Good Morning, Vietnam!

Nouri al Maliki, at the behest of his American masters, has thrown the new Army of the Republic of Vietnam against the militias of the most powerful and cohesive popular movement in Iraq, that of Muqtada al Sadr. By all accounts, even with their American advisers, tactical air and intelligence support, this operation appears to be a stupendous failure; the Mehdi Army of Sadr is reported to be routing the Iraqi "government" forces at every turn.

Moreover, it has ignited an uprising that stretches from Baghdad to Basra and all points in between. This flagrant violation of the ceasefire that the Sadrists renewed only days ago for six additional months, by the American-controlled puppet government, has set the stage for the most dangerous moment in Iraq for the occupation forces since the dual rebellions in Fallujah and Najaf in April 2004.

It has also quite probably signed the death warrant for the Iranian-trained and supported militias of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the foundation of Maliki's last thread of legitimacy as an "Iraqi government."

The calculation is that this "strike" by Mailiki's forces -- many reported to have shed their uniforms and joined the Mehdi Army -- will interrupt the breathing space that the US believes Sadr was using to rest, refit, and professionalize his forces... who the press calls "militants," as it calls the Maliki forces "Iraqis."

The same US press, which has parroted the absurd claims of "surge success" for months now, a success that was based on successful ethnic cleansing in Baghdad combined with the Mehdi Army's ceasefire, will now have to tie itself in rhetorical knots to explain how this success is now adrift in the columns of black smoke rising from one of the two main oil pipelines passing through the port-transit city of Basra, and why rocket-propelled grenades and mortar rounds are splashing onto the Green Zone like a storm.

This past January, I pointed out in a Truthdig article, that "The principle aim of The Surge is to break the power of Muqtada al-Sadr. Sadr not only has the seats in the Potemkin parliament of Iraq that put Maliki (a leader in a relatively small Shiite party, the Dawa) into power against the SCIRI (the largest parliamentary faction); he commands the ferocious loyalty of two and a half million people and has an 80,000-strong militia concentrated a stone's throw from the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad. Baghdad has about 6 million people; New York City has 8 million, just by way of comparison. The population of Sadr City, the "neighborhood" under the leadership of Sadr, is approximately that of Brooklyn."

If I could figure this out from Raleigh, NC, why can't the press figure it out with reporters embedded at the Green Zone? Perhaps I just answered my own question.

Just as was pointed out 32 months ago, the American occupation has been thrown into alliance with Iranian-backed partitionist Shia formations (by pressure from Sadr, actually), though it cannot afford the dangers inhering in Iraqi partition. Yet the most popular nationalist, anti-partition Shia leader in Iraq -- Muqtada al Sadr -- cannot be relied upon to support either the occupation (part of the plan for permanent US bases in Iraq) or the oil law that lies near the center of the frozen heart of the occupation.

And so, his power must be destroyed... if that is even possible.

Now the US has plunged the knife into the back of even the obedient Kurds, allowing Turkish forces to rampage through Iraqi Kurdistan. The list of allies is shrinking; and the myth of "surge-success" evaporates.

Good morning, Vietnam.

Comments

[islandboy]

Al Sadr and his family have been a part of the underground in Iraq for a long time. They have long been the collective that will hand you your ass....in Iraq. This attack on Al Sadr is an attempt to pump the violence up. Maliki hoped he might get lucky with a sucker punch , and GOP thinktanks knew it would help McCain.....I wonder,what will be the encore ?

[LeftRight]

You're wrong about one thing. Maliki is not attacking the Mehdi army at OUR behest. In fact, we are backing up the Maliki "government" forces at HIS request.

Petraeus, as little as I agree with him on EVERY other point, has chosen NOT to fight Sadr's army, and was making sure that the US military in the country DIDN'T fight them. Now, Maliki sees Sadr as a threat to his own power (which he is, to be fair!) and has decided to take out Sadr's army, dragging the US army along in the process!

[NoFactsJustTruth]

How DARE Muqtada al Sadr want America's storm-troopers out of THEIR country, why that's - anti American!

Uh, ...oh yeah.


Other wheels WILL also soon come off the imperialist wagon, Stan, thanks as always.

[FANDRAL72]

Sadr will not be defeated militarily. Perhaps they could get some one close to him to assassinate him, but I doubt it. The Iraqi mess has become so perfect,... I wonder is it deliberately so? After all, it is the last place on earth where light, sweet crude, easy to pump out, and cheap to refine, lies close to the surface. Have we become, from the Iraqi perspective, the protagonist in that old SNL skit "The Thing that wouldn't Leave?"

[ceu]

I see the US's tacit support of the Turks against the Kurds as another nail in the coffin of the state of Iraq. The Kurds supported & aided the US invasion and we turned around & spat on them. The lesson the rest of Iraq will take from that is that the US cannot be relied on by its allies, which we proved after the failed uprisings following the Gulf War, and therefore they will not have to honor their agreements with us. What reasons could Muqtada al Sadr have to continue a ceasefire with people who have shown that their loyalty is a short-term, unreliable commodity?
What a friggin' mess this administration has made of Iraq!

[hartkid]

Word in from GWB, "the fledgling democracy of Iraq is awakening. The most recent unrest in Baghdad is merely a stretch and a yawn. It's a good sign. A sign that the people of Iraq are awakening. It's dawn people."

[timm0]

Late word in from dick cheney: "So?"