Posted on 08/04/2008 6:27:19 PM PDT by flyfree
BAGHDAD -- Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr -- long a thorn in the side of the U.S. military and Iraqi government -- intends to disarm his once-feared Mahdi Army militia and remake it as a social-services organization.
The transformation would represent a significant turnabout for a group that, as recently as earlier this year, was seen as one of the most destabilizing anti-American forces in Iraq. For much of the past several years, the Mahdi Army, headed by Mr. Sadr, a Shiite cleric, controlled sizable chunks of Baghdad and other major cities. Its brand of pro-Shiite activism had the side effect of pitting Iraqis against each other, helping to stir worries of civil war.
Recently, however, the group has been hit by a largely successful Iraqi military crackdown against militia members who have been operating as criminal gangs. At the same time, Mr. Sadr's popular support is dwindling: Residents who once viewed the Mahdi Army as champions of the poor have become alienated by what they see as its thuggish behavior.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Congressman Billybob
Tenth in the ten-part series, "The Owner's Manual (Part 10) -- The Remaining Amendments"
Latest article, "A Scandinavian Skeleton in a Southern Closet"
Page One, WSJ
al-Sadr has us right where he wants us! Our defeat will be swift and terrible now! He is still winning, and maybe even has won! How cunning and smart and well-groomed is he this lion of Baghdad!
LOL!
He won by losing..
Kind of what Baraq Husayn ibn Mahomet wants to create, with his Obama Youth Freedom Corps.
Didn’t Sadr hide in Iran while the combined forces rooted out his army?
If the Democrats had their way this idiot would be in charge of a large portion of Iraq after mass genocide and ongoing violence during our troop withdraw phase starting in 2006.
His power base would stretch from Tehran to Damascus and the oil rich Iraq would be funding Hezzbollah directly who by this point would have directly launched massive attacks against israel entrenching Israel in an all out Islamic conflict that would be costing the lives of millions of people.
The fall of Jeruselm in late 2007 was followed by a new Shiite dominated Middle East power centers in Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are coordinating and funding terror attacks on U.S. Soil....
5 Thousand American children were murdered in their schools at the hands of radical Islamic Terrorists during the Hezollah uprising and terror attacks launched against our schools in late 2007, 8 thousand dead during the Times Square bombings on New Years eve 2008, 4,000 murdered at Superbowl XLII including 25 Professional Players.... America is no longer the same country as it closes up borders and shuts down all venues in fear of more mass killings.
The Democrat controlled congress has no answer to the ongoing dillema and does nothing more then political posturing by blaming the minority party.
DEMOCRATS are, were and always will be on the WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY.... and they play politics with the very lives of the citizenry of this country.
“Hezbollah entrenched themselves in Lebanon by being a “service organization”.
Quite right
> If the Democrats had their way this idiot would be in charge of a large portion of Iraq after mass genocide and ongoing violence during our troop withdraw phase starting in 2006.
It wasn’t only the Democrats. It was most of the world, including the EU and UK.
He’s on a ten year scholarship at Ayatollah school in Iran.
He’s got seven years of study left before he achieves Ayatollahdom, at which point he returns to Iraq and becomes a bigger pain in the ass than he could ever hope to be without his sheepskin.
agreed. It ain’t over ‘til the bum is DEAD.
You should give fat-boy a call and invite him to share a room hiding...in Tehran.
Your post is pathetic.
Agree 100%. This guy intends to lie low until the US leaves. Then watch out.
They made themselves powerful by making sure that nothing could be built, and no aid could get to people, without going through Hezbollah. It would be a huge mistake to allow Sadr's people to have any role in any town in Iraq
He's becoming a community organizer?
Uh huh. And Ghengis Khan just announced that he and his Mongol hordes are available to cater your next Bar Mitzvah, while Frank and Jesse James have opened a bank examiner's office in Northfield, Minnesota.
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