Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Learning the hard way in Najaf

Iraq's defense minister on Tuesday issued an ultimatum to followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr holding the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf -- get out or be wiped out.

Interim Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Sha'alan said Iraqi forces will move Tuesday evening to seal off the mosque and will use loudspeakers to encourage al-Sadr's supporters to leave.

"We are in the last hours. This evening, Iraqi forces will reach the doors of the shrine and control it and appeal to the Mehdi Army to throw down their weapons," Sha'alan told a news conference, according to Reuters. "If they do not, we will wipe them out."

Iraqi officials have issued similar ultimatums in recent days, threatening to take strong action but then not doing so.
  CNN article

Man talk. Like Georgie does. ("Fuck Saddam, we're takin' 'im out!" "Bring 'em on!" "I want heads to roll!") Peas in a pod.

Georgie mouthpiece Fox, and all its 'expert' commentators talk like that, too.

Sadr, complained former US Army Maj. Gen. Bob Scales, has confronted “the Occupier” four times, and “each time he escapes death, his status goes up!” Sadr’s growing reputation as an Iraqi leader unfettered and unbeholden to the United States means future Iraqi politics, including elections, “could get messy.” Sadr’s survival could “affect the democratization of Iraq” and cause “perceptions” that US-led “democratization is not on the right path,” Scales preached.

Another Fox commentator, former US Air Force Gen. Thomas McInerney, claims Sadr is Iran’s puppet, “paid” to lead “a perfect storm.” Iran’s “objective,” McInerney avers, “is to sheer off the Shiite part of Iraq and make that a province of Iran and take that oil wealth they’ll have. And then they would love to see Syria sheer off the Sunni part and then the Kurds could go their (own) way.”

The only way to prevent this is, in McInerney’s words, to “take him out.”

Or, as commentator Brit Hume clarified, “Go in there and just kill this guy.”
  Arab News article

Here's another recent one from the Iraq puppet regime:

McInerney complained US forces’ failure to kill Sadr early on was “a mistake.” The US restrained itself because “Iraqi officials didn’t want to” kill Sadr. “What we have to do,” McInerney explained, “is to get Prime Minister Allawi to agree we’ve got to take him out. And I think they realize (that) now.” Thus did Iraq’s defense minister announce if Sadr and company did not leave Najaf, “We will teach them a lesson they will never forget.

But the only “teachers” in sight are the US Army’s 1st Cavalry Division and the 11th US Marine Expeditionary Unit, and the US armor, helicopters, and warplanes they now command. Sadr insisted upon freedom of speech, the press, and the rights of Arabs to express Arab opinions. As more and more Iraqis decided they agreed with Sadr, his Mahdi fighters took to the streets, stunning Washington and unnecessarily costing American lives and many millions of dollars.

Well, it's not an unnecessary cost. We have to protect our freedoms, which the Arabs hate, at all costs.
Right, George? Right, John?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

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