Five Things You Need to Know To Understand The Latest Violence in Iraq

[laststeamtrain]

Five Things You Need to Know

To Understand The Latest Violence in Iraq

By Joshua Holland and Raed Jarrar

29/03/08 "AlterNet" -- - Heavy fighting has spread across Shia-dominated enclaves in Iraq over the past two days. The U.S.-backed regime of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has ordered 50,000 Iraqi troops to "crack down" -- with coalition air support -- on Shiite militias in the oil-rich and strategically important city of Basra, U.S. forces have surrounded Baghdad's Sadr City and fighting has been reported in the southern cities of Kut, Diwaniya, Karbala and Hilla. Basra's main bridge and an oil pipeline connecting it to Amara were destroyed Wednesday. Six cities are under curfew, and acts of civil disobedience have shut down dozens of neighborhoods across the country. Civilian casualties have reportedly overwhelmed poorly equipped medical centers in Baghdad and Basra.

There are indications that the unilateral ceasefire declared last year by the nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is collapsing. "The cease-fire is over; we have been told to fight the Americans," one militiaman loyal to al-Sadr told the Christian Science Monitor's Sam Dagher by telephone from Sadr City. Dagher added that the "same man, when interviewed in January, had stated that he was abiding by the cease-fire and that he was keeping busy running his cellular phone store."

A political track is also in play: Sadr has called on his followers to take to the streets to demand Maliki's resignation, and nationalist lawmakers in the Iraqi Parliament, led by al-Sadr's block, are trying to push a no-confidence vote challenging the prime minister's regime.

The conflict is one that the U.S. media appears incapable of describing in a coherent way. The prevailing narrative is that Basra has been ruled by mafialike militias -- which is true -- and that Iraqi government forces are now cracking down on the lawlessness in preparation for regional elections, which is not...

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http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/80580

[NC_Nurse]

1. Very informative! Thanks!

:thumbsup: :hi:

[DaveT]

2. The surge worked to get Iraq off the front page

and even here at DU, there is far less interest in what is happening in Iraq than in earthshaking questions about when one should change churches and how dangerous things were at an airport on Yugoslavia ten years ago.

The Bush/Cheney political strategy continues to work perfectly as the gouge of the Federal Treasury continues at full throttle while almost everybody in a position of influence within the USA is obsessed with something else, anything else.

[many a good man]

7. Wrong. Not the surge, but Sadr's cease-fire

The much-touted troop "surge" had little to do with the drop in violence in recent months -- it didn't even correlate with the lull chronologically and was certainly a minor causal factor at best. A number of factors led to the reduced violence, but Sadr's cease-fire had the greatest impact.

Sadr's platform has more popular support than the US-backed govt. Sadr called a unilateral cease fire because he knew this and that he would sweep the upcoming elections. Maliki and the US could see this and now that elections (in Iraq) are getting closer they have to wipe out Sadr, who ended his cease-fire and is now fighting back.

[DaveT]

8. the surge did nothing of significance militarily in Iraq

but, like every other stupid lie told by our government on this subject, it did succeed for its intended effect on the American media and the American political culture.

Sadr's truce helped reduce the daily death tolls. So did our bribing of Sunni militiamen.

The current fighting demonstrates for about the millionth time in the last five years that we cannot control events in Iraq. We never could and we never will.

But, no matter how screwed up things may seem in Iraq, the money keeps flowing to the war profiteers. And the policy is therefore succeeding exactly intended by the Bush Government.

[noamnety]

3. another k&r

fan of Raed here. He's got a way of cutting through the crap and just saying what's what - without oversimplifying it into trite nothingness.

[greyghost]

4. I'm honored to K&R!

[DLnyc]

5. Hey, Some analysis that actually makes some sense. Iraqis don't like the

corporations taking their oil. Amazing.

[chknltl]

6. Absolutely! Thank you for this post

I heard this or something similar repeated on Mike Malloy last Thursday. I looked for a link in his messege boards or forum or whatever it is he has on his site but found nothing.

Thank you very much for posting. KnR

[totodeinhere]

9. The puppet Maliki's days surely are numbered.

The only question is, who will succeed him? And if that successor is not acceptable to the shrub, what will he do?

My greatest fear is that if it looks like the Repugs are going to lose the fall election then that would free the shrub to do anything he wants to in his final months in office since he's got nothing to lose.