Uh, aren't rants supposed to have a point?
Anyways, Mr. Windbag needs to do some research before he posts his polemics. I can't spend too much time on his incoherentcies but, from the passage posted alone you get a glimpse of his missing the mark:
Now, as Al Sadr’s support evaporatesYes, the fact that the Mehdi brigades are recruiting like never before, the fact that weapons caches we are supposed to raid and capture are no longer there when we arrive, the fact that the Iraqi government is dropping the murder charges against al-Sadr that the US had insisted on, the fact the al-Sadr's newspaper, shut down by the US, has been reopened by the Iraqi government and circulation has tripled in Baghdad alone, and the final fact that the Mehdi brigades have begun systematic attacks againt Iraqi and US targets again is clearly a sign that support in evaporating.
as his militia thugs are being hunted and killed by shadowy Iraqi ghost armiesI'm confused, but assume he is thinking about the militias that are hunting Zarqawwi and his forces, not al-Sadr.
as his fellow Mullahs condemn himSo far only one has. See the referenced murder charge above...
as Iraqi demonstrations against him and all that poison and ruin he represents continue to rise; as his headquarters are destroyed, his most vicious ‘soldiers’ killed in their own backyardsAgain, I am going to assume he means Zarqawwi. Sadr and his Mehdi brigades have more command structures than is necessary, most of them in mosques so they can't be easy targets. One was closed by the US, but has since been reopened. Zarqawwi on the other hand is the guy whose HQs we keep claiming to blow up. Most demonstrations in Shi'a cities are in support of al-Sadr and Mehdi, not against them...
playing defense in an urban environment by Marines whose skill and tactics stagger credulity for their expertise and success Admittedly, US forces have far more training and experience than the Mehdi brigades. However, until recently the lopsided body count and continued growth of public support for al-Sadr amongst the Shi'a is hardly what I would call true success on our part. The Iraqi airwaves are packed full of people who support Sadr and his mission, newspapers and magazines are dedicating entire issues to him and his fighters. Remember, the Mehdi only attack the US military and its support structure in Iraq. Unlike Zarqawwi and his ilk, Sadr does not target Iraqis. He long ago became a popular hero.
That said, they have an advantage over US troops, a cowardly one, but one nonetheless. They don't organize to fight. They're everywhere. They attack from cemeteries, from roof tops, from houses. Clearly they care nothing about the people they are "fighting for," they are more interested in results and possible anti-US PR booms when a house or mosque gets damaged in a US response. For weeks we surrounded their strong holds in Baghdad and its environs. We attacked, we bombed, we infiltrated. They are still there. They convinced us to sign a truce. Why? So we wouldn't kill anymore innocents. Noble, but they still win.
They have consolidated power, they continue to grow. They are, after all, the majority in Iraq and have been violently suppressed for 40 years. People familiar with the religious make-up in Iraq have seen this coming for years. The only reason Saddam and his Sunni minority held power was because they had the guns. Well, guess what? Tables are looking a little different now. They have guns, tanks, missiles. They have an army. The new Prime Minister that we hand chose to lead the country is a member of Sadr's Shi'a community. The primary moderate Shi'a cleric, al-Sistani (the likely only religious force to oppose Sadr) was rushed out of the country today to have heart surgery in the UK.
did you want to feel good or did you want to win?Bad news. When it comes to the Shi'a in Iraq, we can't win. There is no feasible way we can suppress the majority and convince them that its proper. They have been vilified, hunted and attacked by a wicked minority for
decades. There is no way we can convince them that this in not their time. One of the strongest countries in the region, Iran, is a staunch ally of Sadr and the few scattered Shi'a armies in Iraq.
We can't feel good or win until we recognize that Iraq will not be a secular country. We can try and impose a Lebanese style confessional government, but since that lead to 15 years of civil war, an uneasy truce and now rearming militias, probably not the best choice for Iraq.
</
>
Sorry
FOO, not to detract from your interest in this guy, he just needs to do a ton more research before he draws the perfect conclusions.
Total Members: 4955