Few Sadr rebels turn in arms

[leftchick]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1324721,00.html


<snip>

Only a small number of followers of radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr handed over their weapons today at the start of a ceasefire aimed at ending weeks of fighting between US troops and insurgents in the Baghdad's impoverished Sadr City neighbourhood.
Iraqi police at one of three arms collection points told Reuters they had received only a handful of weapons from Mr Sadr's Mahdi army militia so far, while officials at at another said they had received no weapons at all.

At Baghdad's al-Nasr police station, Maj Kadhim Salman told the Associated Press that fighters had turned in machine guns, TNT paste, land mines and other explosives. The rebels were supposed to be compensated for the weapons they turned in, but Maj Salman said those responsible for the payments had not turned up yet. Receipts were issued instead.

Malik Jomaa, 20, walked up to the station dressed in a tracksuit and with a white bag containing two grenade launchers slung over his shoulder.

"God willing, there will be no more fighting and Sadr City will live in peace," he said.

[izzie]

1. Now that is a good way to spend our tax money.

Would any one ever think we would do such a thing. This must be in the new Bush Policy. We fight you, win, then you come out of the cave and we buy your guns. What a plan. And the people vote to do it. The nubs voting for the nubs to spend their money.

[leftchick]

2. I heard about the US bribe money on MSRNC....

5 bucks for a grenade!!! $100 for a rocket launcher and $250 for an IED or any other type of road bomb. I keep thinking of all of the new weapons they will buy with that cash. :eyes:

[izzie]

8. Did we try this once before?

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. ...And yet they are reporting it on Fox as if it is huge!

Go figure. :eyes:

[leftchick]

7. It is The first "real good news story" out of Iraq.....

or so the reporters from Baghdad on MSRNC and on CNN said as well...

more propaganda from State Run TV....

[underpants]

4. How much would alZarqawi get for his leg?

:shrug:

[Aidoneus]

6. he could probably get more on eBay for that..

:shrug:

[livinbella]

13. A lot - it keeps growing back all by itself!

[Aidoneus]

5. Nor should they

They should do what the Chechens do whenever Russian occupyers pull the same scam--turn in broken & rusty weapons for show, use the cash to buy new ones from the occupyers themselves. Disarming themselves while under the aggressive threat of occupation is the most idiotic scheme proposed yet, and there have been many quite notably idiotic schemes..

[HysteryDiagnosis]

9. The 13 colonies never turned in their weapons.... nor did they ever

have any intentions of doing so... they were driven... driven to rid themselves of foreign control... and so are the insurgents.

[bemildred]

10. Yeah, but they keep trying it.

I forget how many times we've had these weapons surrender schemes now.
More bullshit for the rubes.

[leftchick]

14. it sure makes for a great "happy story" from Iraq....

for the ameriKans.... :eyes:

[livinbella]

11. Does the US do trade-ins?How many AK47s for an RPG?

Al Sadr will need those RPGs if Bush gets back in.

[PATRICK]

12. How long, oh media?

The latest feel good story had to come from the US ambassador to Afghanistan. ANYONE could have written that predictable script about wildly successful elections. Is it true on the ground? No data, just common sense which is not to be entertained much in the NPR newsroom.

The wildly touted successful ops in Iraq create madly dual images. Most "analyze" only by parroting the WH script. Yet reports by soldiers and others leak into the realm of common sense.

If the Sadr people were that nuts they would have been building statues of Dubya long ago. Like hell they are going to surrender their weapons. If they have broken ones to trade in for meds and food maybe. I wouldn't even put it past the military to have a circular show of previously captured caches parading in one door and out the back way round again. Sort of a Graham Crusade kind of encouragement to break the ice and look good for the cameras.

Yet the naive and ever kindly media dutifully reports the propaganda mostly uncritically, timidly adding in sprinkles of reality when it starts going south and sour. The point that these risky and deadly operations have as the chief purpose of this dual mission mainly a political goal- and that not even an Iraqi political goal. people die for the Bush campaign. orders and missions occur for the Bush campaign. Show elections which will never occur are propped up temporarily for the Bush campaign. Nothing good or effective will happen in Iraq but you will not get that unvarnished because of the Bush campaign. The "fair and balanced" media can't take sides against the Bush campaign, because killing, lying and betraying is just politics.