things have always been working towards this all along. Too bad the usual collection of Dinocons here on FR were so arrogantly certain of their own infallibility they simply refused to listen to any of us who have been telling them how these things would work out in Iraq.
Many here on Freeper been trying to tell the Doom and Gloom crowd the facts on Iraq. They were simply to arrogant to listen!
Too bad some Freepers would rather believe the proven liars in the US Junk News Media when it comes to Iraq then the people here who actually know what they are talking about!
Totally and wholly wrong.
What we are seeing in Iraq is the end game the Coalition has been building toward from the start.
Where the Bushies failed was underestimating the time the Iraqis could get their forces up and running. They looked at how fast we could of done it and said "Hey the Iraqis can do this in 2 years.
Ummm no, it took them 4 years. Which really isn't surprising.
A US Trooper goes into a military with over 200 years of corporate history commanded by officers and NCOs with decades of experience supported by the worlds greatest logistics chain.
The Iraqis had to rebuild a society, and a military, degraded by 40 years of murder, torture and terror. What is amazing is not that it took them 4 years to work out most the bugs in their system, but they managed to create the system at all!
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