THE US, THE UN AND IRAQ, ELEVENTH THREAD

An interview with Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki

FADEL: Talk to us about the relationship between the U.S. and the Iraqi government right now. What will their role be in Iraq in the next year?

MALIKI: My opinion was included in the statements made by the "Quintuple" agreement. It is our wish to have a long-term agreement with the United States government that includes political, economic, security and cultural common interests. This should include U.S. support for Iraq to be relieved of Item 7 of the UN resolution and that Iraq, should be reinstated in its previous position, before 1990 and resolution 661.

FADEL: So do you believe it is helpful or harmful for the U.S. to remain as they work with some Sunni groups, that you criticized?

MALIKI: Everything is ruled by necessity. Now there is a need for them to stay on. When the security situation becomes stable the need will no longer be there. And this was included in Resolution 1723 1546 of the U.N. Security Council. We are moving within a legal cover from the United Nations that also gives us the right to dispense with their presence.

But, the security situation will never become 'stable' enough for us to leave.

Never? How do you know that? You are implying that the Iraqi people are a bunch of savages incapable of evolving their society to a rational civilized one.

And if we did, the terrorists would roll right back in. They don't have a timeline...

You are implying that the Iraqi people are a bunch of incompetents incapable of learning how to defend themselves from terrorists.

We've discussed this problem before: we can't arm Iraq to the point where they can defend themselves, and we can't stay in perpetuity to defend them.

Sure we can arm Iraq to the point where they can defend themselves. Sure we can stay in Iraq the finite amount of time I bet they will need to become able to defend themselves.

I expect you will ask how do I know that? Absent evidence to the contrary, I am willing to try for at least the 7 or more years we occupied Japan and Germany, after winning our WWII wars with them, to help the Iraqis evolve to a rational civilized society. Yes, I too expect the Iraqis will need more than 7 years of occupation, because the magnitude of their terrorist problem is far greater than anything the allies had to cope with in their occupations of Japan and Germany. So far we've occupied Iraq less than 5 years since we won our war in Iraq in March 2003 by removing its Saddam government. Let's at least be patient until March 2010 before deciding whether to continue to try to help the Iraqi people or leave.

Besides all that, we must succeed in Iraq in the interest of preserving our own security.

Cycloptichorn

ican's myopia sees only one thing: our continued support for our military staying in Iraq until we "succeed." The problem with that goal is there is no time-line or any potential for their government to become viable/operational. Why continue to sacrifice our men and women and our treasure for a goal that's impossible to delineate? We can use less dead and injured soldiers, and use the treasure at home to fix our infrastructure, schools, and medical care. Our priorities are all screwed up by being involved in Iraq! In less than half a year, we'll be involved in this Iraq war for six years - and counting. We're destroying our own country trying to meet Bush's (ican's) impossible goal.

ican, You probably haven't realized it yet, but Bush's tactic is always "we're making progress" and "we must support our troops."

Of course I realize this! But what Bush says is irrelevant to how long our occupation of Iraq actually lasts. What is relevant is that we must succeed in Iraq whether or not we are currently succeeding in Iraq.

Those statements are meant to prolong this war by at least 2 - 10 years - not one.

el Sadr is smart enough to wait for the "coalition forces" to wind down before reactivating the malitia. Why expose his men when the US has max troops in Iraq?

BAGHDAD (AP) ?- Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered a six-month suspension of activities by his Mahdi Army militia in order to reorganize the force, an aide said Wednesday.

The aide, Sheik Hazim al-Araji, said on Iraqi state television that the goal was to "rehabilitate" the organization, which has reportedly broken into factions, some of which the U.S. maintains are trained and supplied by Iran.

"We declare the freezing of the Mahdi Army without exception in order to rehabilitate it in a way that will safeguard its ideological image within a maximum period of six months starting from the day this statement is issued," al-Araji said, reading from a statement by al-Sadr.

The order was issued after two days of bloody clashes in the Shiite holy city of Karbala that claimed at least 52 lives. Iraqi security officials blamed Mahdi militiamen for attacking mosque guards, some of whom are linked to the rival Badr Brigade militia.

A spokesman for al-Sadr, Ahmed al-Shaibani, denied the Mahdi Army was involved in the Karbala fighting. Al-Sadr called for an independent inquiry into the clashes and urged his supporters to cooperate with the authorities "to calm the situation down," al-Shaibani said.

Tensions have been rising in southern Iraq as rival Shiite groups maneuver for power, especially in the oil-rich area around Basra, Iraq's second-largest city.

Al-Sadr organized the Mahdi Army shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Since then the Mahdi Army has become the most active and feared armed Shiite group, blamed by the U.S. for driving thousands of Sunnis from their homes in retaliation for Sunni extremist attacks on Shiite civilians.

The Mahdi Army launched two major uprisings against U.S. and coalition forces in 2004. Since then, the Americans have differentiated between the mainstream Sadrist organization and what they term "rogue" elements within the force that have staged numerous deadly attacks against U.S. forces in Baghdad and elsewhere.

Authorities in Karbala locked down access to the city of Karbala on Wednesday after the fierce clashes between the rival Shiite militias that forced an end to a massive religious festival.

Security was heightened in other Shiite areas to prevent clashes from spreading.

Following two days of clashes, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, rushed to Karbala to meet with local officials trying to restore order and move the hordes of pilgrims who had descended on the city for the festival.

The Karbala office of al-Maliki's Dawa Party was firebombed during the melee.

Sporadic gunbattles raged Wednesday near two shrines protected by the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, although violence was tapering off.

Clashes began late Monday but escalated dramatically the following day when gunmen believed from the Mahdi Army began firing on security forces and the Badr guards, according to security officials.

A pro-Sadr member of the Karbala city council, Ahmed al-Husseini, blamed the violence on pro-Iranian groups among security forces that guard the Karbala shrines.

The fighting forced authorities to cut short the annual Shabaniya festival, which drew an estimated 1 million people from across the Shiite world.

Despite an order to clear the city center, an Al-Arabiya television correspondent on the scene reported there remained an "intensive deployment" of Mahdi Army men, waving guns in the air.

A Sadrist member of the Karbala Provincial Council, Hamed Kanoush, was detained by Iraqi security forces and members of al-Sadr's movement threatened to attack the governor's office if he was not released, according to another councilman, speaking on condition of anonymity out of security concerns.

At least 52 people were killed and 300 others injured, according to the director general of the health department in nearby Najaf who spoke on condition of anonymity. Sixty wounded people were brought to a hospital in Najaf, 45 miles southeast of Karbala, because the Karbala hospitals couldn't handle the volume of wounded, he said.

A city council member in Karbala, however, reported 38 dead and 231 injured in the fighting.

The Defense Ministry said al-Maliki had ordered the dismissal of the top army commander in the area ?- Maj. Gen. Salih Khazaal al-Maliki ?- and an investigation into his conduct.

Al-Maliki's office said security forces had sealed the city off, allowing only residents to enter, in another effort to restore order.

The clashes appeared to be part of a power struggle among Shiite groups in the sect's southern Iraqi heartland, which includes the bulk of the country's vast oil wealth.

Gunfights also broke out Tuesday between Mahdi militiamen and followers of the Supreme Council in at least two Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad and in Kut, about 100 miles southeast of the capital, police said.

On Wednesday authorities imposed a curfew on the Shiite city of Hilla. Security forces also sealed off several Shiite areas of Baghdad.

Elsewhere, an American soldier died Wednesday from wounds suffered the day before in fighting near the northern city of Kirkuk, the U.S. military announced.

The trouble started in Karbala late Monday as tens of thousands of Shiites were streaming into the city for Shabaniyah, marking the birth of Mohammed al-Mahdi, the 12th Shiite imam who disappeared in the 9th century. Devout Shiites believe he will return to Earth to restore peace and harmony.

Scuffles broke out between police and pilgrims as the crowd tried to push through the security checkpoints near the Imam al-Hussein mosque, the focal point of the celebrations. At least five people were killed, police said.

Early Tuesday, crowds of angry pilgrims chanting religious slogans surged through the streets, attacking police and mosque guards, witnesses said. Two ambulances were set ablaze, sending a huge column of black smoke over the city.

Gunmen appeared, firing automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars at security forces and sending panicked pilgrims fleeing the area, police and witnesses said.

Some rounds struck fuel tanks on the roofs of three small hotels, setting them ablaze, police said.

With the situation spiraling out of control, police ordered pilgrims out of the center of the city, effectively canceling the celebrations which were to reach their climax Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said U.S. and Iraqi special forces had captured a suspected commander of a rogue element of the Mahdi Army that targets Iraqi citizens for kidnappings and killings.

The man, whose name was not released, was picked up on Monday in Baghdad and is also suspected of attacks targeting Iraqi and U.S. forces, the military said in a statement.

Elsewhere, U.S. forces killed two terrorist suspects and detained 22 others in several raids around the country. The two were killed in an area south of Baghdad in an operation targeting al-Qaida in Iraq leaders.

___

No military commander will stand his troops down when they are winning,nor will he "suspend activities".
That only allows the enemy time to regroup and rearm.

White House says benchmarks set too high. Like the benchmark for being president of the US is "too high." ROFL


Pentagon disputes parts of Iraq report By MATTHEW LEE and ROBERT BURNS, Associated Press Writers
16 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - Stung by the bleak findings of a congressional audit of progress in Iraq, the Pentagon has asked that some of the negative assessments be revised, a military spokesman said Thursday.


Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said that after reviewing a draft of the Government Accountability Office report ?- which has not yet been made public ?- policy officials "made some factual corrections" and "offered some suggestions on a few of the actual grades" assigned by the GAO.

The Associated Press has learned that the GAO report will conclude that at least 13 of the 18 benchmarks set to judge the Iraqi government's performance in the political and security arenas haven't been met.

"We have provided the GAO with information which we believe will lead them to conclude that a few of the benchmark grades should be upgraded from `not met' to `met,'" Morrell said. He declined to elaborate or to spell out which of the benchmark grades the Pentagon was disputing.

At the White House, officials argued that the GAO report, which was required by legislation President Bush signed last spring, was unrealistic because it assigned "pass or fail" grades to each benchmark, rather than assessing whether the Iraqis have made progress toward reaching the benchmark goals.

"A bar was set so high, that it was almost not to be able to be met," White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said. "On the other hand, one of the things it does not take into account, which is not on the benchmark list, is the cooperation of the Sunni tribes, who have decided to fight back against al-Qaida."

The administration said it agreed that Iraq had not reached the objectives.

This is very old news. The current dope is that the Sunni tribes and their leadership are cooperating with the Americans to get rid of al Qaeda.

...

Iraqi's know that if AQ drops anchor there then we will never leave..and if we don't leave AQ will keep surging in. That's one thing that will motivate the Iraqi's to fight for true independence.

If there is an address, an exact location for the rift tearing Pakistan apart, and possibly the world, it is a spot 17 miles (28 kilometers) west of Islamabad called the Margalla Pass. Here, at a limestone cliff in the middle of Pakistan, the mountainous west meets the Indus River Valley, and two ancient, and very different, civilizations collide. To the southeast, unfurled to the horizon, lie the fertile lowlands of the Indian subcontinent, realm of peasant farmers on steamy plots of land, bright with colors and the splash of serendipitous gods. To the west and north stretch the harsh, windswept mountains of Central Asia, land of herders and raiders on horseback, where man fears one God and takes no prisoners.

This is also where two conflicting forms of Islam meet: the relatively relaxed and tolerant Islam of India, versus the rigid fundamentalism of the Afghan frontier. Beneath the surface of Pakistan, these opposing forces grind against each other like two vast geologic plates, rattling teacups from Lahore to London, Karachi to New York. The clash between moderates and extremists in Pakistan today reflects this rift, and can be seen as a microcosm for a larger struggle among Muslims everywhere. So when the earth trembles in Pakistan, the world pays attention.