US retreats after failing to capture militia chief

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=525673

United States forces agreed yesterday to withdraw from the Shia holy city of Najaf and end fighting with the militia of the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. In a climbdown by the Americans, who had vowed to kill or capture Sadr, it now appears he will be allowed to remain free. His Army of Mehdi militia will also withdraw under the deal.

The Americans appeared to have given up their two main demands to end the fighting in Najaf: that Sadr surrender to them and that the Mehdi Army be disbanded immediately.

The American agreement to withdraw without capturing Sadr will be seen in Iraq as a second embarrassing capitulation in as many months, after US forces ended their April siege of the Sunni city of Fallujah without capturing those responsible for killing and mutilating the bodies of four American contractors - the original reason for the siege in which hundreds of Iraqi civilians are believed to have died.

Civilians have died in Najaf too, though not as many as in Fallujah. There has been widespread anger in the Shia world at the fighting in the holy city, especially after Iraq's most sacred Shia shrine, that of the Imam Ali, was damaged.

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[DoYouEverWonder]

1. So the US suffers another major loss?

Or is this just another one of those flip flops that we do when the going gets too tough? Certainly, this whole fiasco shows that the mighty US military isn't so mighty after all.

Now tell me again, how does this make us safer from terrorism? I would think that the bad guys must be laughing their asses off right now, because whenever they stand up to the US they seem to win.

[PATRICK]

2. Al Sadr should still watch his back

Not to give advice that he already knows to an "enemy of the Right people" but there is ample time to lull this target and snatch him up before June 30th. Any deals or retreats or compromises count for little if the opportunity(worked very hard for no doubt) presents itself.

This is patently obvious considering the back and forth we have already seen between cessation truces and sudden attack ops.

I wouldn't count on the US succeeding in nailing Al Sadr now that it(ironically) is working under an impossible deadline. I think there is a grand division now between the various forces(ours, I mean) working against Bush's agenda and his grandiose blindness as they pursue their goals relentlessly, ignoring the "details", bluffing it out, waiting for the next opportunity to exploit.

Yet it has gotten so bad that local warlords now are tweaking the noses of these frauds with impunity, these men of straw and oil. A lot of Bushco friends, while not exactly bailing, are looking to their own skins and placing hedge bets.

[mom cat]

3. In Vietnam we won all the battles and still lost the war. In Iraq we are l