Start of Civil War? Attacks Across Iraq!

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by Agathon
Did I mention that Kiwi veterans considered US soldiers to be, on the average, gutless cowards.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, a tad strong I dare say - I do know from several sources that the Aussies in Vietnam would hide from the Yanks as they went by and take detours to avoid concentrations of them. Their fieldcraft was considered poor and their trigger happiness made for friendly fire incidents.

One guy said that as soon as the North Koreans turned up, your lot would pack it in and hightail it.

The rout being stopped by the 3 Battalion Royal Australian Regiment's heroic stand, along with the Canucks, at Kapyong.

http://www.awm.gov.au/korea/operations/kapyong/kapyong.htm

I love this quote.

"Major O'Dowd then directed the radio operator to contact anyone. The American 1st Marine Division answered but their operator refused to believe who our operator was speaking for. Major O'Dowd took the phone and demanded to speak to the commanding officer. The general in charge of the [Marine] division came on the phone and told O'Dowd we didn't exist as we had been wiped out the night before. Major O'Dowd said, 'I've got news for you, we are still here and we are staying here.'"

Private Patrick Knowles, 3 RAR, on the morning of 24 April 1951

Isn't first marines one of the formations in Iraq now?

[Ted Striker]

Your story made no mention of US forces other than a call to the Marines at the end.

Anyway...

[Ted Striker]

For those of you actually interested in the topic at hand and not a pissing match, here are the latest developments:

1) Sadr is seeing his time is up and is willing to disarm his militia. He will only do this however if the order comes from senior Muslim leaders. He is surround in Najaf and has nowhere to go

2) The UN surveyor in Iraq says the transitional government can still go forwad in June

3) The US has asked Iran to help diffuse the crisis and Iran has sent a delegation to help out

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/14/iraq.main/index.html

[Agathon]

Begging to the Iranians?

[Ted Striker]

begging, funny

Iranians are Shiites

75% of Iraqis are Shiites

duh

plus you can't complain about the US not including others but then complain when they do

hypocrite

[Agathon]

Really? Don't you think it's funny that they have to go to one of the "Axis of Evil"?

Oh the irony....

[Ted Striker]

They don't "have" to do anything

[The Mad Viking]

Stop trolling Aggie.

Give credit where it is due. It appears that they have made a difficult but correct decision if they are talking to Iran.

And credit to Ted S for seeing this as a good thing.

[GePap]

Lets hope there is a breakthorugh in Najaf- Now that Sadr has backed down becuase he saw little support from other Shia clerics, the US should back down form it's "kill or capture" statements and leave it to the Iraqis, specially the "kill" one.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

He still needs to be captured and stand trial for previous arrest warrant issued for murder of Shia cleric. This is non-negotiable if we want the force of law to stand.

The kill thing should be up to the court.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe
He still needs to be captured and stand trial for previous arrest warrant issued for murder of Shia cleric. This is non-negotiable if we want the force of law to stand.

The warrant supposedly was out for several months prior-if we refused to serve it prior to this time becuase possibly of some other inetrests, I fail to see why all of a sudden it is critical it be served. It would be better to wait for a handover of power so then it is the iraqi police taking him away.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Hmmm.... so by ignoring a problem for many months and having it bite us in the butt, we should similarly make the same mistake and allow it to fester and raise its ugly head another 2-3 months.

Two wrongs making a right ehh....

Now were you to say he must surrender to Iraqi police forces immediately that would be a different story. It would be a master stroke to have Sistani et. al. call for his surrender to Iraqi police forces.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe
Hmmm.... so by ignoring a problem for many months and having it bite us in the butt, we should similarly make the same mistake and allow it to fester and raise its ugly head another 2-3 months.

Two wrongs making a right ehh....

The first wrong changed the situation enough to make serving the warrant now backed by US tanks a political mistake. The US should never be the one serving the warrant anyway-if an Iraqi judge issues it, it should be the Iraqi police serving it.

Now were you to say he must surrender to Iraqi police forces immediately that would be a different story. It would be a master stroke to have Sistani et. al. call for his surrender to Iraqi police forces.

We captured Saddam 3 months ago-nothing has happened yet. We can wait for July to have the iraqi police come and get him. Political stability trumps all other concerns if the amdin. is hell bent on the June 30 deadline.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by GePap

Political stability trumps all other concerns if the amdin. is hell bent on the June 30 deadline.

Agreed, which is the reason he should be taken into custody ASAP by Iraqi police.

Unless of course you subscribe to the theory that he is so marginalized as to no longer be a security threat now or within the next 2-3 months.

[GePap]

Two things happened with Sadr- his actions garnered him the sort of attention from ther high leadership he porbalby always craved (like getting to meet with the sons of all the Grand Ayatollahs and neogtiators coming all the way from Iran), and he also saw the highr ps would not back him, so that long run he would not succeed.

How can the US serve the warrant? Sadr will probably get to stay in Najaf unless the Clerics force him out, and the US would be monumentally stupid to enter Najaf in force trying to get him.

My guess is that some sort of surrender to the Clerics by Sadr will happen. But not a turnover into US hands, or the police.