Good News From Iraq!

Shady · May 12, 2008

Beyond the four-day cease-fire, it looks like major concessions were made. They recognize the elected government as the sole legitimate authority in Sadr City and everywhere else in Iraq, Iraqi forces will take over security in Sadr City, attacks from the there are now prohibited, and the Iraqi government now can impose the law and pursue illegal situations. Hopefully this is a step toward large-scale reductions in American troops. I think it should be.

Iraqi lawmakers, Sadrists sign four-day cease-fire

“We have signed the agreement today,” said Khalid al-Attiyah, the deputy parliamentary speaker from the main Shiite political bloc, United Iraqi Alliance.

Al-Attiyah said the cease-fire went into effect on Sunday and Iraqi forces will be allowed to enter the area as early as Wednesday and “take over the security there.”

The statement said “the government will decide on the number of Iraqi forces to be deployed in Sadr City to achieve security, in order to refrain from asking help from foreign forces,” a reference to the U.S. military.

“Any attack against residential areas, government offices and the Green Zone are prohibited from Sadr City or from another area,” the agreement said.

The cease-fire stipulates that Iraqi forces have the right to “impose the law and to pursue illegal situations.”

AP

And

Drive in Basra by Iraqi Army Makes Gains

BASRA, Iraq — Three hundred miles south of Baghdad, the oil-saturated city of Basra has been transformed by its own surge, now seven weeks old.

In a rare success, forces loyal to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki have largely quieted the city, to the initial surprise and growing delight of many inhabitants who only a month ago shuddered under deadly clashes between Iraqi troops and Shiite militias.

NY Times

sharkman · May 14, 2008

I thought the lefties would be all over this topic with links to left wing sites showing Iraqi death tolls and opining on religious civil war and how Bush really should be arrested NOW!

Instead, we have Iraq slowly rounding a corner and settling down week after week, with peace threatening to break out all over. And when it does, the billions in oil money that the US is not stealing despite rumours to the contrary, will carry that country into prosperity the likes of which they have never seen.

Wilber · May 14, 2008

I sure hope so, unfortunately Middle East cease fires don't have a great track record. Very cautiously optimistic shall we say?

sharkman · May 14, 2008

Violence has been on the wane there for some time. There will always be whackos, but the common people there who just want to get on with their lives are winning the day.

Remiel · May 14, 2008

Something, perhaps, has worked in Basra, but there is little evidence in those reports that it was the American troop " surge " .

Allied air support does not sound like the sort of thing that would have been covered in the surge, and the article does not really state how many of the 1000 personnel were actual combat troops.

To conclude that there is " no question " that the troop surge has worked is a severe stretch of the facts presented, and it is clear that the post hoc fallacy is at work here.

Also, if you read carefully, you will notice that one of the articles says that most of the fighting in Basra has been with groups that have splintered away from the Mahdi army.

If there is anything to celebrate here, it is not a phantom success of the troop surge, but a small, tentative success of the Iraqi government and military, who did most of the work. One that could just as easily be swept away in a tide of blood as lead to a building of peace. To conclude otherwise is seriously, seriously premature.

Hopefully this peace will last between the government and Sadr, but it is at best the beginning of the end of the sectarian violence. I wouldn't count on it just yet.

Oleg Bach · May 14, 2008

Something, perhaps, has worked in Basra, but there is little evidence in those reports that it was the American troop " surge " .
Allied air support does not sound like the sort of thing that would have been covered in the surge, and the article does not really state how many of the 1000 personnel were actual combat troops.

To conclude that there is " no question " that the troop surge has worked is a severe stretch of the facts presented, and it is clear that the post hoc fallacy is at work here.

Also, if you read carefully, you will notice that one of the articles says that most of the fighting in Basra has been with groups that have splintered away from the Mahdi army.

If there is anything to celebrate here, it is not a phantom success of the troop surge, but a small, tentative success of the Iraqi government and military, who did most of the work. One that could just as easily be swept away in a tide of blood as lead to a building of peace. To conclude otherwise is seriously, seriously premature.

Hopefully this peace will last between the government and Sadr, but it is at best the beginning of the end of the sectarian violence. I wouldn't count on it just yet.

The surge has worked - how wonderful - now that thousands of good troops were wasted to amuse Richard Cheney and that Bush boy...I guess it's like throwing money at a problem and if you toss enough the problem goes away - one point of ethic - the wealth of human life was not Cheney's or Bush's to spend...they should be ashamed of themselves after this parroting of Nazi military.....was I the only one that noticed that Cheney named certain campaigns after his hero's exploits....Adolf and his cool generals in real spiffy uniforms....wonder if Cheney and Conrad Black would get along playing tin soldiers together - bet you the two Nationalist Socialist Napoleons would! :lol:

bush_cheney2004 · May 14, 2008

The surge has worked - how wonderful - now that thousands of good troops were wasted to amuse Richard Cheney and that Bush boy...I guess it's like throwing money at a problem and if you toss enough the problem goes away - one point of ethic - the wealth of human life was not Cheney's or Bush's to spend
Yest it was...and they spent it...just like last time when Dick "Ironman" Cheney was calling the shots.

[qoute]

...they should be ashamed of themselves after this parroting of Nazi military.....was I the only one that noticed that Cheney named certain campaigns after his hero's exploits....Adolf and his cool generals in real spiffy uniforms....wonder if Cheney and Conrad Black would get along playing tin soldiers together - bet you the two Nationalist Socialist Napoleons would!

Yes..it was only you. Remember...the "Nazis" lost.

Oleg Bach · May 14, 2008

Yes..it was only you. Remember...the "Nazis" lost.

So did Cheney....ha ha - the second I say the "shock and awe" fun and games - I knew that the effort would come to a grinding halt and it did...it was not a war in good faith or justifiable. Buy the way - I am not a Nazi if you infere that...I really don't like extremism - believe it or not I am a centralist moderate - and I do not approve of wasting human life to amuse some fat oil guys who are bored...IF they were legit they would have invaded Saudi Arabia who financed and quietly facilitated terrorism - but.....it seems that most can not figure out that he that puts up the money is the murder..and who pulls the actual trigger is just a henchmen...get my drift - Even the American military brass for a while where enraged and considering over throwing the Cheney Bush Rove gang....they as good men do not approve of killing your own troops for fun and profit - Iraq was a great insult to the military in the states...The fact that oil merchants fired the top generals and treated the affair like some hostile merger or something...amateurs who wasted a lot of good men and woman - crippling thousands - all because the oil merchant elite - hold blue collar families in contempt and loathing - that they are expendable..for their amusement - Cheney should have sent his daughter to Iraq to fight - I am sure she could beat the hell out of any bearded goat herder!

bush_cheney2004 · May 14, 2008

.... Even the American military brass for a while where enraged and considering over throwing the Cheney Bush Rove gang....they as good men do not approve of killing your own troops for fun and profit - Iraq was a great insult to the military in the states...The fact that oil merchants fired the top generals and treated the affair like some hostile merger or something...amateurs who wasted a lot of good men and woman - crippling thousands - all because the oil merchant elite -

But that is exactly why they exist.....read the Code of Conduct. Do you think we spend $600 billion per year just to jerk off with seal protestors or "peacekilling"? We already wasted plenty of good men dying for your lost empire...now it is our turn.

Blood is a renewable resource....sweet, cheaply extracted crude...not so much.

Edited May 14, 2008 by bush_cheney2004

Oleg Bach · May 15, 2008

But that is exactly why they exist.....read the Code of Conduct. Do you think we spend $600 billion per year just to jerk off with seal protestors or "peacekilling"? We already wasted plenty of good men dying for your lost empire...now it is our turn.
Blood is a renewable resource....sweet, cheaply extracted crude...not so much.

Hey don't forget the opium. It's a fact that no synthetic is as good as refined opium - and rich powerful people have but one fear - death and mostly suffering - so a good supply of dope must be secured for these chickens that run the show..not to mention it's a lot of fun to bloody some dumb white boy from Owen Sound that still trusts the system....