Condoleezza Rice Mocks Al-Sadr As A Coward

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocked anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a coward on Sunday, hours after the radical leader threatened to declare war unless U.S. and Iraqi forces end a military crackdown on his followers.

Rice, in the Iraqi capital to tout security gains and what she calls an emerging political consensus, said al-Sadr is content to issue threats and edicts from the safety of Iran, where he is studying. Al-Sadr heads an unruly militia that was the main target of an Iraqi government assault in the oil-rich city of Basra last month, and his future role as a spoiler is an open question.

"I know he's sitting in Iran," Rice said dismissively, when asked about al-Sadr's latest threat to lift a self-imposed cease-fire with government and U.S. forces. "I guess it's all-out war for anybody but him," Rice said. "I guess that's the message; his followers can go too their deaths and he's in Iran."

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[MikeDu]

Is there nothing more 'cowardly' than spending billions on unmanned drone aircraft to do your killing for you from a safe distance? That's why rice ants sadr in-country, to drop a omb on him. If you want 'Manly" may I suggest putting Bush and Sadr in a cage together armed with nothing but broken beer bottles.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Because "Bring It On!" has worked out SO WELL for us.

Condi needs to resign yesterday, if not earlier.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Sign the petitions:

1) http://act.truemajorityaction.org/p/7002/condipetition?petition_KEY=51

2) http://condimustgo.com/

[SuiginTou7]

Hey, Condi. Go show him how it's done, I'll pay for your weapon and your body armor. You go in there and clean up the place okay?

[glitz]

NO, NO, NO..she can't wave and hold a gun at the same time. She and al-Sadr do what leaders do..stay outside the fray and rant!!! She and Mr. President think they are "protecting America" while in America giving orders to Iraq...al-Sadr thinks he is protecting Iraq from America while giving orders in Iraq. I still think the perfect job for her is the new DCM (Deputy Chief of Mission) of the mult-million dollar, largest Embassy in the world, brand new architectural disaster in Baghdad. Perfect..Perfect...she and her new "volunteers" can stay within the green zone and continue to give orders to deaf ears. Oh, yeah...GWB can be the new Ambassador, better yet, Chaney!!

[desmirl]

And I'll toss in 500 rounds of 5.56 mm.

[SeriousBlack]

Condi - Just STFU and collect your paycheck until January of next year.

[CaseyBabes]

Right, uh "Serious".........let's all just ignore the cowardly mullahs who exhort the ignorant to blow themselves up while the mullahs shovel in the lamb and rice from a safe place.....bunch of damnable crackpots divining death to gain paradise. C'mon Condi, if you're gonna speak up do it with some force, kinda like ol' Serious here.

[desmirl]

Why is it that people like Rice, Bush, and Cheney are so courageous with OTHER PEOPLES' LIVES? Why aren't these 'leaders' walking point for a squad of fighters in Basra?

[getoffmedz]

This Secretary of State has accomplished NOTHING useful and continues her hideous track-record with this astounding blunder. Rice undoubtedly will have caused many more innocent Iraqi to die and loyal and trusting U.S. troops to be lost with her latest stupidity. This war and occupation must end, not be escalated.

Our dimwitted Secretary of State has mocked a powerful Shia resistance leader in Iraq who wants to see the liberation of Iraq from foreign interests and invaders. Rice is obviously unaware that Iraq is well over 60% Shia.

Bush/Cheney redefines another aspect of the criminally insane Executive Branch. At one time our State Department was tasked with noble diplomacy, not delivering pompous threats and engaging in assorted dick wavings. Surely a task for which Secretary Rice is poorly equipped?

[highlyamused]

Kinda like 'they' can sit in DC while our troops lose their lives? Kinda like you can get deferments, go awol and sit out Vietnam? Ya mean..........kinda like THAT!

[gomonkeygo]

Lovely. Is it war yet?

[richcpl]

Some American soldier is going to pay for her phony and ill-advised bravado. That'll happen when she's safely tucked away in her Washington, D.C., cocoon. She's so macho, give her a gun and send her outside the Green Zone.

[karaplanet]

This administration has handled this guy, like they have handled this 'war'. Abysmally. They shut down his newspaper in 2004, I think. He only reached about 40k people with his blasts of the administration....and showed that they care not a whit about free speech and liberating the masses.

Don't get me wrong, he is a dangerous character. They have just bungled it from the get go. Per usual.

[guntotinganglion]

Is it just me, or is Condi just a little butch?

[karaplanet]

Kind of confusing, isn't it? I remember her Freudian slip, a few years back...when she referred to George Bush as 'my husband'. Maybe the polygamist circles are wider than I thought in Texas....snark.

[thatsitfortheotherone]

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocked anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a coward on Sunday...

Another "Bring it on" moment. The last one worked so well, she thought she'd try it again.

Republican diplomacy = oxymoron.

[julieeiluj]

And i am sure he is mocking her as a liar, thief and murderer as well. She is such a sad, sad excuse for a human being.

[desmirl]

The only cowards in the piece are Bush, Cheney, and Rice. Invading a country that posed not threat, making up 'intel', bombing from 30,000 feet in a no-flak environment, using tanks and jet fighters against people who are defending their country from an illegal invasion and armed with AK-47s... Oh, yeah, cowards.... We has met the enemy, and they is us....

[julieeiluj]

This war and all the lives lost, all the bodies smashed into a lifetime of pain and suffering, all the treasure lost, is one of the worst crimes in the history of humanity, let alone this country. Can you imagine their karma?

[chuckd74]

No the worst crimes in history would be Nazi Germany, millions of jews dead, gas chambers concentration camps. Or Saddams Iraq, with mass graves of anyone who spoke out against the dictator. Lets not forget Stalin's Great Purge. Also the Tiananmen Square Massacre, i mean this list goes on and on, the Iraq war is not a crime or believe me the liberal senate would have started the impeachment process long ago no?

And in contrast to D-Day this war is a joke I am in no way making light of the people who volunteered for service and sacraficed their life, but wasn't like 50,000 dead in that one day compared to 4,000 in 6 years, give me a break you liberals need to get your facts striaght, and appreciate what the all volunteer military is sacraficing for you greedy hateful, unappreciative pansy ass SOB's.

[SeriousBlack]

I call those who send (or approve of sending) our troops off to die for no good reason "greedy hateful, unappreciative pansy ass SOB's".

How's that?

[desmirl]

When are you enlisting, hero?

[Durango]

That's 4,000 American lives.

The Iraqi's have had thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands dead, and many more casulties. Not to mention 4 million refugees.

Interesting to see "conservatives" arguing situational ethics.

[ridgerunner2]

You are stuck on stupid!! demirl, are sure your name is not dismalmirl?

[wolf58]

Whats stuck on stupid is the though of keeping on killing our guys and gals for all in the name of a lie. If you are really a Vietnam vet then first I say to you is welcome home. 2nd you know how many died in Nam for the lies they died for. You would think one who was in country would think before supportintg the wrong war of coward chickenhawks while the true enemy is still very much alive and well because the coward in chief is not worried about him. Before you start your shit keep this in mind I am a Army Vet,100 percent disabled father of three current Army soldiers two who have been in combat in Iraq, one wounded and I have family and friends who are now in country and I will tell you this they, their friends all feel the same way. George Bush's war in Iraq is bullshit and only chickenhawks and morons support the war and they to feel they should be fighting the enemey that attacked us and they are not in Iraq. 4039 have died for lies of Condi Bush, Cheney and the list goes on. If you truly care about our brothers and sisters in arms then you would support them leaving Iraq, they have done their job. This is the issue of the chickenhawks and their followers not theirs.

[ProfessorDuh]

Desmirl is right, a fact you admitted by calling names instead of making an argument.

[desmirl]

You are posting from Iraq while taking a break from walking point for your platoon in Basra, right? I didn't think so.

[ridgerunner2]

No, I am not in Iraq. But I would be if I were of age. I am a Vietman vet and 58 years old. I volunteered then and would do it now if possible. Look at my profile.

[astral66]

Condi to Sadr, "Bring it on!''

Haven't we heard this dangerous false-bravado before? How many more American troops will now die because of idiotic statements like this whopper from Rice today?

[Canaris]

I know he's sitting in Iran," Rice said dismissively, when asked about al-Sadr's latest threat to lift a self-imposed cease-fire with government and U.S. forces. "I guess it's all-out war for anybody but him," Rice said. "I guess that's the message; his followers can go too their deaths and he's in Iran."

....says Condi from the Green Zone. Meanwhile, back in Washington, I guess it's all out war for everybody but Dubya, Cheney, Condi, et al. I guess that's the message, their followers can go to their deaths and they're in Washington.

,

[desmirl]

CHICKENHAWKS never get the fact that they're CHICKENHAWKS. They see themselves as heroes - even tho' they never get within thousands of miles of the shooting.

[ridgerunner2]

Sounds like there is a bunch of liberal missfits in here. Were you all born stupid and liberal. When are you all going wake to the fact that these Arabs would kill you if they could. They do not care if you are a nice person, a mom a daddy, and have kids or not. You are non-Muslem and if do not not accept their way of life. You are nothing more than an pig which is an unclean animal. It does not matter if we are in Iraq or not in Iraq. They want you dead and it has been that way for a 1000 years or so. WAKE UP PEOPLE!! Al-Sadr is a coward. Look, he has not & will not show his face in public and his so called army wears hoods over their faces. This is how cowards work. And when he does show his face we need to blow it off. ASAP! And put him on display for everyone to see! I can assure you that the enemy saw my face, some of them up very close. Mine was the last they saw. And I would do it again.

[guntotinganglion]

Welcome to your paranoid jungle. I guess the future of humankind, per your assessment, is kill or be killed...forever, or at least until you're the last one standing. I'm sure Christ would have been cool with that. If your neighbor offends you, call in an air strike.

Blessed be the war makers, for they will make war. Blessed be the merciless, for they will show no mercy. Blessed be the collateral damage, for they will remain innocent even unto death, and those who killed them will bear no blame. And blessed be the war profits, for they will buy the war profiteers SUV's in abundance and large estates within which they shall play Christian tennis with cruciform rackets and exult unto god almighty that which is his. Say hallelujah!

Oh yahh...and blessed be collective punishment, for they shall ALL be collectively punished...and DESTROYED!!! Baby's AND the Baath Party! Say hallelujah!

Oh good, a reference to hoods over their faces. Gee, isn't that what we do to them when we capture and torture them? Isn't this how cowards work, per your comment? And don't our brave boys doing the hard work of extreme rendition always cover their faces? Probably just out of shyness, huh?

You're a maniac.

[gomonkeygo]

Very nice, very racist.

Islam has had extremists in all directions for all of its history, just like Christianity has - good, bad, ugly, evil, saints, whatever. Right now there is a pendulum swing dominated - to our eyes - by extremists, but they are the minority in Islam. Islam has had incredible periods of tolerance in its history that made their Western Christian culture-counterparts look like the terrorists. And if we can learn to talk first, rather than kill first, we might stand a chance of weathering this swing and bringing Western culture and Islamic culture back in to some kind of accord with one another. We may even find we can live happily together, that we can share a lot of common ideas and values. But we can't do this with "leaders" like Rice and Bush and Cheney running their mouths off for the sole purpose of inciting further episodes of violence to use as excuses for further war-making by us.

But we will never d have any peace or accord so long as radical extremists want only to kill - and I'm talking about you, ridgerunner2, not the "Muslem" people you'd like us all to hate without thinking. If there are more "Muslem" attacks against Americans, you might want to blame Rice and friends before you blame anyone else. And blame yourself for supporting them, too.

VOTE OBAMA!

[thatsitfortheotherone]

Idiot.

[TheHandyman]

And you say this because you actually know how many Arabs. What are, 12 years old, or do you just have the IQ of one. If anyone is stupid here, and lacks any sort of socialization experience, it is you!

[ProfessorDuh]

You am so smart. You am smart as Bush. Where you am ejekated?

[dwillisno1]

You are right they hate us. Apparently they also know that you and others in our country hate them. When people want to kill you the best way to show that we aren't like them is to advocate killing them first. Its sort of like hiding in DC or the Green Zone and accusing Sadr of being a coward because he's in Iran. Of course he knows that we can't fine OBL because we don't want to, so maybe we wouldn't be able to find him either

[musselmanm]

So you admit to murdering some unarmed enemy. I know they were unarmed because you said they would kill you.
I bet you may have some mental problems other than thinking you are a hero.