Pat Dollard | Young Americans

There’s a classic historical maxim that whenever an empire is in throes of its final days of power, it becomes the most violent. Given that Al Sadr has retired, thereby for the time-being retired his amibition to be King of Iraq, his followers are feeling abandoned and are doing all they can to reassert their balls. But like Al Qaeda, they relied on a sympathetic local population to support them, and after five years of promises of “victory through resistance” the people have had it with these Shiite gangs as much as they have with the Al Qaeda/Sunni gangs. Any idiot worth half his salt in the basics of winning a counter-insurgency knew that as long as we stuck it out, which unfortunately included a bit of a war of attrition ( which was no fun, I was there for it all ) we would win. Hats of to Bush, Petreaues and company.

Baghdad, Mar 25, (VOI) – An Iraqi government spokesman said a cabinet meeting on Tuesday warned against calls for civil disobedience while the Sadrist bloc, or Iraqis loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, affirmed it would embark on a no-confidence vote in parliament.

“The cabinet has met today and warned whoever calls for civil disobedience, which is an unconstitutional practice threatening peace and stability and delaying public activities,” Ali al-Dabbagh said in statements to Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).
“The cabinet urged a stand to resist groups and people trying to disturb Iraq’s stability,” he added.

“Peaceful expression of a political attitude is constitutional and a civilized political practice that ends when it develops into posing harms to public interests or delaying work in public utilities and institutions,” Dabbagh stressed.

The cabinet, Dabbagh noted, also affirmed that the Sadrist bloc “is an active part of the political scene and had shown national stands that helped maintaining security and stability, particularly Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr’s national role.”

“However, the calls for civil disobedience would offer a chance for the enemies of the Sadrist bloc and Iraq to wreak havoc to security efforts,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Sadrist bloc said it would embark on a no-confidence vote against the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the Iraqi parliament.

Dr. Saleh al-Ukeili, a Sadrist MP, told VOI that the Sadrists would start a no-confidence vote after the Maliki government termed the civil disobedience shown by citizens in a number of neighborhoods in Baghdad as “violence”.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Fardh al-Qanoon (law imposing) command said it started as of Monday applying law 13/2005 on combating terrorism on armed groups’ handing out leaflets threatening civil disobedience.
The statemernt, aired on Tuesday morning on the semi-official TV station al-Iraqiya, comes after Sadrist officials called for an open-ended civil disobedience, which already started in the western Baghdad neighborhoods of al-Shurta, al-Bayya, al-Amil and al-Risala.

The VOI correspondent said life came to a standstill in those neighborhoods, where stores closed and traffic stopped after barricades believed to belong to the Sadrists were set.

A spokesman for the Sadrists in al-Karkh, Mazen al-Saadi, had told VOI on Monday that sit-ins began in some areas in Karkh and would move to other areas in Baghdad’s al-Rasafa as well as other provinces if the demands to release the detained Sadrists and have an official apology from the government on these arrests and raids were not met.

“There would be other options if the government failed to respond to these demands,” said Saadi, not determining the nature of these “options”.

Eyewitnesses said traffic was nearly off in some areas in southwestern Baghdad in response to calls by the Sadrist office in Baghdad’s al-Karkh to start civil disobedience in protest against detentions and raids targeting Sadrists.
“Stores closed down, schooling stopped and service departments are off in and around al-Jihad neighborhood,” a local resident of al-Jihad told VOI.

Another local resident of the Abu Dshir neighborhood, southern Baghdad, told VOI that civilian vehicles were roaming the area and calling on the residents via the microphones to start a civil disobedience until “the government responds to the demands forwarded by Sadr’s office in Baghdad’s al-Rasafa.

“Sunni Muslims took part in the protest in solidarity with the Sadrists, whose neighborhoods are target for detentions and raids,” a local resident of al-Aamil neighborhood said.

A statement issued by Sadr’s office in Rasafa on Sunday had urged residents to start an open-ended civil disobedience in southern and southwestern Baghdad, calling on the Iraqi government to release detained Sadrists.