Shi’ite (terrorist) leader Muqtada al-Sadr told his followers / private terrorist army to stop cooperating with the Americans and, instead, to fight them.
“You, the Iraqi army and police forces, don’t walk alongside the occupiers, because they are your archenemy,” the statement said. Its authenticity could not be verified.
“God has ordered you to be patient in front of your enemy, and unify your efforts against them — not against the sons of Iraq,” the statement said, in an apparent reference to clashes between al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army fighters and Iraqi troops in Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad. “You have to protect and build Iraq.”
Ed Morrissey isn’t impressed. First he explains that this is a sign that al-Sadr is losing influence due to the surge, and then:
Sadr has proven himself an adept politician, but a lousy general. Having him switch back into that role is a victory in itself for the American forces. Najaf residents recall the disastrous campaign Sadr staged there earlier in the Iraq war. His declaration in that city will likely result in more skepticism than enthusiasm, especially since Sadr keeps mailing in his orders from Iran.
Dr. Steven Taylor has a slightly different view:
If the message is authentic, then this will bring into serious question whether the surge has achieved any actual success at all. If the Shi’ite militias, which allegedly have been peaceful of late, decide to launch attacks on the “occupiers� then I don’t see how anyone can claim that the policy has been efficacious at all–as the basic idea was to pacify Baghdad and specifically to reign in, if not wholly disband the militia groups. Further, if Sadr is willing to launch attacks now, then it raises serious questions about any kind of near-term political solution (not that there was a lot of evidence that such a solution was likely to happen in any event).
I agree with Dr. Steven Taylor. If the Sadr militias will start attacking US forces on a grand scale again, well, violence will increase and the surge will be undermined. How one can see this as proof that the surge is working is beyond me to be quite frank.
Also: Senator John McCain wrote an OP-ED for the Washington Post about Iraq called, here we go, “The War You’re Not Reading About”.
No, he’s not referring to Afghanistan.
Cross posted at my own blog.
PAST CONTRIBUTOR.