al-Sadr Scores Another Huge Win Against Coalition Troops

Things are going so bad for the coalition in Sadr City and Basra that coalition troops are in full retreat, this time retreating to a secondary Sadrist stronghold and preparing for a major security sweep.

al-Sadr's power is so great, his position so unassailable, that he can afford to openly mock our feeble efforts against him by acquiescing to them:

Followers of Muqtada al-Sadr won’t resist a military operation in the southern city of Amarah unless government forces commit human rights violations and arrest suspects without warrants, a senior official and member of the cleric’s movement said Monday.

…

The tone differed from the defiance of Sadrist officials in the runup to past security operations in the southern oil hub of Basra and Baghdad’s Sadr City, indicating Amarah may not witness the fierce fighting that accompanied crackdowns there.

Al-Sadr’s main office in Amarah also was evacuated and turned over peacefully to the local government on Sunday, a provincial spokesman said, declining to be identified because of security concerns.

"Senior Pentagon strategists" quoted anonymously in the MSM all agree that al-Sadr's strategy here -- the famous "I could beat you, if I wanted to" gambit employed most successfully by uncoordinated and undersized eight-year-olds -- is "textbook" in its execution and almost certainly a sign that "all hope is lost" for Maliki and US troops.

Obama "Pleased" by Reductions in Violence, Making it That Much More Important to Begin Withdrawing Troops: In a call to Iraq's foreign minister, Obama casts his reckless plan to immediately begin withdrawing troops as just a friendly reassurance that the US has no intention to keep foreign bases in Iraq. Even if they want and/or need them.

It's not quite clear to me why this non-intention has to be demonstrated by unleashing a genocidal civil war on Iraq.

Meanwhile, Al Qaeda representatives were quick to say "Well, we'd like permanent bases in Iraq, of course."

posted by Ace at 02:29 PM

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