Anti-US cleric rallies recruits for Islamic army

Stirrings of discontent grow in Shia south as fiery young leader claims force of 10,000

Jonathan Steele in Najaf
Thursday July 31, 2003
The Guardian

Around 10,000 young men have come forward to join an "Islamic army" in the holy city of Najaf, according to Muqtada al-Sadr, the fiery cleric who is trying to become the unchallengeable leader of Shia opposition.

Here is the rest of the story:
www.guardian.co.uk...

Seems like the trouble is just begining for US troops.

I saw something similar about that a while ago. Lets hope they dont do anything 'drastic'.

Originally posted by Langolier
I saw something similar about that a while ago. Lets hope they dont do anything 'drastic'.

With all the anti-US sentiment over there I would expect they would do anything to get the US out of there.

Yeah, they might. If they do, then we may have effectively lost Iraq. Its one thing to win the conflict, you have to win the peace afterwards too.

Originally posted by Langolier
Yeah, they might. If they do, then we may have effectively lost Iraq. Its one thing to win the conflict, you have to win the peace afterwards too.

Win the peace. Thats a lot harder than it sounds. I mean we have soldiers being killed over there almost every day. Falling prey to guerilla type tactics and urban warfare. How many more have to die before the people realize that we had no business being there in the first place.

Well, that COULD be. However it doesnt matter now. Having removed the governing body there, we have an obligation to restore a working government.

I've just finished reading that article in todays paper, i was about to post it up, and someone beat me to it.

Iraq is looking more of a mess everyday, once the International forces arrive the violence might calm down, there are thousands of troops headed for Iraq, and none of them are American.

Yeah, the 'international troops' are there already. No matter, they will be hunted down and obliterated. Where were those same 'international troops' when the Iraqis were under the horror of Saddam Hussein? This BS will never end. You really think things are going to calm down if we leave? Civil war anybody? How long do you think it will take the Iraqis to restart their economy and rebuild their water and power plants? I want things to go smoothly in Iraq because I dont want my country embarressed any more than it has to be. Also, the Iraqi people are going to be in bad situation if we just pick up and leave. We have to commit to Iraq. We have to stay as long as it takes to bring things under control.


[Edited on 31-7-2003 by Langolier]

Hey Langolier look out there's a leftist behind you!! How dare you defend the fact that we are fulfilling our duties as a conquering power. Shame on you!
Repeat after me:
George Bush sucks.
America is in fact the great satan.
America only went to Iraq to steal the oil.
There are no terrorists, only freedom fighters.
We should pull our troops out immediately and Iraq will be a nice stable democratic country in minutes if not seconds.


There, don't you feel cleansed?

...end of painfully sarcastic post...

I agree with part of ocelot's post. While I can't say I feel we had no business being there in the first place, maybe he's right and we have no business still being there. Right now as the US is assisting in the creation of a new government, they're being shot at... so give them what they want! Leave! Leave them in anarchy. In 10 years, after they blow each other up, and burn out all their buildings while left to their own devices, the US will be called in to help the destitute Iraqis anyways.

Text ?win the peace...aid in creating a humanitarian govt...?

perhaps to a certain degree, the US gots to score points
for the Agenda to work!

a lot of trickery, diplomatic chicanery, manipulations &
dealings-under-the-table, going on !!

the US has what it wants, a troop presence in Arab's
lands. And whatever him-haws delay any US withdrawl-

is being orchestrated & welcomed!!

There doesn't seem to be actual attacks in the home-
land, now that our troops are occupying their homeland.

could some black-ops be coaxing Muqtada al-Sadr??


~~~~?~~~~~~~~??~~~~~~~?~~~etc

enjoy your journey

lol Fry! lol

Better an organized 'army' -if it even comes about - then a bunch of whackos running around with RPG's, imho. The US is excellent at taking out organized things. But, I doubt this will happen, but if it does, will the Sunni's then rally behind the US? I think the sooner the US does something about Iran, not military per se, the sooner these Shias will stop being a problem. A few more of these student rallies and you never know what can happen in Iran. (not to get political - but this would be an excellent time for the so-called peace protesters to rally behind the Iranians students, but we know that won't happen)

[Edited on 1-8-2003 by Bob88]

Man I'm tired of all this Iraq War U.S. against muslim countries bull#. Bush needs to bring all our troops home and focus on fixing ourselves and getting his ass out of office.....

Originally posted by Ocelot
Stirrings of discontent grow in Shia south as fiery young leader claims force of 10,000

Jonathan Steele in Najaf
Thursday July 31, 2003
The Guardian

Around 10,000 young men have come forward to join an "Islamic army" in the holy city of Najaf, according to Muqtada al-Sadr, the fiery cleric who is trying to become the unchallengeable leader of Shia opposition.

Here is the rest of the story:
www.guardian.co.uk...

======================================

I am amazed this seems to be such a fascinating subject. A year ago I thought it was interestring. When Rummy was proclaiming that all Iraqi's would greet us with open arms and flowers. That was the first lack of intelligece!
You couldn't see this coming? C'mon guy's, your joking right. This was obvious, we now have to fight our way out. Hopefully we will find and kill Sadam first so we can save a little face!
Why do think Rummy looks a hundred years old. He knows he was fooled from the get go.
Yea, it took 250,000 troops to kill 2- 30 year old pschycos,
and the old man is next.
Crap, Pinkerton did better with 50 men chasing Cassidy and Sundance.

Iraq as a state is destined for civil war, it is three countries merged into one because it suited the UK at the time.

I remember when we arrived in Baghdad and the celebrations started (toppling of statue etc) i said to people at the time, this is when the real war begins, for a couple of weeks i looked wrong, but now i have been proved right.

Hasn't anyone studdied the history of Iraq in the slightest, why do you think Saddam ruled with an iron fist?

True. It would have been so much better if the US could have divided the country up. None of this would need to happen if the Kurds, Shia, and Muslims could have thier own individual countries. The colonial era has caused so many problems.

Next Tuesday's news...

CNN-Najaf,Iraq: "Muqtada al-Sadr, outspoken Shiite Cleric, was killed today, when his jeep activated a left-over land mine early this morning...."

Originally posted by Rzarekta
Iraq as a state is destined for civil war, it is three countries merged into one because it suited the UK at the time.

I remember when we arrived in Baghdad and the celebrations started (toppling of statue etc) i said to people at the time, this is when the real war begins, for a couple of weeks i looked wrong, but now i have been proved right.

?????????????????????????????????????????????????



"a state is destined for civil war"

this is true, has been true, and always will be true
if not evolution would cease and we would all become algae
I like the way you think, it is revolutionary as well as evolutionary

tut tut