Now how will the MSM spin this?
Followers of rebel cleric Muqtada al Sadr agreed late Friday to allow Iraqi security forces to enter all of Baghdad’s Sadr City and to arrest anyone found with heavy weapons in a surprising capitulation that seemed likely to be hailed as a major victory for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.
In return, Sadr’s Mahdi Army supporters won the Iraqi government’s agreement not to arrest Mahdi Army members without warrants, unless they were in possession of “medium and heavy weaponry.”
The agreement would end six weeks of fighting in the vast Shiite Muslim area that’s home to more than 2 million residents and would mark the first time that the area would be under government control since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003. On Friday, 15 people were killed and 112 were injured in fighting, officials at the neighborhoods two major hospitals said.
It also would be a startling turnaround in fortunes for Maliki, who’d been widely criticized for picking a fight with Sadr’s forces, first in the southern port city of Basra and then in Sadr City.
Members of Maliki’s Dawa Party and the powerful Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq met with Sadr officials on Thursday and Friday to come up with a 14-point agreement to end the weeks of fighting, …
What prompted this turnaround? The residents of the city were sick and tired of the fighting:
A government supporter said the Sadrists were brought to the table by the anger of Sadr City residents. On Thursday, the Iraqi military ordered Sadr City residents to evacuate in apparent preparation for a major offensive push.
“It is not the government who pressured the Sadrists into entering this agreement,” said Ali al Adeeb, a leading member of the Dawa party. “It is the pressure from the people inside Sadr City and from their own people that will make them act more responsibly.”
That and this didn’t help I would imagine:
An aide to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr lashed out on Friday at Iraq’s most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, for keeping silent over clashes that have killed hundreds in Baghdad.
“We are surprised by the silence in Najaf where the highest Shiite religious authority is based,” Sheikh Sattar Battat said, referring to Sistani.
“For 50 days Sadr City is being bombed … Children, women and old people are being killed by all kinds of US weapons, and Najaf remains silent,” he told the faithful at the weekly Friday prayers in Sadr City, Sadr’s stronghold.
Battat said the Sadr movement has not seen any “reaction or fatwa (religious decree) from Najaf” criticising the government assault on Shiite fighters in Sadr City.
“For us this means that Najaf accepts the massacre in Sadr City,” a sprawling slum district that has been the site of fierce clashes between US forces and Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia since late March.
Calling out the top cleric in Iraq probably didn’t set well with him I suppose.
The MSM and the left were hoping for another big disaster to lay at the feet of Bushitler. Foiled once again. When will they learn?
UPDATE
Bill Roggio updates with the main points of the agreement:
The major points of the agreement, based on press reports, are as follows:
• The Iraqi government and the Mahdi Army would observe a four-day cease-fire.
• At the end of the cease-fire, Iraqi forces would be allowed to enter Sadr City and conduct arrests if warrants have been issued, or if the Mahdi Army is in possession of medium or heavy weapons (RPGs, rockets, mortars).
• The Mahdi Army and the Sadrist bloc must recognize the Iraqi government has control over the security situation and has the authority to move security forces to impose the law.
• The Mahdi Army would end all attacks, including mortar and rockets strikes against the International Zone.
• The Mahdi Army must clear Sadr City of roadside bombs.
• The Mahdi Army must close all “illegal courthouses.”
• The Iraqi government would reopen the entrances to Sadr City.
• The Iraqi government would provide humanitarian aid to the residents of Sadr City.The Sadrist said the US military would not be allowed to operate inside Sadr City; however there is no confirmation of this from the Iraqi government or the US military. “The Iraqi forces, not the American forces, can come into Sadr City and search for weapons,” Baha al Araji, a Sadrist legislator said. “We don’t have big weapons, and we want this to stop.”
UPDATE
These people are just retarded:
Kathy at Comments From Left Field does a good job of pointing up the cheerleading Right’s glee about “thousands of dead and injured civilians, U.S. airstrikes on hospitals, and a flood of new refugees” and their claims that anyone who does actually care about such stuff must automatically be an America-hating wuss.
Yeah, we’re all jumping for joy at civilians being killed. They have us conservatives pegged I guess. No need to hide it anymore.
It’s not like we are actually happy that some criminal thugs who have been a stumbling block to a Democratic government in Iraq is being beaten or anything. Its all because we like seeing the innocent killed.
How old are these bloggers? 12?
See author page
Just remember:
“We’re not winning”
“We cannot win”
I don’t trust Sadr’s claim of surrender. Never trust someone who wants to kill you, but if its legit, its a great day for Iraq’s.
Maybe he is taking a break to run for VP with Hussein O. (Sarcasm off)
jain: I agree with you. Our enemies don’t follow the same rules we do so he is not to be trusted. I hope it is true though.
Jules gets it right, sort of:
http://www.julescrittenden.com/2008/05/10/stop-me-if-youve-heard-this-one-before/
I’m also finding reports that Iran put pressure on Maliki to back-off on Sadr City.
Another note in this affair is recalling Maliki had demanded before and during this conflict JAM be dissolved.
Then there is the issue JAM has four days to hide their weapons. That’s almost like permitting them to to keep them.
Lastly, and more importantly, Sadr and his following are still politically viable. Those who follow this understand when all the other issues are brushed aside in this conflict at rock bottom found at the center of everything are the elections in Oct.
Therefore, the current state of affairs are tensely strung between Sadr and Maliki, as Sadr is expected to win significantly in Oct. threatening the Parliamentary strength of the SIIC. With such high stakes at risk it’s highly doubtful this is settled until Oct.
I swear I heard a speaker on my local Pacifica radio station the other day claim that al Sadr had “unilaterally” offered a ceasefire–implying that al Sadr was the peacemaker, the mover and shaker, and that the U.S. was powerless to affect events.
Airstrike on a hospital? So much for guided missles, because those missles hit a building several yards away.
Technically JAM is made up of civilians, 60,000 or so of them. A total wipe out of JAM would indeed kill thousands of civilians even if it was just JAM members that died.
Hiding aging ammo in one’s home or office is not for the faint of heart and for Russian/Chinese weapons that could be years and not decades. Even the Afgan army wouldn’t handle the aged cartridges and explosives given to them by an U.S. contractor that bought the material from Eastern Europe.
Is Sadar still a political threat? Well it would world both ways. He would have 60,000 votes on his side and at the low level that’s enough to get some ministers and mayors elected, but he will also be seen as spoiling the reconstruction. Not only would he probably not have enough votes to get people to higher office, but people may join the police and military to counter JAM. Think of it as blacks and Jews joining the FBI to counter the KKK and other violent racist organizations. The Iraqis are probably not going to allow a “Hezbollah” in Iraq like Lebanon has to deal with.
Both quotes from Doug, of course:
l
Interesting, since Maliki/Iraqi forces told the Sadr City residents to get the f#@k out for a battle. Either he’s turning a tin ear to Tehran, or you do not know what constitutes “back off”.
Much like the BS here in the States, eh?
Then perhaps you’ll spare us your prescient propaganda until after the election. Perhaps then Iraqis can, once more, prove to you and ilk their allegiences and intents. Will they choose to align with thugs, cartels and mafia? Or to their elected government.
I swear, you, Crittenden and pals ought to spend more time giving “atta boys” for the Iraq govt working to instill relative peace amongst their countrymen under their central (and soon to be local) governments. Instead you delight in using human collateral as signs of their failures and defeat, merely to feed your BDS.
And BTW, stop asking Iraq to be a crime free utopia. Even the US cannot achieve that. Freedom allows the equal co-existance of idiots, losers and criminal elements.
BTW, Crittenden made himself irrelevant when he chose to base his entire commentary on McClatchy news source. Good grief!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121055198521683885.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html?_r=2&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
Judging from recent events in Iraq it’s just a matter of time before our influence in political events in Iraq lose significance or we fight Iran not be politically eclipsed. Either way, Iraq is caught in the middle of the tugofwar guaranteeing their instability and lack of self-determination. So, as time wears on, America’s patience will continue to wear thinner as money, blood and influence will be counted as waisted. This picture for the public will be clearer as we approach our election and Iraq’s one month earlier.
‘Winning’, ‘victory’, or ‘progress’ will grate defined as eternally stamping down a conflict; the prior months to the Iraq elections will succeed in illustrating it.
I have seen declarations that Sadr has “surrendered” and “been defeated” about as many times as “we have turned the corner in Iraq”. I’ll believe it when I see it last for more than one Friedman Unit.