Washington pushes ahead with plans for Iraq “regime change”

[IndianaGreen]

Washington pushes ahead with plans for Iraq “regime change”

By James Cogan
16 December 2006

Further evidence this week confirms that the Bush administration’s “change of course” in Iraq includes the installation of a new regime that will sanction a military crackdown on the Mahdi Army—the militia associated with supporters of the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Shiite fundamentalist Da’awa Party are being presented with an ultimatum: abandon the Sadrists or go down with them.

The Sadrists are currently the largest faction in the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which includes Da’awa, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and several smaller Shiite formations. The US is reportedly urging SCIRI to lead a walkout from the UIA to form a new coalition with Kurdish parties, the Sunni Arab-based Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) and the alliance headed by former CIA asset Iyad Allawi. Da’awa has also been invited to join. The combination would potentially have the necessary two-thirds majority within the 275-member parliament to form a new government—without the Sadrists, and with or without Maliki.

Washington then expects the green light for an assault on the Mahdi Army. The Bush administration considers the Sadrists to be one of the principal obstacles to US domination over Iraq. Sadr has mass support among the Shiite Iraqi working class and urban poor, especially in Baghdad. While collaborating with the US occupation, his movement verbally opposes the presence of American forces and US plans for the free-market reorganisation of the oil industry. Earlier this month, Sadr ordered his supporters to suspend their participation in the Maliki government until the US agreed to a timetable for withdrawal. Yesterday, the Sadrist office in Baghdad demanded the closure of the US and British embassies and the expulsion of their ambassadors and staff.

Moreover, Sadr has also opposed US aggression elsewhere in the Middle East. Under conditions where the Bush administration maintains its bellicose stance toward Iran, Syria and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, the Pentagon views the Mahdi Army as a dangerous fifth column inside Iraq. It now has many as 60,000 fighters and thousands more within the US-trained Iraqi army and police who could launch attacks on American forces in the event of open hostilities. To create the necessary pretext for an attack, the White House and the US media are systematically demonising the Sadrists. Without evidence, the Mahdi Army is being accused of being the main Shiite militia carrying out sectarian attacks against Sunnis, and of receiving funding and training from Iran and Hezbollah.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/dec2006/iraq-d16.shtml

[Critters2]

1. Didn't we try that once

And, as I recall, it didn't go too well.

[gordianot]

3. I think some palce in Southeat Asia several decades ago..

[Critters2]

4. Yep. And, gosh, that went well. nt

[gordianot]

2. That would end any discussion of Civil War, just a plain quagmire.

Leave it to the "War" President to make "War".

[JohnnyLib2]

5. one disturbing thought, one question

First, doesn't this sound a lot like the whole damn Rovian technique of using one part of society to attack and demonize another. Call it RW vs. others, etc. All we need is for Falwell and Limbaugh to take up the cause.

Second, do some DU'ers have impressions of the reliability of James Coogan and the source? I'm not familiar with him. Thanks.

[ninkasi]

6. This would be insane

that's what scares me. If it sounds insane, it's probably what Bush is going to do. He has to be the most ignorant, arrogant, egotistical man ever to destroy a country. I'm talking about both Iraq and America, and apparently his screwing up of Afghanistan is going to lengthen the list. There seems to be no limit to his delusions of being the center of the Universe, and believing that he is the only person in the world who matters.

People are dying, being maimed, being made homeless, and their families torn apart to sate his megalomania. He really, really needs to be impeached, the sooner the better. Throw Dickhead Cheney out with him, and get rid of the whole neocon stench in our government. They are a danger to all of us.

[IndianaGreen]

7. I don't see the death of the American empire as a bad thing

The only regrettable thing is the chaos and suffering that America has left as legacy of our imperial ambitions.

[bemildred]

8. Bush continues his defense of Iran's interests in the Middle East. nt