Iraq's Sadr tells militia to keep observing freeze

[sabra]

Source: reuters

BAGHDAD, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has ordered his Mehdi Army militia to maintain its six-month ceasefire, Sadr's spokesman said on Thursday, while his militiamen clashed with Iraqi and U.S. soldiers.

Salah al-Ubaidi said the ceasefire, which expires later this month, should continue to be observed until militia members are told it is over or has been renewed.

Some members of Shi'ite cleric Sadr's bloc are pressuring him not to extend Aug. 29's freeze on the feared Mehdi Army's activities, which has been vital to cutting violence in Iraq.

Attacks across the country have fallen by 60 percent since June 2007 and a return to hostilities could seriously jeopardise those security gains.

"Any member of the Mehdi Army who conducts violent acts during the ceasefire, the Sadr office declares they will no longer be part of the Mehdi Army," Sadr said in a statement read to Reuters by Ubaidi.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSL07350722

[TwilightGardener]

1. He is SO on our payroll. What's the price? Thousands? Millions?

[Buzz Clik]

3. I was thinking that, too.

I don't think his followers would sit still for long if they ever suspected he was being paid by the US.

[TwilightGardener]

8. We need him to control his followers--if we had killed him, there might

have been even worse lawlessness, and they would have made him a Shiite martyr--which wouldn't have been very good for our troops.

[sabra]

4. millions until the end of the election cycle... after that who knows?

[Buzz Clik]

2. He holds the key. Kudos to whomever convinced him to hold tight.

[The Croquist]

5. I don't care if we bought him

Maybe he'll be smart enough to keep quiet until we can get the hell out. Call it "Peace With Honor", retreat, redeployment, victory or whatever you want. I don't care if it's bush, Obama, Clinton or McCain that gets us out of there. It will be easier to get the hell out of there. Once we're out of there he can have the whole fucking place.

[Igel]

10. Probably he bought himself.

The speculation that I think holds the most water is that al-Sadr is looking long term. He's seen that military control only works so well unless you can challenge non-military authority. But he has no non-military authority; there's a bit of populism, since he's anti-US, but once the US is gone it'll be harder to base a government on it or any long-standing claim to Shi'ite loyalties.

Among Shi'ites, he's vying for power with ayatollahs. He's not one. His daddy was, but al-Sadr's a seminary-school drop-out, until about 6 months ago. Then he was enrolled in the Iranian Ayatollah You Off School of Enlightenment and Polical Self-Empowerment of Others. He's off in Qom or wherever getting his studies done (for him?).

It's supposed to take much longer than a decade of intensive studies, followed by a work of deep theological importance such that a certain number of existing ayatollahs acknowledge the work's deep and abiding importance and an exemplary life such that a Muslim is a better person for imitating your example. Speculation is that his studies are being fast-tracked and the years needed are going to be reduced; and some Iranian ayatollah's will be induced to accept as simply out-of-this-world excellent anything passing for his ghost-written dissertation.

Being commander in chief would be a hindrance to his striving for self-aggrandizement.

[ohio2007]

11. his puppet masters in Qom own him

He does what they instruct him to do.

They know if peace breaks out, the US will downsize.

[Roland99]

6. *THIS* is why casualties are down. *NOT* The Surge!

[sabra]

7. ding ding ding!

[Igel]

9. It's part of it.

But it's highly unlikely that the Mehdi Army was all that active in Fallujah, Haditha, Ramadi, and other places in deeply Sunni territories.

[ohio2007]

12. "The awakening" has a part in it also

It never gets much coverage but both Shia and Sunni have sampled both sides of the foreign invaders and
they can smell which group brews the better coffee ;)