Sadr supporters asking for Maliki ousterMar 27th, 2008 - 14:47:40

www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/27/mideast/iraq.php

(Note also the loss of one of two major pipelines, which will cause a jump in gas prices)

BAGHDAD: Thousands of supporters of the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr marched in Baghdad on Thursday to protest against a three-day-old crackdown against his followers and to call for the downfall of the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

There were demonstrations in the districts of Sadr City, Kadhimiya and Shula. An Interior Ministry source said hundreds of thousands had taken to the streets.

'We demand the downfall of the Maliki government,' said a Sadr City resident, Hussein Abu Ali. 'It does not represent the people. It represents Bush and Cheney.'

The authorities had imposed curfews across southern Iraq in an effort to halt the spread of violence after the largest military offensive carried out by Iraqi forces without major support from U.S. or British combat units.

Saboteurs blew up one of Iraq's two main oil-export pipelines from Basra, cutting off a third of the exports from the city. The exports account for 80 percent of the government's revenue. U.S. crude oil prices rose more than $1 to around $107 a barrel after the blast.

The main riverside police base at Basra palace was hit by mortar fire Thursday morning and heavy shooting broke out in a main commercial street in the city, Iraq's second-largest, where the crackdown began on Tuesday.

'The operation is still ongoing and will continue until Basra is free from criminals and outlaws,' Major General Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, head of operations at the Iraqi Defense Ministry, said in Baghdad.

Clashes have spread in the past two days to the southern cities of Kut, Hilla, Diwaniya, Amara and Kerbala, as well as to several Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad. Basra's police chief survived an assassination attempt overnight. A roadside bomb killed three of his bodyguards.

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Will Madhi army continue cease-fire?Mar 27th, 2008 - 15:07:20

Current events demonstrate just how much of the reduction in violence during the surge period could be theoretically attributable to the cease-fire Iraq has enjoyed. Technically it's still in force, but it sure looks like things have been pushed out of control. Iraq ends up in a power striggle between al-Maliki representing the official government, seen as fronting Bush and Cheney by many of the militants they're fighting.

al-Maliki has perviously called off U.S. troops' efforts to get Basra under control, and the British finally withdrew sometime back - and I doubt they're coming back, as the Labour government has its hands full with domestic problems, and the resurgence of the Conservatives.

I'm assuming that this latest action stems from Cheney's recent visit, and the Mahdi now see al-Maliki as nothing but a Bush puppet.

Our own economic news is on the minds of the U.S. public, and the question is how much entanglement by U.S. troops they'll put up with if the civil war in Iraq busts loose. al-Maliki is supposed to be battling al Qaeda in the North, so this would be a second front to control. McCain will have a tougher time retaining support for his Presidency.

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abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=4535114&page=1

(Key paragraph): 'Mahdi fury is focused on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite who is personally overseeing an operation against the militias in Basra. The crisis over the control of Basra is seen as a test of the government's ability to take over security.'

Defiant Shiites flexed their muscle today by sending tens of thousands of supporters into the streets of Baghdad, raining shells into the Green Zone and holding the Iraqi army at bay in the key oil city of Basra.

Amid all the turmoil, a bomb blasted a crucial oil pipeline in Basra, triggering a massive fire and threatening the country's ability to export oil. The pipeline blast sent the world's price of oil to $107 a barrel.

The growing anger over the government's attempt in Basra to crack down on the forces of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatens to end a truce with the powerful Mahdi Army. The Madhi Army has twice embroiled U.S. troops in vicious fighting in much of southern Iraq. Another uprising could trigger a virtual civil war and bring into doubt the Bush administration's ability to withdraw U.S. troops.

Sadr's supporters lashed out at the U.S. and the Iraqi government today. Rockets and mortars fired from their Baghdad stronghold of Sadr City showered the Green Zone with rockets and mortar shells for the fourth straight day. One landed next to the U.S. Embassy compound.

Thick, black smoke billowed from inside the heavily fortified home to the U.S. Embassy and Iraqi government, but no injuries were reported in today's barrage. Since the Green Zone attacks have started, however, one U.S. soldier, two American civilians and an Iraqi soldier have been wounded and an American financial analyst has been killed.

Anger over the Basra crackdown has spread across southern Iraq where the Mahdi Army is strongest and is vying for control with government forces as well as rival Shiite groups. Seventeen deaths were reported in scattered fighting around Sadr City and 60 were killed fighting in the southern city of Hilla.

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CharlesMar 27th, 2008 - 15:22:40

'I'm assuming that this latest action stems from Cheney's recent visit, and the Mahdi now see al-Maliki as nothing but a Bush puppet.'

Get over your BDS. You really have things twisted around.

Sadr and Maliki are going to fight for power. There are 2 main shiite factions and neither want to share much. Bush/Cheney is a temporary sideshow for these guys. The prize is Iraq and billions in wealth.

Trying to make Bush the fountainhead of all that occurs in Iraq is really naive.

Hopefully Maliki would not have started this fight if he wasn't prepared to finish it.

We'll see what happens.

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lanceMar 27th, 2008 - 15:24:04

Sounds like a coup attempt in the making and al-Maliki is going to do it Saddam style. Great, this is what it has come to. Turns out Saddam had good judgement, I guess. Coups are always risky for the power to be because to deal with them (big ones anyways) effectively they need to be crushed genocide-style. Good luck with the bloodletting. Glad the U.S. can team up with the winning side this time, uh, I guess. Bring out the flying gun ships!

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SP4; tell us it's all a bad dreamMar 27th, 2008 - 15:24:41

Give us some of the bullcrap propaganda you're so famous for; where you tell us how well things are going, and how victory has been achieved.

Tell us how well the U.S. economy is going ... whoops!

money.cnn.com/2008/03/27/news/economy/gdp/?postversion=2008032710

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Economic growth was nearly flat in the last three months of 2007, according to a government report released Thursday.

The Commerce Department's final reading on gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic activity, grew at an annual rate of 0.6%, adjusted for inflation, in the fourth quarter. The reading was unchanged from the preliminary fourth-quarter reading and in line with economists' expectations.

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Tell us what a stable leader we have ... whoops!

www.tomflocco.com/fs/SecretServIntelSay.htm

Washington—November 17, 2005—TomFlocco.com—Secret Service members attached to White House domestic security, FBI and CIA agents, and written national security field reports all confirm that President Bush has been using drugs which could be affecting his performance as the nation’s war-time commander-in-chief.

Multiple federal agents having direct knowledge and access to Bush’s medical records say the President has switched from using Ritalin to taking Prozac while also succumbing to periodic alcoholic binges which have led to tirades and explosive personal conduct among White House aides, absent required random drug testing of all public employees and elected officials.

archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/01/13/bush.fainting/

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush fainted for a brief time Sunday in the residence of the White House while eating a pretzel and watching a professional football game on television, the White House said.

Bush's physician, Air Force Col. Richard Tubb, said the president blacked out and fell to the floor from a couch but appeared to have recovered quickly.

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More excuses for incompetent PrezMar 27th, 2008 - 15:37:52

RE:

'Sadr and Maliki are going to fight for power. There are 2 main shiite factions and neither want to share much. Bush/Cheney is a temporary sideshow for these guys. The prize is Iraq and billions in wealth.

Trying to make Bush the fountainhead of all that occurs in Iraq is really naive. Hopefully Maliki would not have started this fight if he wasn't prepared to finish it.'

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Since Al-Maliki has not accomplished anything meaningful since taking office, at least success would be a first for him. How's Mosul going? Kirkuk?

The upcoming provincial elections are the primary trigger for this - the Shia groups in Basra have been funding projects for the poor (just as Hamas did in Gaza when they bear Fatah). I notice you did not mention those elections at all, since you're just spouting more of the rockheaded ignorance that got us into this position. What's naive here are your comments.

If Bush is not the catalyst, then who the hell is? Whose policies are these? Whose failed strategy has led to this? Who let idiot Bremer dismiss the Iraqi army, only to see them become the Sunni insurgency?

The key to the current crisis would be getting al-Sadr to reverse his recent statements, and to tamp down the violence now spreading out of the South towards Baghdad, where the Shia have taken over quite a lot of territory which was formerly Sunni-occupied. The question is whether al-Sadr actually has tangible control over his own forces, or if the splinter groups he was trying to get rid of now wield influence of their own.

www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/books/review/Brinkley-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogi n

(From 'The Bush Tragedy')

'Cheney did not share Rove’s belief in Bush’s great political gifts. Instead, Weisberg argues, he saw in the new president an easily manipulable vehicle for his own longstanding agenda. He did not strive to be Bush’s friend, but he became the president’s continual and loyal courtier. “Cheney had figured out how to play on the son’s sense of his reborn self, flattering the maturity of his judgment,” Weisberg notes. “There was no need to spell out the implicit proposition: You have the self-confidence and inner security to rely on me.” Cheney was not alone in persuading Bush (who needed little persuasion) to launch the disastrous war in Iraq, but without Cheney the conflict might never have overcome the opposition of many in the administration. Cheney was even more central to some of the other damaging actions of Bush’s presidency: the assaults on due process and civil liberties; the defense of torture; the heightened secrecy; the contempt for international law and international organizations; and, perhaps most of all, the imperial view of the presidency, based on Cheney’s theory of the “unitary executive” and (in Weisberg’s words) his “lifelong goal” of “making the presidency stronger.”'

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It's a lost causeMar 27th, 2008 - 16:16:51

Iraq is not one country and it certainly will never know democracy. If not Saddam, than someone else from one faction controlling the rest. Why waste US lives and money on a lost cause?

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Mr NukumMar 27th, 2008 - 18:28:35

Just Nukum and be over with it.

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IVoteForSadamMar 27th, 2008 - 18:30:48

We should have helped Saddam take over Iran - it's just what these people needed. Someone to theaten them and keep them in order.

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That was the question in 2004Mar 27th, 2008 - 18:32:29

RE: 'Iraq is not one country and it certainly will never know democracy. If not Saddam, than someone else from one faction controlling the rest. Why waste US lives and money on a lost cause?'

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A look at the history of Iraq and how it's leaders were installed show how the country was held together by strong leaders (and that included controlling the Shia majority) - that's why Bush Sr. left Saddam in power in 1991. The question over the next few days is whether the whole thing will fly apart, further strengthening Iran's position (another reason Bush Sr. left Saddam in charge).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq

'At the end of World War I, the League of Nations granted the area to the United Kingdom as a mandate. It initially formed two former Ottoman vilayets (regions): Baghdad, and Basra into a single country in August 1921. Five years later, in 1926, the northern vilayet of Mosul was added, forming the territorial boundaries of the modern Iraqi state.'

A government spokesman in Baghdad was just captured, and the demonstrations are in Sadr City, a Shia area. This is strictly now a Shia-on-Shia conflict, despite the cease-fire of al-Sadr. If al-Maliki exerts too much pressure, he could theoretically generate enough resentment that a true armed conflict could break out, imperiling U.S. diplomats and others in the Green Zone, which is only a few square miles in area.

The last paragraph included below describes the politics of the situation.

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www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraq28mar28,1,3783015.stor y

The bold mid-afternoon kidnapping of Tahseen Sheikhly is a sign of the unrest spreading since Iraqi security forces started clamping down on Shiite militiamen in Basra.

BAGHDAD -- Rockets and mortars rained down on Baghdad today, and a high-ranking Iraqi government spokesman was abducted from his home, as violence continued in the wake of a crackdown on Shiite Muslim militiamen.

Scores of people have died since the fighting erupted early Tuesday, including at least 51 in the southern oil port city of Basra, where the Iraqi offensive began. At least 15 people, most of them civilians, were reported killed in attacks today in Baghdad and nearby Babil province to the south. Skirmishes also continued in Basra, where a pipeline carrying oil to the city's port was hit by a major blast that sent flames soaring into the sky.

In Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood, thousands of supporters of Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr marched through the streets demanding the ouster of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and accusing him of targeting Sadr loyalists in the Basra offensive. Maliki, meanwhile, rejected negotiations with what he called 'criminal gangs' to end the violence.

'Their only choice is to hand over their weapons and sign pledges that they will henceforth abide by the law and return to the right path,' said Maliki, who Wednesday gave militiamen 72 hours to put down their weapons.

Police said gunmen attacked the east Baghdad home of Tahseen Sheikhly, a spokesman for the Baghdad security plan launched in February 2007 to stabilize the capital. According to officials in the Interior Ministry, which oversees police, the attackers shot and wounded at least one of Sheikhly's guards and ransacked his home before fleeing with the spokesman.

Sheikhly has appeared frequently at news conferences alongside U.S. officials discussing what they consider progress of the security plan. The bold abduction, in the middle of the afternoon, was a sign of the spreading insecurity since the Basra offensive began.

The Iraqi prime minister and U.S. officials have denied Sadr's charges that the operation is politically motivated and aimed at crushing the cleric and his supporters ahead of provincial elections in October. They insist the effort is aimed at rogue elements who have refused to abide by a cease-fire that Sadr called for his militiamen last August.

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