Thousands of police officers who refused to fight Sadr are given the sack

[sabra]

Source: Azzaman

Interior Minister Jawad Boulani has ordered the dismissal of thousands of police members and officers who allegedly refused orders to take part in the fight against the militiamen of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The decision covers most of the police force in the predominantly Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad and also several cities in the southern Iraq including Basra where most of the recent fighting took place.

...

Thousands of police officers were reported to have refused fighting the militiamen and at least two army regiments joined them with their weapons in Baghdad.

More troops were said to have sided with the militiamen in Basra.

The move to sack police and army personnel sympathizing with Sadr is a risky step as it might derail the already fragile ceasefire.


Read more: http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news/2008-03-31/kurd.htm

[billyoc]

1. Lucky for them that the Mahdi Army is hiring.

:crazy:

[Syntheto]

2. I think it's riskier to leave them in place...

...you want to know who's got your back. Better get their AK's and ammunition back, too, along with communications equipment and night vision technology, if they have it. It might not be a bad idea to change your crypto codes, either. Oh, sure, they'll be able to walk down the street, turn the corner and pick up more arms and ammo, but you have to weed the garden before you can plant the tomatoes. If they can't get with the program, they need to be out of the loop. If they would just think about it a little: Hey, the sooner you guys work as a team for your national self-interest, the sooner the American troops can leave, and our guys can come home, ya dig?

[bahrbearian]

6. When do police become ,a military force?

Maybe they are working in their "National Self-Interest", just maybe, our leaving would be in their intrest. The reason we have troops there is for OIL. I dig.

[grytpype]

3. Well it looks like something good came out of the Basra offensive

[bemildred]

4. I thought they quit.

Thousands of police officers were reported to have refused fighting the militiamen and at least two army regiments joined them with their weapons in Baghdad.

More troops were said to have sided with the militiamen in Basra.

This is the sort of thing that causes generals to be-shit themselves.

[SpiralHawk]

5. "Ok, time to shit myself. Again." - Commander General AWOL

[Tempest]

7. Did they take their weapons first?

Probably not, so there's thousands of new armed recruits for al-Sadr.

[happygoluckytoyou]

8. AT LEAST THEY GOT WEAPONS AND TRAINING.... OOPS...NOT A GOOD THING

[Fedja]

9. Maybe it is a good thing?

Who says that the Iraqi police are the "good guys"? If we must assume the black&white hollywood division, which is a very poor place to start, who says that these regiments are crossing to the "other side"? :)

Last I looked everyone had the Iraqi people in mind. And the people of those areas clearly support al-Sadr as the legitimate leader, and see the puppet regime as imposters. So maybe, maybe these men will be in the service of the people now, and it's someone else that has chosen the wrong side. ;)

[Amonester]

11. And the U.S. taxpayer's grand-kids will pay the (HUGE) bill.

While the current ones will continue to pay the (RISING) interest fees on a few more unnecessary trillions.

[Fedja]

12. Not to mention paying in life and limb

Still, it's naive to assume that one knows which side is the "good guys" in a conflict as fundamentally screwed up as that. Al-Sadr has tons of popular support, and all I'm saying is that even though it might be tempting to assume he's the enemy (since he has a beard and all), one has to entertain the possibility that he should be the face of that local government.

After all, that's what democracy does right? :D The people choosing their leader and all.

[Amonester]

13. Democracy in the U.S. does not work (as it should). Re: proprietary software

Thus, it will never work there, or if it would, it would take a few more centuries.

The Big-Corp Communists (the Cheney/Bu$h Junta) only lied to steal their oil. Period.

[Javaman]

10. sounds like a bremer move. nt

[Doctor_J]

14. Hmm. I wonder what they'll be doing next week

:eyes:

[uppityperson]

15. FUBAR?

[damntexdem]

16. Sure glad we trained all them Iraqi police and soldiers.

Bit of a shame they got fired. ;-)

Does this mean that we've turned another corner while going around in circles in Iraq?

[margotb822]

17. So, we're back to square -1?

Great. In just a few days, Sadr managed to undo all the "progress" of the surge. It goes to show that America will not be able to solve Iraq's problems (that Bush caused). We had better get our troops out of there so that they can continue killing each other in this religious civil war.

[Fedja]

18. Orrrr...

so that they can build their country up. Religion was never a big deal in Iraq until they got invaded. I figure if I had JDAMs falling all around me I'd rediscover Jebus too.

[margotb822]

20. Saddam ran a

secular nation. I think that given the current state of affairs, it's obvious that a leader who want to have a secular nation must be willing to rule in a very firm way. From my experiences in the ME, religion does play a larger part in daily life, but there are many successful models to work with that do not involve constant warfare or Sharia law.

I firmly believe that there is no way for us to solve their civil war.

[Robbien]

19. So, who is supposed to provide law and order in the city now?

They are running out of people loyal to Maliki/USA.