Petraeus Hid Maliki Resistance to US Troops in Basra

[babylonsister]

Petraeus Hid Maliki Resistance to US Troops in Basra
By Gareth Porter


WASHINGTON - In testimony before Congressional committees last week, Gen. David Petraeus portrayed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s late March offensive in Basra as a poorly planned effort that departed from what U.S. officials had expected.

What Petraeus did not reveal is that al-Maliki was deliberately upsetting a Petraeus plan to put U.S. and British forces into Basra for a months-long operation to eliminate the Mahdi Army from the city.

Petraeus referred to a plan for an operation to be carried out in Basra that he and his staff had developed with the head of the Basra Operational Command, Gen. Mohan al-Furayji. But Petraeus carefully dodged a question from Sen. Hillary Clinton about what resources he was planning to deploy to Basra and over what length of time.

Clinton evidently suspected that the plan envisioned the deployment of U.S. troops on a large scale in the Shiite south, despite the fact that the Iraqi government is supposed to be responsible for security there. Petraeus responded vaguely that it was “a phased plan over the course of a number of months during which different actions were going to be pursued.”

Reports in the British press indicated, however, that the campaign plan was based on the assumption that British and U.S. troops would play the central role in an effort to roll up the Mahdi Army in Basra. The Independent reported Mar. 21 that Gen. Furayji had publicly declared there would be a “final battle” in Basra, probably during the summer, and that Britain had already promised to provide military forces for the campaign. It quoted “senior government sources” as saying that Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s earlier pledge to cut the number of British troops in the south from 4,100 to 2,500 would “almost certainly be postponed until at least the end of the year”.

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/18/8370/

[cliss]

1. Just think about that.

Here is a general, who testifies before Congress. He sits there and lies, avoids telling the truth, twists things around.
Just to push the neo Con agenda.

[babylonsister]

4. ...and gets away with it despite the truth being known. nt

[BunkerHill24]

9. Guess what,.....

Our congresscritters can't do nothing about it because they all remember what happened to MoveOn.org when they tried to question the General's sincerity on Iraq troop level.

[madokie]

5. I will say his day is coming too

he'll be tried for war crimes as the bulk of the bush/cheney gang will and the ones who aren't will be testifying against the rest of them too. We have to remember that the same qualities that they hold that makes them be a neoCON re:puke: in the first place makes them to be when the chips are down, have allegiance to only one, themselves. When the nut cutting really gets started not a single one of them will be looking out for the whole of the rest of the gang. Together we stand will not be the case with this criminal crew, no, it will be each of them going down alone. The good part is with each passing day it is one day closer to that day.
:-)

[spanone]

2. kick and r

[gratuitous]

3. How could Basra be a poorly planned effort? Early reports said we won

Gee, do you think that we're not getting the full story about what we're paying for and what's being done in our names over in Iraq? When the administration needed a "victory" to prove how well the surge was working, Basra was all over the news. Man, we whupped 'em good!

And now, three weeks later, all we hear is how inept the Iraqis are at shooting their fellow citizens. They're clearly not as steeped in the Myth of Redemptive Violence as the United States is, and more's the pity that we're going to have to maintain this occupation for another five, 10 or 100 years to teach them just what kind of society you can have where might is the sole arbiter of what's right.

[EFerrari]

6. Today Amy reported that US troops and others are building

and enclosing what amount to a ghetto in Sadr City. (Sorry if that's misspelled.)

Shades of Warsaw. :(

[babylonsister]

7. Read that this a.m.; do they want to keep people in or out? Here's a

thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3174700&mesg_id=3174700

[EFerrari]

8. Thanks, I'll go read.

:)