The Price Of Posturing

January 21, 2007 at 4:29 pm | Posted in Iran, Iraq, Mahdi army, Sadr, Shia, USA | 1 Comment

The abduction of Sheikh Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji, a spokesman for Sayyed Moqtada al-Sadr, was more evidence of US posturing; al-Darraji has no military role, as well the US knows, however he is a visible face of the Mahdi army and Sayyed al-Sadr. Thus the United States saw some propaganda capital in taking him and his two cousins (since released) prisoner; a move which was not sanctioned by the Iraqi government. However, unlike earlier posturing in Um al-Maalef where the Mahdi army were prepared to play along, this incident, which led to the death of a bodyguard, caused real annoyance.

Falah Shanshal a Sadrist legislator reminded the Government that it was in breach of the deal to halt “attacks targeting Al-Sadr’s movement,” and demanded al-Darraji’s immediate release. Following which, 19 US servicemen were killed in Karbala and Eight British troops were injured in Basra injured in reprisal attacks by the Mahdi army.

It is also noteworthy, that since the United States illegally abducted five Iranian diplomats, over 30 US soldiers have been killed by forces the US claimed that Iran was supporting. The US justification for taking this diplomats hostage was to prevent attacks on US soldiers, even though the Iraqi government recognises that the Iranian diplomats were not involved in any such activity.

Thus this US posturing has resulted in the forfeit of more Occupation forces and further weakened the US Government’s already untenable position in Iraq. I said in an earlier post:

“This is little more than posturing and ill-advised: posturing has not served the United States well in Iraq – it has resulted in the death of over 3,000 US military personnel.”

Crackdown on the Mahdi army or posturing?

January 21, 2007 at 2:45 pm | Posted in Iraq, Mahdi army, Sadr, Shia, Sunni, USA | Leave a comment

“The first causality in war is the truth”
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said 400 fighters from the Mahdi Army army had been arrested over the past several weeks. Although, Yassin Majid, a senior al-Maliki adviser, denied earlier reports that dozens of senior militia leaders had been detained were incorrect.

In fact, US Occupation forces and the Iraqi army raided Um al-Maalef, a Shiite neighborhood in south Baghdad, on Tuesday and, detained every man who was able to carry weapons – about 400 people in all – nearly all who have been subsequently released. The Mahdi army did not respond under orders from Sayyed al-Sadr and no weapons were recovered. US troops did not enter civilian houses during the raid. No one was killed during this raid. Compare this with the raid in al Haifa street (a Sunnite stronghold) where over 50 were killed in one day.

The Martyrdom of Ayatullah Sayyed Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr

January 14, 2007 at 12:57 pm | Posted in Iraq, Islam, Saddam, Sadr, Shia, tyrant | Leave a comment

This is a translation from the account given by one of the security officers present during Saddam’s execution of Shaheed (martyr) Ayatullah Sayyed Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and Shaheeda (martyr) Sayyida Bint ul Huda:

“They brought Sayyid Al-Sadr to the office of National Security in Baghdad and they bound him in chains, then Saddam arrived and said in Iraqi slang ‘Muhammad Baqir, are you trying to make a government?’ and then he started hitting his face and head with a strong rod. So the Sayyid said to him ‘I have left the government to you’ and then an argument broke out between them about this and about the Islamic revolution in Iran, which led Saddam into a fit of rage, so he ordered his henchmen to torture Sayyid Al-Sadr severely. Then he ordered the lashing of martyr Bint Al-Huda – after she had been tortured in another room – they brought here in unconscious and they were dragging her, so when the Sayyid saw her, he became upset and angry at her plight. He said to Saddam ‘If you are a man, then undo my restraints’. But Saddam took a rod and began hitting the martyred Sayyida and she was senseless, then Saddam ordered for her breasts to be cut, which caused the Sayyid anger and he said to Saddam ‘If you were a man, you would have faced me face-to-face and let my sister go, but you are a coward, between your bodyguards’. Saddam flew into rage and took out his gun and fired on the Sayyid and then his sister and then left like an insane man cursing and swearing”

United States Posturing in Iraq

January 12, 2007 at 3:09 pm | Posted in Iraq, Kurd, Sadr, SCIRI, Shia, Sunni, USA | Leave a comment

The Sunni-Shia conflict in Iraq is peripheral to the real power struggle between Sayyed al-Hakim and Sayyed al-Sadr. The Shia are an estimated 63-66% of Iraq but that power struggle, should it become an open war, would not involve the Shia; all of Iraq would be drawn into the conflict. The Sunni Arabs would mainly supporting Sayyed al-Sadr whilst conversely the Kurds would support Sayyed al-Hakim.

Ayatullah al-Uzma al-Sistani has been trying to defuse this conflict and consequently flatly rejected the US plan. Last Sunday he summoned Sayyed Moqtada al-Sadr to his Najaf residence and asked for his support, he had previously conveyed to Sayyed al-Hakim that Sayyed al-Sadr must not be sidelined.

A deal has been provisionally reached where the United States deploys an additional 21,500 troops in Baghdad and Anbar province, whilst there is a redeployment of Iraq troops to Baghdad. Hence, the United States is withdrawing and despite its bravado about taking on the Mahdi army in a finally push, this is unlikely; the US cannot possibly hope to take on Sayyed al-Sadr with a positive result, nor would al-Malaki have the support to do so.

It is likely that the US will do as it did this week in in Hafia, concentrate on the Sunnite areas and leave Sadr city ostensibly to the Iraqi army but in reality it will remain firmly in the grasp of the Mahdi army. There may be some limited token clashes to give the appearance of even handedness, however it is preposterous to think that the United States envisages being able to destroy the Mahdi army with these reinforcements; there are two-and-half million in al-Sadr city, so an additional 17,500 US troops (4,000 are to be deployed in Anbar province) is not nearly enough. This is little more than posturing and ill-advised: posturing has not served the United States well in Iraq – it has resulted in the death of over 3,000 US military personnel.

British crocodile tears over Saddam

January 9, 2007 at 5:45 am | Posted in Iraq, Saddam, Sadr, Shia | 1 Comment

The recent criticism of the manner of Saddam’s execution by members of the British government are nothing short of a politically motivated fraud. Firstly, Britain is guilty of complicit negligence, since Blair implicitly endorsed Saddam’s death sentence, when he failed to secure a guarantee off Bush that Saddam would be tried in the Hague as the price for Britain’s participation in the invasion of Iraq. In failing so to do, it was not only foreseeable, it was inevitable that Saddam would be executed if captured alive.

The manner of the execution can come as no surprise, Saddam was led to the scaffold, where a noose was put around his neck. Several of the witnesses chanted “Moqtada” and Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowafaq al-Ruba’i, shouted, “Long live Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr,” then the trapdoor fell as Saddam was reciting the shahada, his neck broke and he died instantly. If this execution was undignified then it is because execution is undignified.

Secondly, the United States (through its client states Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt) has sought to exacerbate division in Iraq by presenting this as an Iranian Shiite execution of a Sunnite Arab leader. The Saudi media has claimed that the two hooded executioners flanking Saddam were Saadah al-Hakim and al-Sadr. The British criticism has been very much in keeping with this theme of Shia vengefulness.

Thirdly, the execution was brought forward after it was discovered that the United States was trying to ferment a deal with the Saddamis, which would have seen Saddam held in custody outside Iraq. Had Saddam not have been executed before Eid, the Mahdi army would have tried to lynch him in US custody.

Although such an assault would be easily repelled by the United States, al-Malaki’s position would have become untenable if he was perceived to have prevented Saddam’s execution.

Thus this execution was thrust upon the Occupation forces and signals their inability to control events. The compromise was that only the edited version of the execution be released to the World. Hence the Occupiers anger at the unedited version being put on the Internet, as British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott’s remarks illustrate “To get this kind of recorded messages coming out is totally unacceptable and I think whoever is involved and responsible for it should be ashamed of themselves.” He does not express anger at the execution but at those who released the footage.

The Demolition of Jamiat Police station

December 26, 2006 at 11:02 pm | Posted in Britain, Iraq, Sadr, Shia, Terrorism | 2 Comments

Over a 1,000 British occupation, with a token Iraqi Army presence, raided and demolished the Jamiat Police station in Basra, the home of the Serious Crimes Unit and the police station that British forces raided in a botched attempt to free two undercover SAS troopers in September 2005. The detained SAS troopers, much to the embarrassment of the British government, were caught trying to plant an explosive device with the intent of killing Iraqi civillians.

That the Serious Crimes Unit is aligned to the Sadrist faction and is without doubt, and this no doubt was the motive for this raid that followed the abortive attempts to form a coalition government without the Sadrist movement. British Occuaption forces are undoubtedly trying to provoke a clash with the Sadrist movement.

This act was a flagrant disregard for the rule of law. The Basra Municipal Council vote to suspend cooperation with the British occupation forces was predictably – Mohammed al-Abadi, chairman of the Municipal Council demanded an explanation of why the British forces ignored the rule of law and destroyed an “Iraq government building flying the Iraqi flag” and removed suspected terrorists. However, it is the reaction on the Street that matters.

Iraq Study Group Report is Delusional

December 8, 2006 at 4:19 am | Posted in Hakim, Iran, Iraq, Kurd, Sadr, Shia, Sunni, USA | 8 Comments

Iraq politicians have been decidedly nonchalant about the Iraq Study Group’s report; the Iraqi media even more so and most the public are unaware of it. Their disregard is well founded. Even if the report does make a bleaker assessment of the situation in Iraq than the US Government has hitherto been prepared to acknowledge, it is still a reiteration of many of the usual accusations, fabrications, distortions and half-truths. It is either spectacularly dishonest or spectacularly delusional in avoiding the underlying reality; namely, the United States is exacerbating the anarchy in Iraq by both its presence and continued interference. Whilst the reports acknowledges that Iraq is currently not governed as a unitary state and is quick to criticise Iraq’s politicians for being sectarian, it fails to point out that the United States has been deliberately fermenting factional conflict.

Even the lexicon of the report owes more to propaganda than reality – the Shia, Sunni, Kurdish, Taqfiri and Baathist factions all have their militias, they are all involved in ethnic-cleansing and all have divided loyalties – yet in the report Shia militias are described as “death squads”, the Sunni Militias as “insurgents” and the Kurdish militias as “security forces”. The United States has consistently opposed the Shia majority; it is this more than anything that has led to the present state of anarchy.

It is quite apparent that the current Iraqi government – a government in name only – it is simply incapable of imposing central rule. In fact, Iraq is no longer a unitary State. Yet the United States is still trying to impose central rule. This is dangerous myopia. Yet whilst acknowledging that the situation is spiraling out of control, the report continues to advocate propping up the defunct al-Malki Government. Hence it is delusional.

The two most powerful men in Iraq are Sayyed al-Hakim (SCIRI) and Sayyed al-Sadr (Sadrists). Sayyed al-Hakim, like the Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani (PUK), Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Malaki (Dawa) and Kurdistan Regional Government President, Massoud Barzani (KDP) supports the dissolution of Iraq. Whereas Sayyed al-Sadr, like the Sunnite Iraqi Vice President, Tariq al-Hashimi (IIP) and Sheikh Harith Al Dhari (Association of Muslims Scholars) support centralism. Yet al-Malaki, like the previous elected Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, is dependent upon the support of Sayyed al-Sadr, which was withdrawn last week, after his meeting with Bush in Jordan. Therefore the United States will have to reappraise its relationship with the SCIRI and its Badr militia, since the al-Malaki Government is dependent upon the goodwill of Sayyed al-Hakim, without which it will fall.

The report calls for an international regional conference, a move that is strongly resisted by Sayyed al-Hakim and Jalal Talabani, since contrary to US claims, it is Saudi Arabia that is actively destabilising Iraq; not Iran or Syria. In fact, Iran is the only stabilising force in Iraq, a point that both Jalal Talabani and Sayyed al-Hakim have made last week. The report should have recommended that, as a matter of imperative, the United States should desist from making baseless accusations against Iran, since the propaganda is fuelling the Shia-Sunni sectarian conflict and undermines the current Shia led Government. Therefore until the united States is prepared to move beyond the limits of its own propaganda; it is far from clear what the Iraq Study Group expects to be gained from direct talks with Iran and Syria: the United States is certainly not about to request Iran dispatch the IRGC into Basra to bolster the Badr numbers, so that they might drive the Mahdi Army out of Southern Iraq.

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