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Iraq-Jordan
Bush gambles as Najaf burns
2004-08-12
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.
We're gonna get it...
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

#20  Old Spook didn't you hear that the Americans committed suicide at the gates of Baghdad?

You mean those are our stomachs grilling in Hell? But ... they're full of goat meat and dates, not MREs. Here's where I stopped reading:

The original patrols to Muqtada's house and the arrest of his followers were unprovoked, distinctly provocative acts.

This guy isn't smoking crack, he's mainlining heroin. Only someone completely out of touch with reality could possibly write such balderdash. The instant Sadr rallied his thugs against our soldiers he started wearing a bullseye.
Posted by: Zenster   2004-08-12 10:19:04 PM  

#19  But... Old Spook didn't you hear that the Americans committed suicide at the gates of Baghdad?
Posted by: True German Ally   2004-08-12 10:06:07 PM  

#18  WTF? A RARE military victory? Dude put down the crack pipe before you write an article for publication.

Can he point out a single military defeat?

We've won every tactical engagement since we entered Iraq, and the (unpublished) bad-guy casualties have been horrendous, possibly approaching 100,000.
Posted by: Oldspook   2004-08-12 9:45:54 PM  

#17  I started reading this crap, and the first thing I had to do was learn where it appeared (I was SURE it had to be Scrappleface, or The Onion), and who was idiot enough to write it. This guy could easily play Wily E. Kyote's younger (and dumber) brother. Somebody needs to be keeping track of all these nutbags, so we can be sure to get them their medications after the next election - they're going to need them.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2004-08-12 9:21:44 PM  

#16  If President Bush were even remotely similar to what these moonbats believe he is, the Marines would be cleaning out SUNY instead of Najaf and frogmarching this beknighted analyst to his transport to Guantanomo instead of toasting Tater's Tots.
Posted by: RWV   2004-08-12 8:39:24 PM  

#15  This is pretty limp. Academics like this create their own little fantasy worlds and populate them with people who like the fantasies better than the real world. This guy must be pretty weak to publish in the Asia Times instead on the Democratic Underground like the other moonbats.
Posted by: RWV   2004-08-12 8:36:04 PM  

#14  Hey! I like Merlot! Don't ruin it for me, k?
Posted by: Frank G   2004-08-12 4:54:44 PM  

#13  Look's like the Perfesser will be crying in his Merlot tonight...
Posted by: tu3031   2004-08-12 4:35:00 PM  

#12  GAWD, this lunatic.
When are we going to start interning these leftie assholes?
You know if any of us had any doubts about the FBI rumors of communist and anarchist infiltration of the antiwar and student movements of the sixties all we have to do is read some of the crap these oatmeal brains puke out for the media to fawn over.
I don't suppose it EVER crossed this misguided airhead's few remaining brain cells that we are also fighting to save his ass from the wild eyed loonies of Islam??? I don't think he realizes that the first ones to get the axe will be the lefties who advocate all of neat stuff that drive the purists amoung the loonies wild with blood lust.
Why don't we make a piece offering to the Islamofascists??? We could give them several thousand idiotic college professors to hack, chop, mistreat and behead. That would keep them busy for a while.
Posted by: SOG475   2004-08-12 4:27:38 PM  

#11  In Iraq, US control is slipping away one city at a time, a process that actually accelerated after the "transfer of sovereignty" on June 28.

I see no evidence of this. all the cities that were out of control (falluja, samarra) or contested (ramadi, Mosul, Najaf) were in that situation before the handover.
Posted by: Liberalhawk   2004-08-12 13:00  

#10  That was the Asia Times? I thought it was a recap of CBS News!
Posted by: Crusader   2004-08-12 12:46  

#9  Depends upon how hardcore his Lieutenants are.

Or whether Zarkawi has infiltrated a hardcore lieutenant into Sadr's group. At the end, Sadr may find out he's been played by the Sunni...
Posted by: snellenr   2004-08-12 12:44  

#8  AP, the Marines are working with that in mind. They have said that the IP will be attacking the mosque, the Marines will be providing perimeter security and support. Alawi said this morning that no americans would enter the mosque.
Posted by: Formerly Dan   2004-08-12 12:40  

#7  AP - YES. Absolutely possible. Depends upon how hardcore his Lieutenants are. Is it a Cult of Personality? Odds go up, if so.

That might just be a very prescient idea!
Posted by: .com   2004-08-12 12:23  

#6  What do you think of this scenario? Tater's boyz see that they are surrounded, no supplies, no water, they are holed up in the Ali mosque. They decide that there is no hope so they and the mosque blow up like a roman candle. Out with a bang. Think that is plausible?
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2004-08-12 12:21  

#5  Michael Schwartz, professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, has written extensively on popular protest and insurgency, and on US business and government dynamics. His work on Iraq has appeared at ZNET and TomDispatch, and in Z magazine. (edited, with Clarence Lo). His books include Radical Politics and Social Structure, The Power Structure of American Business (with Beth Mintz), and Social Policy and the Conservative Agenda

Hahahaha. Thats one of them genuine objective reporters!
Posted by: Atropanthe   2004-08-12 12:04  

#4  The author is a far left professor who is an expert in protests. Therefore, W must be doomed.
Posted by: Tibor   2004-08-12 12:04  

#3  Then, send one cop around to slap the cuffs on Tater . . . .

I suspect he's going to die of "self-inflicted" gunshot wounds long before that. Multiple "self-inflicted" gunshot wounds.
Posted by: Mike   2004-08-12 11:29  

#2  Be me to it again moose! Yeah, these AT writers would to well for a soap opera.
Posted by: Rex Mundi   2004-08-12 11:16  

#1  Boy, is the Asia Times out of it! The latest from Najaf is that the remnants of Tater's boys, between 1,200 and 1,500, are holed up in the Ali mosque. It's over.
130 degree temperatures, and I'm sure we've cut off their water. They're boned.
Pretty soon we'll start to hear pistol shots going off inside the mosque, and then there will be an orderly march of most of the recalcitrants out the main exit. Sometime later the hard corps last 100 will charge out, in an ending much like in the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."
Then, send one cop around to slap the cuffs on Tater, and get good camera footage of him snivelling like a pleasure piggy, with nary a laughing Marine in sight.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2004-08-12 11:13  

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