Long past time Mosul was dealt withMay 11th, 2008 - 17:11:40

al-Maliki has been talking up taking care of the Mosul area for many months now, and instead has been bogged down with Basra, and then Sadr City.

Just as al-Maliki sent a delegation to Iran to ask them to use their influence with al-Sadr in Basra and the south; once again he sent a delegation to Iran to ask them to help with a cease-fire in Sadr City - and that will give the millions in Sadr City some temporary relief, and perhaps let some supplies reach the area. al-Maliki has a huge rebuilding job ahead in Sadr City, and he needs the people's support in upcoming provincial elections.

The cease-fire should also allow U.S. troops to finish the wall dividing Sadr City, in order to push back those launching rockets to a greater distance from the Green Zone.

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www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html?th&emc=th

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government and leaders of the movement of the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr agreed Saturday to a truce, brokered with help from Iran, that would end more than a month of bloody fighting in the vast, crowded Sadr City section of Baghdad.

The Iranians helped end the standoff by throwing their weight behind the government after a delegation of Shiite members of Parliament visited Iran earlier this month, according to three people involved in negotiating the truce.

The fighting there, which has claimed several hundred lives, left many more wounded and forced residents to flee, has tested the ability of Iraq’s Shiite-led government to confront powerful Shiite militias, here in Baghdad and in Basra, to the south.

The deal would allow the sides to pull back from what was becoming a messy and unpopular showdown in the months leading up to crucial provincial elections. It is not clear who won, how long it would take for the truce to take effect or how long it would hold. But at least for now it would end the warfare among Shiite factions.

The Iraqi government has done little to ease the crisis and allow medical and other aid to reach people. There has been almost no effort to repair the shattered neighborhood, where burned-out cars and piles of bricks from bomb-damaged houses are common sights.

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U.S. military gets back to wall-buildingMay 11th, 2008 - 17:18:11

'The flashpoint for the past four weeks has been Al Quds Street, which traverses roughly east to west and is the dividing line between an area to the south held by the Iraqi Army and the Americans and an area to the north controlled by the militias. The Americans have built a high concrete wall between the two areas, and militia members have been trying to blow a hole in the thick concrete.'

www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-sadrcity11-2008may11,0,679 9819.story

BAGHDAD -- In the glow of a full moon, a U.S. military convoy inched toward a strategic road in Sadr City. The goal: to add to a wall being built to carve out a haven in the Shiite Muslim militia stronghold.

But the mission ended before it began. Machine gun fire blasted out from the third floor of a building along the route. A Bradley fighting vehicle fired back, sending a thunderous roar through the neighborhood of middle-class homes and businesses. Then, the lead tank hit a roadside bomb.

As gunshots and grenade blasts raged in the night, the two Iraqi construction workers accompanying the troops quit.

Army Capt. Alan Boyes wasn't worried. None of his men were injured, and at $500 a day, he knew that the contractors hired to operate a crane to install 6,000-pound slabs of the wall would be back or that others could be found to replace them. But the violence that night and several attacks since highlight the hurdles American troops face as they try to take on fighters loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr without plunging into the heart of his stronghold and sparking an all-out uprising of his heavily armed followers.

'Everyone knows we won't go past Route Gold,' Boyes said, referring to the street along which the wall is being built, separating more than two-thirds of Sadr City from a rectangle where U.S. forces occupy a smattering of small bases. 'It's a political thing.'

It is also the same position the U.S. faced 15 months ago, when the first of 28,500 additional American troops arrived in Baghdad to help quell violence. At the time, commanders opted to not pour troops into Sadr City as they had done in other trouble spots, fearful that it would spark a bloody backlash from Sadr's Mahdi Army militia.

Little has changed in the 11-square-mile corner of northeast Baghdad, but the stakes are higher now. An Iraqi military offensive launched against Shiite militias in late March has drawn in U.S. troops and has led to near-constant fighting in Sadr City. Sadr has threatened 'open war' if the offensive does not end. U.S. troop deaths have climbed to their highest level in seven months, mainly because of the clashes in and around Sadr City, and the additional American troops will be gone by July. On Saturday, the Iraqi government said it had struck a deal with Sadr's aides to halt the fighting, but the two sides disagreed on its terms and it was unclear what it would yield.

For Boyes' team, each attempt to add to the wall, which is designed to run the 3-mile length of Route Gold, is a combat mission. But the military has made it clear it won't cross the road, whose formal name is Al Quds Street, even as the Pentagon stepped up accusations that Iranian-backed fighters were using the area beyond as a base to launch attacks that have killed scores of U.S. and Iraqi forces and civilians in the last month. U.S. and Iraqi officials say they have uncovered evidence of Iranian involvement in training and supplying fighters in Shiite militia strongholds.

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BR- - - - - Raised in New York City- - - - - - -May 11th, 2008 - 19:44:15

We'll make sure to convince al Maliki that he'll need to keep a very close eye and ear on Muqtada al Sadr. This will be the only way the Iraqi people as a whole won't be 'sold short' by the 'way overzealous' Islamic fundamentalists wing of loonies currently stifling real progress in Iraq.
The sooner Maliki honors UN resolutions and runs his new government's secular structure the way his people voted it to be, the sooner he will be
free of Monster al S's poisonous grip and the bloody-handed insurgents 'nickle and dime' approach to truces, cease fires and appeasement-minded manipulations typical of anyone with religious power. The religious 'opium' being handed out by al Sadr will only impede Iraq's true progression toward
legitimate democracy. ('Don't trust him as far as you can throw him' [goes the old adage,] is the advice I would give to al Maliki today and for the next two to three years as well.

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I believe you're being idealisticMay 11th, 2008 - 21:07:19

al-Maliki has failed to close the 'issues gap' between Shia and Sunni, particularly in terms of equitable shares of GROWING oil revenues (greed is a great motivator), and reversing de-Baathification; which means finding jobs for those displaced after Saddam's ouster. These were educated and professional people, and now the entire country is disrupted and chaotic, with over 2 million in Sadr City alone impacted by the recent fighting.

Iran has in fact achieved the de-facto control that Saddam's decades in power prevented, as well as Sunni leaders before him. Iraq has a decidedly Shiite majority, and while the Iraqi Shia would prefer to run their own country, rather than being led on a leash by Iran, they'll take whatever assistance they could get.

This mess has likely encouraged Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran (Shia), to rise up in Lebanon, a country which has been unsettled since that country (with a large Christian population) lost their leadership.

al-Maliki is now like any politician, trying to make the case why HIS people should be in control in the provinces, rather than the al-Sadr followers who would vote for al-Sadr in the South, a vital area both in terms of the port and oil production. The Kurds whould rather just be off on their own, have ample oil revenues, and are cutting deals all over.

The Sunni lack the oil revenues, so become beholden to al-Maliki and the government for an equal share. The Ministries, corrupt and overpopulated with workers as they are, are Shia-controlled - those were jobs once held by the Baathists.

Until the economic and infrastructure problems, as well as revenues, are well-handled by an Iraqi goverenment that all sides have faith in, it will be one mess after another. If Al Qaeda vanished from Iraq tomorrow, the 'native' insurgencies will still be fighting each other for control.

At this point, Sadr City is a shambles, and al-Maliki has made no move at all to repair things.

www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html?_r=1&th&emc=th& oref=slogin

'The Iraqi government has done little to ease the crisis and allow medical and other aid to reach people. There has been almost no effort to repair the shattered neighborhood, where burned-out cars and piles of bricks from bomb-damaged houses are common sights.'

Another interesting point:

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7394850.stm

'Prime Minister Nouri Maliki wants to completely disarm Shia militias - including the Mehdi Army - before local elections in October. But the ceasefire may also reflect the fact that the Iraqi army may need the troops committed to the Baghdad fighting to join the new offensive in the northern city of Mosul against al-Qaeda militants, says the BBC's Clive Myrie in Baghdad. Battles on multiple fronts may still be too difficult for the Iraqi army, our correspondent says.'

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