For First Day In Months, Sadr City Is Calm As Mahdis Remove Their IEDs And Army Rolls In
This from Iraq’s only real news agency, Voices Of Iraq. And as Maliki’s middle name has become Al Backdowner ( He Who Backs Down ) things are looking right now. Interesting note, an anti-Bush Time magazine Baghdad staffer has been desperately trying to paint this as a victory for Al Sadr, with at least one article entitled “Al Sadr wins another round”. The article is too gay and ridiculous for me to even get in to, but you I just wanted to bring to your attention, that the media remains as corrupt and full of open lies as possible. I put up AP and other such stories here, because amongst the the propaganda there are significant facts worth knowing, and as Bill Maher is fond of saying, “I have the smartest audience in the world”, and I trust you guys to be able to read between the lines, and then at times point their shit out in the comments section. Unlike O’Reilly, I want my readers to bloviate.
Baghdad, May 15, (VOI) - A significant clam prevailed last night and on Thursday morning over Sadr City in eastern Baghdad, the Baghdad’s operations command said, while eyewitnesses said that gunmen removed bombs they had planted to prevent Iraqi and U.S. forces from plunging into the city.
“Sadr City witnessed last night and this morning a significant calm, as only one incident was registered when unknown gunmen shot a citizen,” Brig. General Qassem Atta, the official spokesman for the Baghdad’s operations command, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).
Sadr City, a stronghold of Sadr’s Mahdi Army militias, has been witnessing armed clashes since Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced last March the commencement of a security operation codenamed Saulat al-Forsan (Knights’ Assault) in the port city of Basra, Iraq’s second largest province and an oil-hub, 590 km south of Baghdad, which he said targeted “outlaws.”
Hundreds of Sadr supporters were killed or wounded in intense fighting, which still continues.
Tension between the government and the Sadrist bloc increased when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki demanded to solve al-Mahdi army, otherwise the Sadrists will not be allowed to take part in the provincial councils elections, scheduled later this year, however Muqtada al-Sadr rejected the demand. But the Unified Iraqi Coalition and the Sadrist bloc announced last Sunday a truce agreement to end all armed forms in the city and to admit that the Iraqi government is the only body which runs the security file.
“Baghdad’ operations command waits for “brothers” in the Sadrist bloc to take preparations for the entry of the security forces to lift bombs planted in the streets and impose security and stability,” Atta said.
Eyewitnesses said that gunmen in the last night and today morning city lifted landmines and bombs, which they planted to prevent forces from entering the city.
Other witnesses said that all armed forms disappeared from the city’s streets and neighborhoods, while cam prevailed last night and this morning.
The VOI correspondent noted that normal life started to return to the city and stores seems more active.
The Sadrists have 30 seats in the Iraqi parliament. They entered it as part of the UIC, a coalition of Shiite parties that include the Dawa Party, to which Maliki belongs, and the SIIC.
They broke away from the UIC and became an independent bloc, withdrawing its six ministers from the government last year, brining the UIC to have only 83 seats, fifteen of which are occupied by the Dawa Party.
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If Sadr’ little militia actually lays down their arms and this isnt just another way of regrouping and re-arming like usual then that will be an awesome development. The country will be alot safer. Then we can focus solely on killing any remaining AQ and Iranian forces in Iraq.
May 15th, 2008 at 6:01 amI was tempted to dissect the AP bullshit line by line, but their “reporting” has been so completly shredded, on so many occasions, by people better informed than me, that all I want to do is say a big,
“FUCK THE AP”.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:38 am[…] Dollard with another Sadr City truce take. […]
May 15th, 2008 at 7:41 amCan Mike Yon be correct again with his story “The Storm Before The Calm”?
I don’t believe the AP, WAPO, NYT or any other media outlet can compare to the people who are on the ground and have the ethics to actually tell the truth.
In all my years I have never been so disgusted in the quality of the reporting I see. Facts are not checked, rumors are twisted into stories that look like facts and a seditious agenda is being output by most outlets.
My one hope, is that when we leave Iraq to return home through victory under McCain or retreat under Clinton or Obama, the men and women who have served so bravely and have sacrificed so much will find a way to get their collective voices heard and heard loudly. Maybe all the drones walking around our country will actually understand what our military actually did and how every action they took has a direct effect on the lives of every American citizen and for that fact, every citizen of the planet. Maybe the Iraq battle front is taking longer than most expected or hoped for but when did anyone who is complaining or views the war as a mistake ever try to change the world in such a fundamental and profound way as our military is doing every single day. To me the nay-sayers actually do want the tree of liberty to grow in Iraq but don’t want to wait for the seed to grow and most recently want to stop watering that seed. Ignorance is going to kill our way of life.Can Mike Yon be correct again with his story “The Storm Before The Calm”?
I don’t believe the AP, WAPO, NYT or any other media outlet can compare to the people who are on the ground and have the ethics to actually tell the truth.
In all my years I have never been so disgusted in the quality of the reporting I see. Facts are not checked and rumors are twisted into stories that look like facts.
My one hope, is that when we leave Iraq to return home through victory under McCain or retreat under Clinton or Obama, the men and women who have served so bravely and have sacrificed so much will find a way to get their collective voices heard and heard loudly. Maybe all the drones walking around our country will actually understand what our military actually did and how every action they took has a direct effect on the lives of every American citizen and for that fact, every citizen of the planet. Maybe the Iraq battle front is taking longer than most expected or hoped for but when did anyone who is complaining or views the war as a mistake ever try to change the world in such a fundamental and profound way as our military is doing every single day. To me the nay-sayers actually do want the tree of liberty to grow in Iraq but don’t want to wait for the seed to grow and most recently want to stop watering that seed. Ignorance is going to kill our way of life.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:48 amCplViper;
May 15th, 2008 at 3:28 pmIn an interview the Col. of the unit being replaced by 10th Mountain on June 1 (can’t remember the name!) said that he was most incensed about the idea that the “Army is broken”. He said the soldiers were very skilled and dedicated, and were re-upping in amazing numbers. The main strain he saw was on the families, actually.