Police refuse to support Iraqi PM's attacks on Mehdi Army

[Nitrogenica]

Source: The Independent

By Patrick Cockburn
Saturday, 29 March 2008


US and British forces are increasingly playing a supporting role in the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's stalled offensive against the Mehdi Army militia. American aircraft launched air strikes in Basra yesterday and fought militiamen on the streets in Baghdad while British advisers have also been assisting Iraqi troops in Basra.


Mr Maliki retreated from his demand that militiamen hand over their weapons by yesterday and extended the deadline to 8 April. This is a tacit admission that the Iraqi army and police have failed to oust the Mehdi Army from any of its strongholds in the capital and in southern Iraq. The Iraqi army has either met stubborn resistance from Mehdi Army fighters or soldiers and police have refused to fight or changed sides. "We did not expect the fight to be this intense," said the officer from a 300-strong commando unit that has been pinned down in the Tamimiyah district in Basra, where the supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Mehdi Army, have strong support.

The officer said four of his men were killed and 15 wounded in the fighting. "Some of the men told me that they did not want to go back to the fight until they have better support and more protection," he added. The Interior Ministry threatened that the men would be court-martialled for refusing to fight. Government troops arriving in Basra complain that they are being fired on by local police loyal to Mr Sadr. Members of one police unit had fist fights with their officers after they refused to join the battle.

The failure of Mr Maliki to make good his threat so far to eliminate the Mehdi Army and growing signs of dissent in army units is damaging his authority, "It is possible that Muqtada and the Mehdi Army will emerge from this crisis stronger than they were before," warned one Iraqi politician who did not want his name published.



Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/police-refuse-to-support-iraqi-pms-attacks-on-mehdi-army-802361.html

[greiner3]

1. But, but the surge worked!? n/t

[saigon68]

9. Mere propaganda for the masses--- ie How's Brittany doing?

LOL :-)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Being supported by US/UK won't illegitimize Maliki.

:crazy:

[DaveT]

3. The surge worked to get Iraq off the front page

and even here at DU, there is far less interest in what is happening in Iraq than in earthshaking questions about when one should change churches and how dangerous things were at an airport on Yugoslavia ten years ago.

The Bush/Cheney political strategy continues to work perfectly as the gouge of the Federal Treasury continues at full throttle while almost everybody in a position of influence within the USA is obsessed with something else, anything else.

Once again, that passage from Ron Suskind about his conversation with a Bush Administration figure explains the current situation perfectly:

The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

The realities that all of us in the reality based community have been wrestling with began with Weapons of Mass Destruction, then shifted to Removing An Evil Dictator, then shifted to Spreading Democracy, then shifted to The Surge Is Working -- and the next reality will be that Iran Is About To Take Over Iraq.

What is the common denominator of all of these various realities? War profits.

And as the story keeps changing, the one thing that is always impossible is to end the occupation.

And all this has become boring. Even at Democratic Underground.


I am losing my faith in American Democracy.

[magellan]

5. Recommended reply

I thought of that quote again yesterday, and how it needs to be recirculated here for the newbies to read.

It comes from a Bush** senior adviser in the summer of 2002.

[DaveT]

8. here's a link

http://www.cs.umass.edu/~immerman/play/opinion05/WithoutADoubt.html

[bklyncowgirl]

10. You're absolutely dead on right on target--the surge was a way of buying time--for Bush, not Maliki

Yes, things got a bit better. Put in more troops and things quiet down. Pretty easy to understand. Of course the Iraqi government wasn't doing a damn thing about trying to bring their country together and there remained those varied militias of Shiites, Sunis and Kurds rambling around the country. Al Queda seemed to have pissed off the Sunis which I guess was a good thing but of course what we weren't being told was that the guy with the biggest private army, that would be one Mouktada al Sadr (I probably murdered the spelling), had, for some reason I've never heard truly defined, pretty much declared a ceasefire.

Well he's back in the game, tanned rested and ready, shall we say, and his troops reinforced with deserters from the Iraqi national army and police. Deserters trained and armed by--you guessed it--Doofus Americanus--the American taxpayer. I read on Daily Kos that the Iraqi army has to check it's own patrols at the checkpoints because the Mehdi Army is now driving around in American issueed Humvees.

The house of cards is starting to fall.

[lovuian]

4. Iraqi killing Iraqi isn't working

that was the strategy

[yurbud]

6. if soldiers and cops refuse to follow your orders, how long will you be in power?

This smells like the beginning of the collapse of bush's puppet government.

[yurbud]

7. if govt collapses, dems will have a chance to redefine debate and be honest

About why we are there: to give those oilfields to our (I use that term very loosely) big oil companies on terms the companies dictate.

It is only reasonable that Iraqis would resist that.

Therefore, if we want to maintain a "strategic presence" in the country, we should pull out of the cities, let the iraqis reboot their constitution and toss all of bremers edicts, and side with the iraqis in negotiating the terms of their oil contracts.

[Stuart G]

11. If the police will not repsond to the central government..then..this is anarchy..

It proves there is anarchy there. Maliki's authority has always been tenuous. You know..anarchy is..well anarchy..

What the hell are we doing there??????????? for one persons personal grudge and his view

.:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:
..:mad:........ :mad:........ :mad:....... :mad:....... :mad: