Iraq: Yankees, Go Home!

The GOP is desperate to put a happy face on the sad reality of the Iraq occupation.

George Bush trumpets that things are getting better, we're planting Democracy there.

John McCain proclaims we're winning and he would keep our troops there maybe a 100 years, just like in Korea.... bringing them home isn't that important.

So how to explain "Key Iraqi Leaders Deliver Setbacks to U. S.... Premier Rejects Terms of Proposed Pacts; Cleric Reactivates Militia." (WaPo)

"The Bush administration's Iraq policy suffered two major setbacks Friday, when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki publicly rejected key U.S. terms for an ongoing military presence and anti-American shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for a new militia offensive against U.S. forces."

Maliki said negotiations over U.S. proposals for bilateral political and military agreements had reached "a dead end,".... and that he was "astonished by those who are talking about how close the agreement is to being signed."

Meanwhile.... al-Sadr "called for a new armed wing of his Mahdi Army militia to fight U.S. troops." It would operate in total secrecy and attack only American forces.

The actions of Iraq's two most powerful leaders reflect the attitude of Iraqis "across the political spectrum" who have grown intolerant of the U.S. presence.

So once again U.S. citizens are being subjected to a stepped-up propaganda blitz in the face of the November elections. The Decider lied us into the war.... and now he, and John McSame who supports administration policy.... are lying to keep us there.

Fool us once, shame on them.... fool us twice, shame on us!

Will Someone Wake Me Up?

Here's the nightmare.... al Qaeda is Sunni. Saudi Arabia is Sunni... and supposedly our friends, even though Osama bin Laden and most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi nationals.

Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's powerful Mahdi Army is a Shiite militia. Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is Shiite. Iran is majority Shiite.

Shiite militia has been infiltrating Iraqi police units, and the Iraq military.

"Mahdi Army, Not Al-Qaeda, is Enemy No. 1 in Western Baghdad." It's no longer the case that the "Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq is the city's most formidable, the Mahdi Army has transformed the composition of the district's neighborhoods by ruthlessly killing and driving out Sunnis...." (WaPo)

There has been an ethnic cleansing of Sunnis in the 10-square mile district of West Rashid, home to about 700,000.... the Shiites have taken over.

The Shiites already control Iraq in the east on the Iran border, and in the south.

Although the bloody toll continues to rise in attacks across Baghdad, and in the Kurdish north, we heard Maliki assert on Saturday that Iraqis were ready to take over security operations "any time" American forces choose to leave.

How?.... because the Shiite militias with Iran's help will be the ones taking over, with Maliki's blessing?

Oh sure, today we hear lots of backtracking and explaining by Maliki over his comment, and not unsurprising really, the main thrust of his clarification is a defense of al-Sadr as being good for Iraq. Is anyone in Washington listening to this?

Meanwhile, our troops are still dying in the 103 degree heat while the Iraqi government takes an August vacation. So, between now the the September report from Gen. Petraeus, nothing much will happen from Maliki's government to bring the factions together, there will be more cleansing, and the Shiites will grow even stronger.

And, the Sunni al-Qaeda.... "Pakistan Truce Appears Defunct." (WaPo) A peace deal between the Pakistani government and tribal leaders in the north where al-Qaeda is known to be regrouping is over. Last weekend, 70 mainly soldiers and police were killed after the Taliban fighters announced an all-out guerrilla war against the Parkistan army.

So, this is the effect of what Bush and Cheney have wrought with their misbegotten Middle East adventure.... they are handing Iraq to the Shiites, and thus to Iran, while al-Qaeda is gathering strength in Pakistan.... a country with nuclear weapons and a weakened President Musharraf.

It's too late for what they should have done after 9/11.... gone after Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and made THAT country a bastion of freedom from terror.

What we should be doing now is strengthening our own borders and ports, and aggressively rebuilding our military.... not because Homeland Security's chief Chertoff's gut is rumbling.... but because while we're over there, the terrorists will show up here, "Big Time."

Bush: Step Back From the Abyss

Monday.... April 16, 2007.... is a date now burned into the collective memory of the country. The tragic mass murder of 32 innocents at Virginia Tech by a pathologically alienated student.

But, ponder this. That same day in Iraq, the U.S. military reported the deaths of seven more American service members. These brave souls are added to the 3,311 already lost. Are their lives any less precious, their sacrifice to be taken for granted?

While we as a nation were witnessing with helpless sorrow the heartbreaking loss of lives on the Virginia Tech campus, Iraq plunged even deeper into the abyss of instability, and our troops into deadlier danger.

"Cabinet ministers loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr quit the government Monday, severing the powerful Shiite religious leader from the U.S.-backed prime minister and raising fears al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia might again confront American troops."

And, a "major new threat is emerging in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq." The Iraqi Kurds want independence, neighboring Turks want to crush any movement in that direction.... an unstable powder keg. "As with so many aspects of Iraq, the Bush administration has wandered into a conflict that is encrusted with centuries of ethnic hatred."

Our brave occupying troops are bogged down in the midst of these ancient and deeply embedded tribal hatreds.... trying to referee a game bereft of rules or even humanity.

Bush and the Democratically-led Congress are fencing over a war-funding bill that calls for a timetable for withdrawal of our troops from this unwinnable conflict. Bush wants no such timetable. He says withdrawal would bring the terror to our shores, shores that have already been breached in so many ways by his careless, agenda-driven administration.

Bush, who attended the memorial service yesterday for the slain at Virginia Tech.... publicly abhorring the senseless loss of life there... is yet blind to the senseless loss of life in Iraq. He stubbornly opposes any measure that would start to pull our troops out of harms way, saying ironically about the legislative debate, "our troops should not be caught in the middle."

As a nation, we must do all we can to avoid the senseless loss of life.... whether at our schools and universities or in rashly-engaged wars.

Start bringing our troops home.

Bush Fiddles, Iraq Burns, U.S. Pays

Wednesday The Decider will try to convince us we can win in Iraq.... win what?

When, and why and how did the Iraq troubles start.....

Some say in 1918 when the official Iraq boundaries were sketched on tracing paper by a low level British diplomat named Gertrude Bell and Faisal was set up as king of the new nation of Iraq.

Iraq resulted from the union of three Ottoman provinces: Mosul in the north with ties to Syria and Turkey, Baghdad in the middle identifying with Persia and adjacent Shia shrines, and Basra in the south also heavily Shia.

Bell was warned of the folly of trying to corral three such disparate regions inside the borders of a single nation because they had no conception of nationhood.

But heedlessly, Britian has fiddled with Iraq ever since.

The Iraqis rebelled under the colonial regime, and there was a country-wide uprising in 1920. British forces battled for over a decade to pacify Iraq using airplanes, armored cars, firebombs and mustard gas. Air attacks were used to "shock and awe.".... sound familiar?

For four years during WWII the British again occupied Iraq after which they restored the monarchy under Crown Prince Abdallah, descendant of King Faisal.

In Iraq between 1921 and 1958 when the British-appointed monarchy was overthrown, more than fifty governments came into power, frequently, beginning in 1936, on the wings of military coups. This led to a tradition of "strongman" rulers such as Saddam Hussein.

In 1963 "Western" reforms were proclaimed by the neighboring Shah of Iran. The reforms were opposed by the powerful Iranian Shia religious scholars who instigated riots which were brutally put down and the Ayatollah Khomeini was exiled to Iraq.

Also in 1963, the secular Baath regime took over Iraq in a coup and in 1969 Saddam's kinsman appointed him Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and Vice President. Saddam thus controlled the internal security and intelligence organs of the government.

From 1975 to 1979 the president of Iraq was in effect a figurehead while Saddam controled in his shadow.

In 1975 Saddam signed the Algiers Accord with the Shah of Iran. The Accord defined the border with Iran and ended Iranian support for the Iraqi Kurds.

In 1978 the Ayatollah Khomeini who was living in Najaf was expelled from Iraq.

In July of 1979 Saddam forced the president to retire and Saddam was sworn in as President of Iraq. Purges followed.

In 1979 there was an Islamic Revolution in Iran and the Ayatollah Khomeini returned to assume power. Iranian Shias, who constituted almost 90 percent of the Iran population, galvanized opposition to Iran's secular Baath Party. This made Saddam, now president of Iraq, fearful of a similar revolution against his minority Baath Party in Iraq.

On November 4, 1979 following the Shah's overthrow, Iran's new leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, urged his followers to demonstrate against the U.S. and Israeli interests.... the U.S. embassy was overrun and 66 hostages taken, most of whom were held for 444 days, until January 20, 1981.

In 1980 leading Shia cleric Sayid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr was executed in Iraq. Saddam publicly tore up the 1975 Algiers Accord with Iran and invaded Iran.

Recent al-Sadr and Muslim events...... In 2004 Muqtada al-Sadr's forces took control of the holy city of Najaf which includes one of Shia Muslim's holiest shrines, Imam Ali mosque. The Shia Muslims recognize four grand ayatollahs that compose the main Shia "seminary" in the holy city of Najaf... Ali al-Sistani, Muhammad Sayid al-Hakim, Muhammad Ishaq Fayadh and Bashir Hussein al-Najafi.

Fayadh and Najafi focus on spiritual matters and Fayadh, an Afghan, is the senior-most leader of Afghan Shias. South Asian Shias look to Najafi, who is of Pakistani origin.

Hakim, an Iraqi, is the uncle of Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir-al-Hakim, the former head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq killed by a car bomb in 2003. Hakim and Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Sadr founded a political Islamic movement in the late 1950s.

Baqir al-Sadr was executed by Saddam in 1980, and his cousin, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr was assassinated in 1999 and two of his sons were killed with him.

His remaining son is..... Muqtada al-Sadr whose Mehdi Army militia is blamed for much of the current violence in Iraq, and whose supporters played a key role in the compromise appointment of Iraq Prime Minister Maliki.

Al-Sadr takes his political direction from an ultra-conservative, Iran-based, Iraqi-exiled cleric, Ayatollah Kazim al-Haeri, who was a student of Bakir al-Sadr.

The fourth spiritual leader, Al-Sistani, who is the Shia spiritual leader in Iraq, was a student of Grand Ayatollah Abu Gharib al-Qassim al-Khoei, whose son was killed by a mob of Muqtada al-Sadr's supporters in 2003.

....In 1988 a ceasefire was declared between Iraq and Iran, ending the 8-year war that was estimated to have caused one million casualties including 250,000 Iraqi dead. In 1990 Iraqi troops crossed into Kuwait and occupied the country. In January of 1991 allied planes begin bombing Iraq.

So, the problems in Iraq started when the country was ill-formed in 1918?.... only partly.

Iraq has been a battleground for the sectarian split between Sunni and Shia Muslims for more than 1,000 years. These fueds actually started when the Muslim community leader, the Prophet Muhammad, died in 632. Yes, the year 632.

One group of Muslims elected Abu Bakr as the next leader, but another group believed the prophet's son-in-law, Ali, was the rightful successor. Although Ali eventually became the fourth leader, his legitimacy was disputed and he was murdered in 661.

The Shiat Ali (Party of Ali) refused to recognize his chief opponent and successor, Muawiya. Ali's sons Hassan and Hussein continued to oppose Muawiya and his successor, Yazid, and fighting between the two sides resulted.

Ali, Hassan and Hussein became the first of the 12 imams who Shia Muslims believe are the divinely-appointed leaders of the Muslim community.

Their leadership by imams continued until 878, when the 12th Imam, Mohammed al-Mahdi, is said to have disappeared from a cave below a mosque in Samarra.

Not accepting that he died, Shias still await his return more than 1,100 years later. Shias believe his return will reverse their fortunes and herald the reign of divine justice.... a happening much anticipated by the current president of Iran.

Sunnis reject the principle of leadership of imams,and instead believe in the primacy of the Sunna - what the Prophet Muhammad said, did, agreed to or condemned.

Sunnis are the majority sect in the Muslim world.... including Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Shias today dominate Iran, and form over 60% of Iraq's population, whereas Sunni Arabs are in the minority in Iraq, split between ethnic Arabs and Kurds. Sunni Arabs have traditionally formed Iraq's elite.

After Saddam was overthrown in 2003, the Sunni Arab supremacy was suddenly wiped out. The U.S.-led (with Britian) Coalition's de-Baathification ejected from power large parts of the Sunni elite which had been nurtured by Saddam.

They were replaced by Shia leaders, the majority of Iraq's population. Sunnis felt increasingly marginalized and boycotted the political process and began to support militants opposing the occupation.

Sunni extremist groups, such as Abu Musab al-Zarquawi's al-Qaeda in Iraq, began to advocate targeting the now dominant Shia community.

The Sunni extremist groups attacked Shia Islam's most important shrines at Karbala, Najaf and Samarra and killed many Shia politicians, clerics, soldiers, police and civilians.

It is into this political cauldren of ancient hatreds and warring sectarian Muslims that President Bush has thrust our troops, whose numbers he now plans to tokenly increase. "Bush Works to Rally Support for Iraq 'Surge' ".... reportedly 20,000 additional troops to help quell the violence in Baghdad.

Our over-extended U.S. troops are to confront, supposedly with Iraqi help, the largest and best-armed militia, al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, as well as other armed factions, both Shia and Sunni.

I leave it to your judgment.... does sending 20,000 more U.S. troops into the midst of this deadly morass make any kind of sense.... have any hope of success.... do anything but prolong the inevitable?

The Iraq war.... we were lied into the why, failed with the how.... we are left with only the when will it end?