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Bush gambles as Najaf burns
By Michael Schwartz
The administration of US President George W Bush has embarked on a desperate military adventure in hopes of creating the appearance of a pacified Iraq. The assault on the holy city of Najaf, with its attendant slaughter of combatants and civilians, its destruction of whole neighborhoods, and its threat to Shi'ite holy cities, is fraught with the possibility of another major military defeat.
But the military commanders are hoping it will instead produce a rare military victory, since they are fighting lightly armed and relatively inexperienced members of Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army. Nevertheless, even such a victory would be short-lived at best, since the fighting itself only serves to consolidate the opposition of the Shi'ite population.
| "So anything they do, y'see, is wrong..." |
The Bush administration is apparently hoping that a sufficiently brutal suppression of the Sadrists will postpone the now almost inevitable national uprising until after the November presidential elections in the United States. To understand this desperate strategic maneuver, we must review the origins of the new battle of Najaf. A truce in May ended the first round of armed confrontation between US marines and Muqtada's militia, the Mehdi Army, but was never fully honored by either side. US troops were supposed to stay out of Najaf, and Muqtada's militiamen were supposed to disband as an army. In the intervening months of relative peace, neither side made particularly provocative moves, but the US still mounted patrols and the Mehdi Army continued to stockpile arms, notably in the city's vast holy cemetery. Lots of threats were proffered on both sides.
Posted by: Fred 2004-08-12 |
