In slick sleight-of-hand maneuvers reminiscient of Rove in the glory days, Muqtada al Sadr will end up with all the cards in Baghdad.
A BBC reporter that covers the militia beat in Baghdad explains that within al Sadr's organization are rivals who are not loyal to him and tend to take matters into their own hands. The U.S. "crackdown" manuevers are essentially doing al Sadr's dirty work: killing or capturing the renegades within al Sadr's domain. al Sadr had ordered his loyalists to stand down, get off the streets, melt away. The US will clean up the "rivals".
Then this:
A special to the Huffington Post
A peaceful coup is being attempted in Baghdad, seeking to replace Nouri al-Maliki with a coalition between the Sunni political leader Saleh al-Mutlak and the Shiite insurgent leader Moqtada al-Sadr.
Mainstream media has reported that the US has hoped to cajole the Sunnis to align with al-Maliki against al-Sadr, a scenario that seemingly is being rejected and reversed. Instead, al-Sadr's bloc is demanding a US timeline for withdrawal.
CNN' Nick Robertson featured an interview today [Thursday morning] with al-Mutlak in Baghdad, describing the unfolding transition plan as having been months in the making. It appeared that a threatened al-Maliki would have to join the call for US withdrawal, or face the possibility of being replaced by an interim government.
The interim outcome for Baghdad, with its five million residents divided 60-40 between Shiite and Sunni, might be cease-fires in place, while US troops withdraw and services like electricity restoration take priority.
For al-Sadr, his bloc would expand further inside government, where he already controls four ministries. His Mahdi Army would avoid another battle with the Americans. He would become, sooner or later, the most popular leader in a reconfigured Iraq. Like it or not, the current Lebanon model comes to mind, where Hezbollah dominates the south and is a major player in a coalition government representing several ethnic/religious groups. Such may be the outcome of the neo-conservatives' grand design for the Middle East.
The American Soldier
By Terry Hart
Future Wife to Sgt. Ereck Keith
They Fight For Family, Friend, Country And Man,
Fighting For What We Call Our Land
Defending Right And Wrong, Honor And Pride,
With God Standing At There Side.
They Are The American Soldier, Strong And True.
A Warrior, Teacher, Student, Man,
Defending The Rights Of This Great Land.
Woman, Sister, Uncle, Aunt, Mother, Father From Every Branch.
Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine
What A Beautiful Sight, These Colors Don’t Bleed.
The American Soldier Is Certainly A Site To Behold.
Doing Their Duty Paying The Price,
Giving Their Time, Their Talent, And Sometimes Their Life.
There Is So Much We See, And Do In This Life,
So Much We Take For Granted, So Much We Take With Pride,
We Never Stop To Think Of Those Who Have Gone Before,
Those That Have Fought For Our Freedom
Those Who Have Fought In Many Wars
They Stood For Right And Wrong
They Paid The Ultimate Price
The Died To Defend Our Freedom, They Died Defending Our Lives.
So The Next Time You Find Yourself Questioning This War,
Think Of All The Soldiers Who Have Gone Before,
Remember What They Were Fighting For…………
T.L.Keith
03/21/04
Last edited by ATG (2007-01-20 22:57:48)