Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Iraq

IRAQ (Actually Iran Shill) Threatens US

2023-10-10

[GatewayPundit] In a recent meeting with Iraqi tribal leaders, Hadi al-Amiri, the leader and secretary-general of the Badr Organization, an Iranian-backed Shiite militia and political party based in Iraq, issued a stark warning to the United States.
Ummm... Been dere. Done dat.
He declared that Iraq would target the U.S. if it intervened alongside Israel against Palestinians, according to reports from Iraqi news media outlet Shafaq and Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

Uh huh. Words are easy.

Amiri emphasized that the new Iraq is firmly aligned with the Palestinian cause.

“The achievements in Palestine, which were beyond the reach of all Arab armies, are being realized. The new Iraq stands by the Palestinian cause, and we will not waver in our support,” he said.

He criticized other Arab leaders for abandoning the Palestinian cause, leaving only the Islamic revolution and resistance factions to support it.

“Today, it’s the will of the Palestinian people that prevails, and the Palestinian cause is now desired by the followers of Ahl al-Beit and religious authorities,” Amiri added.

Amiri also took the opportunity to laud the Hamas terrorists for their recent attacks against Israel.

“We proudly say that the Palestinian people have achieved a significant victory against the Zionist enemy,” he said. “No one could have imagined that Palestine would achieve this victory against the Zionist entity, and the failure of Zionist intelligence.”

The most striking part of Amiri’s speech was his explicit warning to the United States. He stressed that Iraqis, especially those who are part of the 1920 Revolution, must support the legitimate Palestinian cause wholeheartedly. He warned that if “the United States intervenes in Palestine, we will intervene and have no hesitation in targeting.”

IRNA reported that “American forces’ bases in the region would become legitimate targets for Resistance.”

The foreign ministers of Iran and Iraq have urgently requested a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to address the unfolding situation in Palestine, amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, Tasnim News Agency Reported.

Link

Iraq

IED explosion targets a convoy of the Coalition in al-Anbar, Hezb Brigades sez wusn’t them

2021-12-20

[Shafaq News] A blast from a roadside kaboom reportedly hit a convoy of the US-led Global Coalition in al-Anbar today.

Earlier today, Iraqi security forces thwarted an attempt to target a supply convoy by two bombs in babel, south of Iraq. A security source told Shafaq News Agency that a joint force from the Intelligence Agency and the Counter-Terrorism-Service identified and detonated two roadside kabooms set to strike a supply convoy of the Global Coalition on the highway leading to the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, near al-Hillah.

Pro-resistance movement: Hezbollah Brigades are not responsible for the attacks against G.C

[Shafaq News] Huqouq movement, close to the

Hezbollah Brigades,

...the Iraqi Iranian sockpuppets, not the Lebanese one...

said that the latter is not responsible for the attack against the Global Coalition's logistics convoys.

A front man for the movement, Ali Fadl, told Shafaq News Agency, "The party that targeted the American military convoys must identify itself," noting, "the resistance cannot be held responsible, especially since it had issued an official statement clarifying its position and full commitment to the date of the withdrawal of US forces."

"We do not want to neglect the diplomatic side for the sake of the military side. The resistance has the right to decide what to do if the US forces do not adhere to the date of their full withdrawal."

In the past two days, different areas in the country witnessed operations targeting logistics Convoys of the Global Coalition. In addition, security forces thwarted today a Katyusha attack on the Green Zone in Baghdad, which includes the US embassy.

It is worth noting that the National Security Adviser, Qassem al-Araji, announced earlier this month that the US combat missions of the Global Coalition forces in Iraq have officially ended.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Qassem Soleimani’s last message to Palestine revealed

2020-05-20

[ALMASDARNEWS] The late commander of the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, General Qassem Soleimani

, sent a message before his liquidation to Muhammad al-Dhaif, commander of the Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas, one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,.

In a special report from Leb
...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
’s al- Mayadeen TV, they revealed that Soleimani had sent a message to the Dhaif, in which he said that "Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate ~~Jews~~ ~~Zionists~~ Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
will never leave Paleostine alone, no matter how great the pressure will grow, and the siege will be tightened."

Soleimani described Muhammad al-Dhaif as a "living martyr and a brave resister," saying that he "assures everyone that Iran will not leave Paleostine alone."
"Endeavor to persevere"
In his message, General Qassem Soleimani addressed Dhaif and wishes peace upon the head of the political bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh
...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank...
, describing him as a "resistance fighter," stressing that defending Paleostine "is an honor for us and we will not abandon this duty in return for any of the pleasures of the world", noting until "friends of Paleostine are our friends and foes are our enemies, this was our previous policy and it will remain."

Soleimani concluded his message to the leader of the al-Qassam Brigades, saying: "I hope that God will help us come to your side, and inform us of our hope of martyrdom in the cause of Paleostine."

Link

Iraq

1920 Revolution Brigades has released video footage of what it claims are recent IED attacks on U.S. military supply convoys

2020-05-17

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]

Yet a new shadowy Shiite insurgent faction has emerged today in Iraq--the "1920 Revolution Brigades"--and has released video footage of what it claims are recent IED attacks on U.S. military supply convoys south of Baghdad and in Al-Hillah.
— Evan Kohlmann (@IntelTweet) May 16, 2020

According to Wikipedia:

The 1920 Revolution Brigades (Arabic كتائب ثورة العشرين Kitā'ib Thawrat al-ʿIshrīn) is a Sunni militia group in Iraq, which includes former members of the disbanded Iraqi army. The group has used improvised explosive devices, and armed attacks against U.S. occupation forces. The group comprises the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement. The group is named in reference to the 1920 Iraqi revolt against the British. In 2007 some members split off to form Hamas of Iraq.

Link

Iraq

Syrian Man Gets Life in Prison for Making Parts in IEDs Used Against U.S.

2018-11-08

[Freebeacon] A Syrian national extradited to the United States was sentenced to life in prison for making bomb components that were used in IED attacks against American soldiers fighting in Iraq.

Ahmed Alahmedalabdaloklah, aka Ahmad Ibrahim Al-Ahmad, 41, of Syria, was sentenced for several terrorism-related crimes including conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction and conspiring to destroy U.S. property with explosives, the U.S. Department of Justice announced late Wednesday night.

Alahmedalabaloklah supported an insurgent group in Iraq and supplied parts for remote controlled IEDs that were used in roadside bombs. The insurgent group, the 1920 Revolution Brigades, was tied to 230 attacks against American soldiers and property.

He designed and supplied the components to the Iraqi group between January 2005 and July 2010.

U.S. military personnel during a search and seizure weapons mission discovered a IED-switch making factory in Baghdad. U.S. soldiers seized numerous items used to detonate IEDs, and over a thousand of Alahmedalabaloklah's fingerprints and palm prints were discovered in that cache, according to the DOJ.

"Alahmedalabdaloklah sought to harm American soldiers by conspiring with others to construct and supply improvised explosive device (IED) parts for bombs that were used in Iraq. He will now serve the rest of his life in prison," said Assistant Attorney General John Demers. "The National Security Division will continue to bring to justice those who seek to harm American servicemen and women who bravely risk their lives in defense of our nation."

Alahmedalabdaloklah moved to China and continued to support the 1920 Revolution Brigades by providing components for IEDs. Alahmedalabdaloklah was detained in Turkey in May 2011 while traveling and extradited to the United States in August 2014.

"We owe a debt of gratitude to all American military personnel serving overseas. Protecting and ensuring justice for them is a priority that cannot be overstated," said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Strange. "Ahmed Alahmedalabdaloklah used his specialized engineering expertise to target our service members using IEDs, and his life sentence reflects the gravity of that choice. The U.S. attorney's office is deeply committed to prosecuting terrorist offenses, wherever they may occur."

Alahmedalabdaloklah who was found guilty by a federal jury on March 16 filed four post-trial motions including court dismissals and all were denied on Tuesday.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Syrian convicted of making bomb parts used in US troop attacks

2018-03-18

[Ynet] A Syrian man accused of making a key component in improvised bombs used in attacks against US soldiers during the Iraq War was convicted Friday on federal conspiracy charges.

That was fast — his trial only started in January, though he’s been in custody since the Turks sent him over in 2014.

Jurors deliberated over four days before delivering the verdict against Ahmed Alahmedalabdaloklah,

...he was arrested as Ahmad Ibrahim Al-Ahmad, but told the court the above is his real name. He also has been known as Ahmad Ebrahim, Ahmad Ibrahim, and Ahmed Hassan Farhan, though not in our archives. That part of his career that we care about started in 2005, when he made bombs for a gang of Saddam Hussein loyalists, carelessly leaving lots of fingerprints for the Americans to find. But before they did he’d fled with his family to China, where he set up a successful mail order business supplying key bomb components to customers in Iraq, Syria, Sudan, and Yemen. In 2011 he was arrested and jailed by the Turks, who did their bit to see that he never walks free again...

who is accused of making circuit boards used to remotely detonate roadside kabooms for the 1920 Revolution Brigades.

...a Sunni Iraqi nationalist group with a hefty sprinkling of Saddam Hussein loyalists, they fought viciously against the Americans until joining with them to attack Al Qaeda...

The group grabbed credit for 230 attacks against American soldiers in Iraq from 2005 to 2010, prosecutors have said in court papers.

Link

Iraq

Iraqi MP: "Our Neighboring... Mickey Mouse countries... Should Know That Iraq is a Superpower"

2010-01-15

Link fixed.
Excerpts from an interview with Iraqi MP Mithal Al-Alousi, which aired on Al-Fayhaa TV on December 12, 2009.

"If things are like that, and a certain country is waging a war against us, Iraqi intelligence should respond by the same token, in that very same contemptible capital where they sanction the killing of Iraqis.

"The Iraqi government should talk about Hareth Al-Dhari. How come nobody mentions the 1920 Revolution Brigades, or talks about Hareth Al-Dhari? How come Iraqi intelligence does not carry out preemptive operations, even if it involves stopping that criminal by any possible means, in order to protect our citizens?

"What can the policemen and soldiers out on the streets do? Today, most of the victims are soldiers and policemen, who absorb the first terrorist strike.

"We want to see preemptive operations, stemming from confidence in ourselves and in our state. The politicians and security chiefs should act, and take real preemptive measures. The defense of Baghdad cannot be achieved on the streets of Baghdad itself. Baghdad should be defended from advanced posts, and even in dance clubs, among criminals, and in places of worship..."

Interviewer: "As well as advanced posts in Damascus, in Tehran, and in Riyadh..."

Mithal Al-Alousi: "In Damascus, in Tehran, in the UAE, and everywhere -- even in Washington. We should conduct preemptive operations everywhere, in order to protect the Iraqis.
[...]

"In the work of intelligence agencies, preemptive operations are legitimate. I am not telling you to strike at the intelligence agency of some country. I am saying that you should attack the terrorists coming from there, or the recruiting and training centers, about which our government says it has information." [...]

"I would like to say something to our neighboring countries, and I mean what I say. Iraq has survived six years of terror attacks, car bombs, and bloodshed. By God, we can survive another 60 years of this war. But these Mickey Mouse countries -- even the large ones, which believe they are protected by the cloak of religion -- cannot survive even five terror attacks in their capitals. You will see how their regimes collapse.

"They should know that Iraq is a superpower that cannot be divided into Sunnis and Shiites, into Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen -- all that nonsense. The body of Iraq has taken many blows, while their bodies cannot tolerate even two or three strikes."

"We should use our bargaining chips, and eliminate any Iraqi -- let me repeat -- any Iraqi who plans, from a foreign country, the killing of Iraqis. Let that country get mad and complain to the UN Security Council. Let them do whatever they want. They need us, they need our economy, they need to export their goods to us. They need commercial relations with Iraq.

"I, Mithal Al-Alousi, am willing to give the order to kill a terrorist in Syria, Tehran, or any other city, if he so much as dreams of killing a single Iraqi citizen."

Link

Iraq

Iraqi Army and US not winning, Insurgents just choosing not to fight - NYT

2008-05-31

MOSUL, Iraq The recent successes in quieting violence in Basra and Sadr City appear to be stretching to the long-rebellious Sunni Arab district here in Mosul, raising hopes that the Iraqi Army may soon have tenuous control over all three of Iraqs major cities.

In this city, never subdued by the increase of American troops in Iraq last year, weekly figures on attacks are down by half since May 10, when the Iraqi military began intensified operations here with the backing of the American military. Iraqi soldiers searching house to house, within American tank cordons, have arrested more than 1,000 people suspected of insurgent activity.

The Iraqi soldiers are heady from the Basra experience, Brig. Gen. Raymond A. Thomas III, the commander of American forces in Mosul, said in an interview. They have learned the right lessons.

The crucial lesson, in fact, over the past month appears to be that all sides the Iraqi military as well as various insurgent groups prefer, at the moment, not to fight. Rather, as in Basra and Sadr City, the huge Shiite enclave in Baghdad, the Iraqi military appears to have allowed many insurgents to slip out of Mosul, after scores of negotiations with militias and their leaders.

This approach could make any gains temporary: The insurgents, here as elsewhere, are alive to fight another day. And little progress has been made on political reconciliation among rival sects and ethnic groups that could help reduce violence in the long term.

But the negotiations have allowed the military to expand both its area of control and the governments zone of sovereignty, burnishing the once-poor reputations of the Iraqi military and Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. While the American military was never far away it offered air support and additional firepower the operation here was largely led by Iraqis.

And that paid dividends here in Mosul. More than two dozen insurgent leaders who might not have surrendered to the Americans turned themselves in to the Iraqi generals.

Out in the dusty streets, for example, Gen. Nooraldeen Hussein, the commander of the Iraqi Eighth Brigade, hunted one insurgent leader until the day he sat down and had tea with the man. The insurgent, whom General Hussein identified as Muhammad Saffo, living in the Rashadia neighborhood, was suspected of killing five Iraqi soldiers with a roadside bomb.

At a meeting with his American advisers two weeks ago, the general said he arrested 14 members of Mr. Saffos tribe and killed three others, before Mr. Saffo came forward to negotiate along with six other tribal members.

I have all his numbers right here, General Hussein said, tapping his cellphone. He would call, he said, and negotiate the amnesty in the presence of a tribal sheik.

The American advisers glanced at one another, not quite sure what to make of this new twist to the American effort to tamp down the Sunni insurgents in the city.

If the Iraqis are comfortable, we are comfortable, too, General Thomas said of the negotiated surrenders of insurgent leaders sometimes described as members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown Sunni insurgent group that American officials say is led by foreigners.

As the decline in attacks in Mosul became clear in late May, Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador in Iraq, said, You are not going to hear me say that Al Qaeda is defeated, but theyve never been closer to defeat than they are now.

American and Iraqi officials have called Mosul the last urban bastion of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and other Sunni jihadist groups. The trash-strewn streets on Mosuls predominantly Sunni Arab western half, separated from the Kurdish and Christian neighborhoods by the Tigris River, had been in a state of more or less continuous uprising since 2004.

The recent operation was necessary after northern Iraq, an area about the size of Georgia, with seven provinces and bordering three countries, became what the American military called an economy of force region as troops were diverted to Baghdad during the surge. Conditions were dismal. By last fall, only 700 or so American soldiers were stationed in Mosul, the multiethnic fulcrum of the region. American commanders conceded that that was not enough.

The government in nearby Iraqi Kurdistan has sought to annex parts of Nineveh Province around Mosul. That tension has also driven some local Sunni Arabs to allow the insurgents to operate in the province. Insurgents in western Mosul, the Arab city across the Tigris River from the biblical town of Nineveh, took to hanging the bodies of their victims from a bridge to intimidate residents.

For the past several months, American and Iraqi forces have been slowly applying pressure on the city. The operation, named Lions Roar, began officially on May 10. In it, the Iraqis have relied on significant American military assistance, after similar and tentatively successful assaults in Basra and Sadr City.

American tanks have formed cordons while Iraqi soldiers have searched house to house. Forts built and operated by Americans in western Mosul also greatly helped to stem the car bombings that had plagued this city. The Iraqis, though, drew up the arrest lists and conducted the parleys. To soothe ethnic tensions, a Sunni Arab general oversaw the operation.

In all, 83 percent of the military actions had a majority of Iraqi troops participating.

American military statistics show that significant acts of violence, including roadside bombings, sniper shootings, and mortar and rocket grenade attacks, fell from 195 in the week before the operation to 93 in the week after it, according to Lt. Col. Eric R. Price, the chief American adviser to General Hussein.

While Iraqi and American politicians lump the Sunni insurgency under the Al Qaeda banner, the military operation here relied instead on accurately identifying the many fractured groups of Sunni insurgents, and in some cases opening talks with those considered reconcilable.

Owing to the splintered nature of the Sunni insurgency, rather than a single truce as in Basra and Sadr City, amnesties were negotiated with neighborhood insurgent bosses. By Monday, 27 insurgents had surrendered, according to the American military. Organizers of suicide bombings were not eligible for amnesty.

Maj. Adam Boyd, the intelligence officer for the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, described the Sunni insurgency here as a dozen groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq, a radical Islamic group that insurgents have put forward as an umbrella group for jihadist fighters in northern Iraq, and Sunni nationalist organizations like the 1920 Revolution Brigades and a Baath Party revival group called Al Awda.

Mosul, and the area around it, is also believed to be a hideout for some top fugitive Baath Party officials, including Izat Ibrahim al-Duri, one of the kings in the original most-wanted deck of playing cards distributed to American troops.

Other Sunni insurgent groups active in the city are the Army of Islam, the Army of Muhammad and Ansar al-Islam, the group formerly based in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Still, it is unclear how many remain active in the city.

In the Abi Tamam neighborhood on a blistering midmorning in May, Lt. Rusty Morris parked his convoy of armored Humvees beside a reeking field of garbage to begin a mission to show the American presence and speak with residents. Some cows picked around the piles of refuse, while children ran up to the trucks. Two helicopters buzzed overhead.

Lieutenant Morris sidled up to one resident, who introduced himself as Muhammad Ahmed. The man was standing in an alley. Looking bewildered and nodding obsequiously to the American lieutenant, Mr. Ahmed said nervously that he knew of no insurgents still operating in the neighborhood. He explained that he had three wives and six children, and no time to watch for insurgents.

Lieutenant Morris thanked him and moved on, walking past a wall with blue graffiti praising a leader of the Islamic State of Iraq.

Link

Iraq

Baghdad Bob aka Comical Ali, is he back?

2008-04-21

In a performance worthy of former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Al-Sahhaf, also known as "Comical Ali," a spokesman for one of the remaining Sunni insurgency groups in Iraq told Al Jazeera last month that 44,000 U.S. troops had been killed in that country.

That is about 11 times the actual number of U.S. casualties in Iraq, which hit 4,000 near the end of March, according to the Associated Press.

Ibrahim Al-Shammari, spokesman for the Islamic Army of Iraq, told Al Jazeera that the discrepancy between the 4,000 casualties reported by Western news agencies and the 44,000 claimed by his group was caused by the U.S. not counting the deaths of soldiers "who have Green Cards."

"Dr. Al-Shammari, what does it mean to you that 4,000 U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq?" a moderator on Al Jazeera asked Al- Shammari during a March 24 broadcast translated by the BBC.

"This figure means a lot to us because it is the first time the number of U.S. deaths amounts to 4,000. This means a lot to the American people," said Al-Shammari. "The figure we have is 4,000 plus 40,000, and not 4,000 as they claim. This shows the deep trouble the U.S. Administration engaged-"

At this point, according to the BBC translation, the moderator interrupted Al-Shammari. "Excuse me, the figure you have is 44,000?" the moderator asked.

"The Americans do not count those who have Green Cards," explained Al-Shammari. "The Americans do not count those who die in explosions on a daily basis. The Americans do not count deaths among the logistic support teams and other Green Card holders, as I said," he added.

"They only count holders of U.S. nationality. Our people in the Islamic Army had found earlier some of the mass graves for U.S. soldiers in Al-Iskandariyah area, Al-Habbaniyah, and elsewhere; and there are recorded videos of these," he said.

"Do you have an accurate calculation and a clear follow-up on this issue that allows you to announce the figure 44,000?" asked the moderator.

"Yes, we in the military office have precise statistics that are highly professional in calculating the daily losses and casualties of the enemy," said Al-Shammari.

The Islamic Army of Iraq is one of the leading remaining Sunni insurgency groups operating in Iraq. In a Congressional Research Service report on Iraq published in December, analyst Kenneth Katzman noted that there are numerous Sunni insurgents factions that have "no unified leadership."

"Some groups led by ex-Saddam regime leaders, others by Islamic extremists," he wrote. "Major Iraqi factions include Islamic Army of Iraq, New Baath Party, Muhammad's Army, and the 1920 Revolution Brigades."

Link

Iraq

Iraq: Guerilla groups unite to combat al-Qaeda

2007-12-11

(AKI) - Guerilla groups present in the volatile Diyala province in northern Iraq have decided to unite and combat al-Qaeda militants together, said Rostum Muhammad al-Sulukhi, the leader of a new alliance of these guerilla groups in an interview with the Arabic language Al-Hayat newspaper.

The new alliance, known as the "Direction of Revenge Operations", will have as its aim to better coordinate the activities of Sunni militants that make up the 1920 Revolution Brigades of the Iraqi Hamas and the militias of the Shamr, Hamira, Zahirat, al-Baghada and al-Karikha tribes. "We have chosen this name because we want to stop the overreaction and exaggerations of some members. Leaders will change every three months, allowing all guerilla leaders to actively participate in the fight against al-Qaeda," said al-Sulukhi.

In the past week, 61 people have been killed and 90 have been wounded in a spat of bombings and shooting attacks, such as the one last Friday in Diyala where a woman carried out a suicide attack killing 15 people.

Link

Iraq

Excuse of the Day- Iraqi insurgents regrouping, claims Sunni terrorist leader

2007-12-03

Iraq's main Sunni-led resistance groups have scaled back their attacks on US forces in Baghdad and parts of Anbar province in a deliberate strategy aimed at regrouping, retraining, and waiting out George Bush's "surge", a key insurgent leader has told the Guardian.

US officials recently reported a 55% drop in attacks across Iraq. One explanation they give is the presence of 30,000 extra US troops deployed this summer. The other is the decision by dozens of Sunni tribal leaders to accept money and weapons from the Americans in return for confronting al-Qaida Muzzy terrorists who murder civilians. They call their movement al-Sahwa (the Awakening).

The resistance groups are another factor in the complex equation in Iraq's Sunni areas. "We oppose al-Qaida as well as al-Sahwa," the director of the political department of the 1920 Revolution Brigades told the Guardian in Damascus in a rare interview with a western reporter. He predicted it was unlikely to last for more than a few months. It was a "temporary deal" with the US and would split apart as people realised the Americans' true intentions.

Page 2, Goofy continues:

Operating in small cells, Sunni resistance groups have been responsible for most of the roadside bomb attacks on US vehicles in western Iraq. While they are starting to unite at the political level, their suspicion of Iraq's Shia militias shows no sign of abating. "We helped [Shia cleric] Moqtada al-Sadr in 2004 when the Americans attacked Najaf, but see no point in dialogue with him now," Omary said.

Although Sadr presented himself as a nationalist and was unusual among Shia politicians in calling for an early end to the US occupation, Omary added: "He's still supporting this sectarian government in Baghdad. When his militias attack the United States they do it for their own political reasons and not to liberate Iraq".

Sadr's militia, the Jaish al-Mahdi, had killed too many innocent Sunni civilians, he went on.

Sadr's supporters often claim he is not in control of most of the militants who have abducted and murdered Sunni civilians in the spate of tit-for-tat sectarian violence provoked by the bombing of the golden-domed shrine in Samarra last year. The shrine is particularly sacred to Shias.

"He never says they are not under his control, so we have to assume they are, said Omary. "He should denounce them. Every Sunni family in Baghdad has had someone killed by Jaish al-Mahdi. They have destroyed around 300 mosques in Baghdad. If you want us to negotiate with al-Sadr, you have to ask us to negotiate with al-Qaida. We consider al-Qaida is closer to us than Jaish al-Mahdi."

Link

Iraq

Declare victory and get out

2007-11-29

By MARTIN SCHRAM
Scripps Howard News Service
The Democratic presidential pack is desperate. Five senators, a governor and a representative are seeking one surefire way to capture hearts, minds and votes whenever they are asked what should be done about Iraq now that post-surge statistics show violence there has at least temporarily declined.

First instance of the blinders: Violence has declined, but because it's happened on Bush's watch it must be a temporary thing. It's entirely possible that we're currently in the lull between storms, but it's just as possible we're over the hump, which would call for a different assessment. The Iraqi army at the time of the First Gulf War was good mainly for oppressing the populace, but it was very good at that. The new Iraqi army hasn't been used to oppress the populace, being reserved instead for use against actual military (quasimilitary, at least) enemies. They are getting better at that as time goes on, with the combination of training, practice, and self-confidence that we're been giving them. Of those, the self-confidence is at least as important as the training and the practice. When we withdraw, they will be demonstrably the best military force in the Muddle East, certainly capable of dealing with Baathists revanchists.

Their quandary is based on a false perception that many think and no one speaks: The misguided notion that good news for the U.S. military is bad news for Democratic presidential prospects.

They've been working to make themselves that way since 1972, haven't they? Lemme see, here: George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and now the current crop of fluffheads. Have I missed anybody?

Wrong. One senator proposed the perfect solution -- and if an Iraq solution is the standard for choosing a standard-bearer, then the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee ought to be Sen. George Aiken of Vermont. There are, of course, two hitches: Aiken's lifelong membership in the Republican Party, and the fact that Aiken's long life ended in 1984, at the age of 92.

I vaguely remember Aiken's existence...

But the Iraq War application of Aiken's famous prescription for ending with honor the Vietnam War remains even more fitting today than it was in the 1960s: Declare victory and get out.

Oh, boy! We're going to play semantic games!

Aiken was not your typical anti-war liberal dove. He had supported the war initially and the bombing of North Vietnam. But he knew quagmire when he saw it. And so he sought a solution that would please hawks that wanted a victory, and doves, which wanted the war ended.

This is what I think of as the "transfusion fallacy." Let's assume you've been hit by a bus. You have massive internal bleeding. Trained medical professionals arrive on the scene. They try to start an IV to replace all those fluids that are seeping into your abdominal cavity or the gutter, depending. But they can't find a good vein. Maybe you're in shock. Obviously all they have to do at this point is declare you transfused, right? Or do you require the actual thing, rather than its description? (I think the answer might vary according to which political party you favor.)

There never was a U.S. victory moment in Vietnam, but we are there now in Iraq. The war President Bush started has been won. Saddam Hussein -- an evil despot who killed many thousands of his fellow Iraqis -- has been toppled, captured, convicted and executed.

Bush announced "mission accomplished" shortly after Sammy was toppled, and about six months before he was captured. The Baath regime at that point had in fact been kicked out and rendered incapable of returning. The war from that point forward was against Zarqawi in alliance with the Association of Muslim Scholars and the Baath revanchists. Neither Zarq nor the Muslim Scholars would have allowed to Baathists to recapture power. They were just too stoopid to realize that.

What happened since then was that Bush committed the same error that Republicans rightly blasted President Bill Clinton for committing in the comparatively minor military mission in Somalia: A never-announced mission creep.

The mission was to fight al-Qaeda. That wasn't "mission creep." It wasn't a static setup. Only an idiot would have assumed that Qaeda and/or Iran wouldn't try to snatch the Iraqi bone from the American jaws. What was a surprise was how effective a commander Zark was. He was an effective commander because of his experience operating al-Tawhid and Ansar al-Islam, not to mention the training camps in Afghanistan. That, and the fact that being nuts he was hard to predict.

U.S. forces were allowed to be sucked into the vortex of a bloody three-way Iraqi civil war pitting Sunni, Shia and Kurdish forces against each other. Indeed, it has been at least a six-sided civil war, as Iraq's factions within factions and outsiders from al Qaeda and Iran have slipped into Iraq.

That's the war we've been fighting since May, 2003. It's the war we're now winning, by the way, thanks to Dave Petraeus, his staff, his commmanders, and the men and women they lead. The Kurds have from the start been reliable allies, who've been supporting the new government. The Shiite split is mostly between Tater and SCIIRI, and we've pretty deftly turned SCIIRI's Badr Brigades from a threat to an asset, while we're beaten Tater to within in an inch and a half of killing him at least twice that I can recall off the top of my head -- and it's my opinion we should kill him, if only for the al-Khoei incident. The kaleidoscope of Sunni insurgent organizations ran the gamut from gangsters to Baath revanchists to beturbanned nutcases, and it's always been my contention that the war against them had to be intelligence driven -- not only to kill the worst of them, but to induce the kinds of splitting and side-changing we see going on right now.

Muslims are killing Muslims -- and the U.S. military has been allowed to become trapped in the middle, being killed and wounded by all factions and fringes.

According to the Association of Muslim Scholars, it's the poor, defenseless Iraqis who're trapped under the brutal occupation. Our main target has always been AQI and its allies and fronts -- Ansar al-Islam and the two branches of Ansar as-Sunna, and now the Islamic State in Iraq. But when they're setting up IEDs and such, you can't really ask which organization they belong to and they refuse to wear uniforms or even the same color turban. The sorting has to be done at the top level, which is why the 1920 Revolution Brigades and a couple or three others are now on our side -- and if they decide to go back on the other side again, we've got some real good intelligence to chase them down, just from having been in close proximity to them for this long.

American men and women on their second and third tours in Iraq have been at war longer than their grandfathers were in World War II.

Whoopty doo. The poor WWII troops were there much longer than were their WWI parents. A better comparison would be with the Indian Wars, that took the better part of the 19th century.

But now, U.S. military figures show that the civil-warfare in Iraq has become, at least statistically, a bit more civil.

So now's the time to throw it all away? Is it just me, or does that statement make no sense whatsoever?

So Iraq's politicians have no excuse to continue refusing to make political peace. But they do need a push.

Iraq's politicians have been working on making political peace for quite some time now. Part of the problem has been that the insurgency has been reflected within the body politic as well. They've only lately become strong enough to shut down the Association of Muslim Scholars, and they're still not strong enough to have al-Dulaimi killed. Tater, transparently controlled from Terrorhan, has been a part of the government. The Sunnis, recall, refused to take part, for the most part, preferring to kill and maim their fellow Muslims, which gave rise to the Shiite death squads in retaliation. It takes time and the appropriate tools -- a can of motor oil, a hot iron, and a pair of large tweezers -- to sort out a can of worms. If you only have the motor oil and half the tweezers when you start, you're really making things worse before you make them better -- and once you get the hot iron things go a lot faster.

That should be the Democrats' new master plan.

Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

Start by celebrating the fact that the U.S. troops won their war.

The current war isn't quite won yet.

This is the perfect time for Democrats to demonstrate the extinction of their three decades of reflexive dovish imagery.

Right. By pulling the troops out before the job's done. It's really about what we expect from them.

Fly with the hawks by celebrating U.S. military victories. Out-hawk the hawks by vowing to accomplish what Bush failed to do -- vanquish al Qaeda.

Bush has been working pretty hard and with quite a bit of success on vanquishing al-Qaeda wherever it raises its pointy little beturbanned head. 50 years from now he'll get the credit he deserves, but I'll be long dead by then so I won't be around to say I told you so.

There's been a continuous stream of Soddies, Yemenis, Syrians, Egyptians, and others tromping into the Iraqi killing fields to be... ummm... killed. You might almost describe them as the flower of their generation, since they're the ones with education and money for the most part, leaving the dullards and the broke back home as a cheering section.

While that's been going on, Jemaah Islamiyah has been rolled up in Indonesia, thanks to U.S. and Australian intel and the rise of people with a bit of sense to Indonesia's executive. The Philippines has seen the virtual demise of Abu Sayyaf and the extinction of the Pentagon Gang -- anybody remember them?

The Islamic Courts showed up in Somalia last July and they were on the run by December. Somalia, for the first time since Siad Barre, has a government in Mogadishu, albeit one that's shakey and often frightening to look at.

In Algeria, where GIA and GSPC were wreaking havoc in 2002, the Algerian army is in control, GIA's extinct, and GSPC's been forced to consolidate with other North African hard boyz into an out-and-out al-Qaeda franchise. In 2002 the Algerian army was still chasing them on foot. Now they've got vehicles, helicopters, and night vision goggles. Wonder where those came from?

In Afghanistan the Taliban, despite daily claims that they're winning, are being slaughtered in droves, upward of 40 at a time. Only in the heart of Qaeda country, the NWFP, where we can't send troops and where the government won't cooperate, is al-Qaeda still strong. And the Bush involvement with the government of Pakistain has been intense, if you've been watching. Benazir's there as a result of U.S. pressure, and I'm guessing Nawaz is back as a result of a U.S. (or Soddy) afterthought.

Bush's shortcoming is that he's not publicizing all this -- the public should be jumping up and down, cheering and throwing rose petals. Instead, most people don't know about it. And people working for some newspaper chains are actively trying to hide it from them.

Also, defeat for a second time the Afghanistan Taliban that, because of a Bush Team attention deficit disorder, was allowed to regain what they had lost.

Sigh. The Taliban "resurgence" is a result of Pakistain thinking they can control them, rather than some shortcoming on Bush's part. The main Taliban effort is in North and South Wazoo, not in Afghanistan -- at least at this moment. The commander to watch isn't Mullah Omar, but Baitullah Mehsud. But I'm sure you, Martin Schram, knew all that, right?

Now is the time for Democrats to demonstrate that theirs is the party of 21st-century smart power, the combination of military and diplomatic power and vision.

The Dems have made themselves the party that espouses more European-style solutions. Europe has been handling Iran for... how long? And France has taken the lead with Lebanon. All we do is supply a bit of military hardware and an occasional unobtrusive word of encouragement. Neither is what you could call a singular success, though the Syrians are at least out of Leb.

Failure to seize the initiative now could cause Democrats to be forever outside the gates at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., looking in on Inauguration Day. Now is the time for Democrats to declare "Mission Accomplished!" And show that they are ready to move vigorously to accomplish the next stage by sending Iraqi politicians the only signal they will understand -- by getting out.

They're not ignorant brutes who know only the language of a kick to the head, y'know? Though I guess the Dems could be the ignorant brutes in this case, capable of communicating with another political process only by snarling and betrayal, kind of like Hamas without the facemasks.

And also by declaring their party's determination to defeat the enemy that attacked us on 9/11 and has been allowed to survive and recoup, recruit anew and threaten us again.

How're you going to defeat them if you refuse to fight them? Batter them into submission with "soft power"? Send them a strongly worded memo? The enemy in Iraq is al-Qaeda in Iraq. If you're too dense to understand that, you're too dense to write on the subject. Try sports writing or theater criticism or write restaurant reviews.

Democrats can rally around any of several commonsense withdrawal plans. One of the first was proposed two years ago by former Reagan assistant defense secretary Lawrence Korb, now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress: Withdraw most troops through a strategic redeployment, but keep some troops in the region with a mission of preventing al Qaeda from establishing a new sanctuary there.

They've already got sanctuaries there, fer Gawdsake. What do you think Fallujah was? And Ramadi? What do you think we've been doing all this time? The foxtrot?

Democrats can take their guidance from yet another bit of wisdom from Aiken, who said in 1966: "I'm not very keen for doves or hawks. I think we need more owls."

I think we need more bustards. But both statements are well beside the point.

(Martin Schram writes political analysis for Scripps Howard News Service. E-mail him at martin.schram(at)gmail.com.)

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