Article

2006-07-29 Iraq

US in quiet U-turn on Iraq troop numbers

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Steve White 2006-07-29 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 I think Iraq is about to explode. Sadr Mehdi/Badgr groups are Iranian proxies and Iran is looking to turn up the heat. They may think a major push could break our back here on the home moral.

Teit anyone.

http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2006/07/war-preparations-disguised-as.html

Iraq the Model says the fellow Radicals both Shia/Sunni are looking for a temporary truce to fight the US/IA.

http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2006/07/just-new-banners-or-war-drums.html

And this post is about strange new Mehdi banners around town pimping the 12Mehdi and such.

Thos two observations to me mixed with the odd behavior of Israel being so reserved with their ground forces makes me wonder that something big is getting ready to pop.

Posted by C-Low 2006-07-29 00:22|| 2006-07-29 00:22|| Front Page Top

#2 Crap Watch. US objectives in Iraq do not involve resolving sectarian conflicts. That is an internal policing matter. The problem of the formation of irregular groups of terrorists - like the Mahdi Army - is within US scope of operations. That is why a temporary buildup is probably being put in effect. Al-Sadr has to go. Crunch time is coming.

Posted by Griper Whegum8464 2006-07-29 00:27|| 2006-07-29 00:27|| Front Page Top

#3 A history lesson from an article yesterday...

Even though Nasrallah has become "famous" for starting this new Hezbollah-Israel war and declaring Israel as Hezbollah's mortal enemy, one should not forget that the "big Satan" remains the United States. And that's why Iraq is where Nasrallah's influence can also be felt.

Nasrallah's biography explains how he got close to prominent clerics in Lebanon, Iran and Iraq, in particular the Sadr family. In 1975, when he was only 15, Nasrallah joined the ranks of the Lebanese Shi'ite movement Amal - which Hezbollah broke from after its creation in 1982 - led by Musa al-Sadr.

From 1976 to 1978 he was sent to study in Najaf, Iraq, at the famed Shi'ite seminary the Hawze. There he met most of his mentors, starting with Iranian ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (leader of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979) and also his tutor, ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr (Muqtada al-Sadr's father). He also was in close contact with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani (the leading Shi'ite spiritual force in Iraq today).

And finally, he was groomed by future Hezbollah leader Abbas al-Musawi, whom he succeeded after Musawi was killed by the Israelis in 1992. Those two years in Najaf definitely left a huge imprint on Nasrallah's psyche.

And that's why, when it was time to help his Shi'ite brothers in Iraq after the US intervention in 2003, and especially Muqtada, Nasrallah responded. Nasrallah, using the 1982 model of what had worked in Lebanon to kick out the multinational force, adapted some of his tactics in Iraq.

Indeed, Iraq in 2006 looks a lot like the Lebanon of 1983. For example, the Iranian man in charge of this whole operation is Hassan Qommi, who had the exact same job ... in Beirut in 1982. Qommi helped Hezbollah instructors get to Iraq to train Muqtada's Mehdi Army, which has staged several high-profile confrontations with US forces, notably at Fallujah.

Starting in 2003, Hezbollah began building up organizational and military apparatuses in Iraq. For instance, that April, Hezbollah opened two offices in the Iraqi cities of Basra and Safwan. The campaign, targeting moderate Iraqi Shi'ite clerics willing to work with the US, was most likely orchestrated by Muqtada and Hezbollah.

Keep in mind that even though Nasrallah greatly respects Sistani, he is totally at odds with him when it comes to fighting the US presence.

Also in 2003-04, Imad Mughniah, the top Hezbollah operative wanted by most Western secret services for his role in most of the attacks perpetrated by Hezbollah, including the bombings of the US Embassy and the US and French barracks in Beirut in 1983, was sighted in Iraq. Syria had most probably facilitated his entry on to Iraqi soil.

Posted by Sherry">Sherry 2006-07-29 00:27|| 2006-07-29 00:27|| Front Page Top

#4 Agreed, secretarion violence is out of bounds. But popping Tater & Tots, Inc. fits the Iran profile. Good hunting.

Posted by Captain America 2006-07-29 00:33|| 2006-07-29 00:33|| Front Page Top

#5 The US administration has quietly reversed its goal from whittling down troop numbers in Iraq before the mid-term congressional elections in November.

Quietly my a$$. Bush even said something about it on TV. If it was "quiet" it was because the MSM for once didn't say much about it. Somebody obviously forgot to tell this guy.

Posted by gorb 2006-07-29 00:42|| 2006-07-29 00:42|| Front Page Top

#6 If you in Iraq turn your backs on me.....

Posted by newc">newc 2006-07-29 01:31|| 2006-07-29 01:31|| Front Page Top

#7 Very nice summary, Sherry. Thanks muchly!

Posted by trailing wife 2006-07-29 01:35|| 2006-07-29 01:35|| Front Page Top

#8 Now that I read this again, is all this suggesting to some that an operation is being staged, and that apparently unnecessary increases in US and Israeli troops the supporting evidence?

If so, wouldn't that take a couple/three carriers?

Does this tie in somehow with the Sunnis suddenly being the US's best friends over there?

Am I totally off-base? :-)

Posted by gorb 2006-07-29 02:45|| 2006-07-29 02:45|| Front Page Top

#9 Shery, Good info but I don't think the Mehdi "army" was a main player in Fallujah. That is Sunni territory. I believe you were thinking of Najaf where US forces had an extended run with him and should have finished the job. The similarity to Fallujah is that we are having to do the same job twice because we did not have the strength of will to get it done the first time.

Posted by remoteman 2006-07-29 11:30|| 2006-07-29 11:30|| Front Page Top

#10 "The rise will prompt fears that the US is becoming increasingly bogged down in an unwinnable conflict."

Emotion in Motion.

Posted by DepotGuy 2006-07-29 11:56|| 2006-07-29 11:56|| Front Page Top

#11 remoteman - I know you're right about Tater and his Tots - that was Najaf, not Fallujah.

Didn't I read here that Sistani actually saved Tater there? IIRC, he and his Tots were holed up in the mosque and the only thing that stopped them being finished off was Sistani's return from London, the asshole. After the MNF forces withdrew, people discovered he and his shits had been torturing and killing people, doing dope on a major scale, had stolen all the valuables they could find, and had trashed much of the mosque. Isn't this correct?

Posted by cruiser 2006-07-29 12:04|| 2006-07-29 12:04|| Front Page Top

#12 Remoteman and others -- thanks for thinking I'm that smart and clever, but I didn't write any of that. I did know, tho, that it was Najaf, not Fallujah.

This is part of a article I posted on Friday by Olivier Guitta from http://counterterrorismblog.org/

There's more of his article at Asia Times http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HG29Ak02.html.

or at Rantburg at http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=161173&D=2006-07-28&HC=4

Posted by Sherry">Sherry 2006-07-29 15:30|| 2006-07-29 15:30|| Front Page Top

#13 Hello mullah, hello fatwah!

Posted by JSU 2006-07-29 20:21|| 2006-07-29 20:21|| Front Page Top

00:00 Zhang Fei
23:58 xbalanke
23:56 Manolo
23:55 Manolo
23:54 Manolo
23:52 Anonymoose
23:46 Zhang Fei
23:42 leroidavid
23:41 honkey
23:40 honkey
23:37 Brett
23:18 trailing wife
23:18 Old Patriot
23:17 xbalanke
23:14 xbalanke
23:03 Fordesque
23:02 leroidavid
23:00 KBK
22:54 GK
22:53 Alaska Paul
22:50 GK
22:32 Manolo
22:29 Javitch Jealing4436
22:28 Barbara Skolaut