Iraqi PM Freezes Raids Targeting Militia

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq’s prime minister on Friday ordered a nationwide freeze on raids against suspected Shiite militants after the leader of the biggest militia complained that arrests were continuing even after he ordered fighters off the streets.

The announcement was a major shift from comments Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made a day earlier. It came after Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia fought government troops last week, hinted at retaliation if arrests of his followers did not stop.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber killed at least 15 people and wounded eight when he blew himself up during a policeman’s funeral in Sadiyah, a town 60 miles north of Baghdad on Friday. Police said the bomber mingled among the mourners and then triggered an explosive vest.

Also Friday, military and police officials in Basra said a number of Iraqi soldiers and police were reported to have mutinied or refused to engage al-Sadr’s militants during last week’s fighting.

The officials said the mutiny involved a full infantry battalion belonging to the 4th Iraqi Division numbering about 500 men and some 400 policemen. The deserters also turned over to the Mahdi militia some of their weapons and vehicles, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The desertions cast new doubt on the effectiveness of U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces. The White House has conditioned further U.S. troop withdrawals on the readiness of the Iraqi military and police.

Full Story Here:
Iraqi PM Freezes Raids Targeting Militia

I don’t care what the Pro-Iraq sites say, I don’t care what the Bush Bots say, I don’t give a damn what George W. Bush himself says, the Iraqi leadership, the Iraqi military and the Iraqi police are NOT reliable and I seriously doubt that they ever will be.

The Iraqis are NOT fighters, but they can be tyrants, dictators, murderers and sadists, and in a man to man, army against army, old fashioned shooting match, they don’t amount to a hill of beans, never have, if they can’t go into an area and control it through with sheer intimidation, they haven’t got the wherefores to do much more than they have done lately, back down, change their minds, go back on their word, or in some cases, totally surrender and give up their weapons to the enemies that seek to once again dominate Iraq, the enemies that they call brothers, let me tell you ALL something, you can’t beat that bond, you can’t do it, case in point, Vietnam.

That’s the people we are fighting and dying for, that’s the people we’re spending untold BILLIONS of our hard earned tax dollars to support and defend, that’s the people that are bankrupting America, a people that haven’t got the guts to take a stand against a dictator, Saddam, a people that haven’t the guts to stand against a potential tyrant, al-Sadr, a gutless ilk that is NOT worth one more minute of our time, blood or money.

I know there are a few Iraqis that want to be FREE, I know that there are Iraqis that want to enjoy the benefits of a modern nation that is governed in a fair and democratic manner, but those people are in the minority, the Iraqis, for the most part, want to continue as they have for centuries, they want someone to tell them what to do, when to do it, how to do it and then enforce the penalties upon them if they don’t do it to please their tyrant, that’s the life they have always known and the only one that many Iraqis understand.

If we are willing to invest the lives and futures of our next 4 or 5 generations, lives and fortunes of Americans that haven’t been born yet, if we’re willing to go head to head with Islam as we try to bring a nation into the 21st century, if we’re willing to keep that effort up until some time into the 22nd century, if we don’t bankrupt America making Iraq into the nation that George W. Bush wants it to be, well, in 75 or a 100 years, maybe we’ll see that Iraq, as the inbred hatred for America is bred out, as a love of democracy replaces the fear of tyrannical rule, perhaps then, maybe, just maybe, it will all have been worthwhile.

But what if we destroy ourselves in the process? What then?

Trackback URL:
http://texasfred.net/archives/1055/trackback/