April 7, 2004
THE LOSERS BRIGADE:
Anxious Moments in Grip of an Outlaw Iraqi Militia (JOHN F. BURNS, 4/07/04, NY Times)
If Moktada al-Sadr has chosen a grand mosque in this Euphrates River town for a last stand against American troops, as many of his militiamen have claimed in recent days, he appears to be relying more on the will of God than anything like military discipline to protect him.Many hundreds of militiamen in the black outfits of Mr. Sadr's Mahdi Army were visible on Tuesday on roads approaching the golden-domed mosque and inside the sprawling compound leading to the inner sanctuary. But they seemed unmarshaled, at least to the layman's eye — more milling about than militant.
A reporter and photographer for The New York Times had a rare — and unplanned — opportunity to see Mr. Sadr's battle troops up close on Tuesday. A 100-mile drive from Baghdad for a supposed news conference by Mr. Sadr ended up with no news conference, and a handful of the newspaper's Baghdad staff, including drivers, security guards and an interpreter, detained for nearly eight hours. They were suspected, their captors said, of being Special Forces operatives or intelligence agents for the United States, Spain or Israel.
But before and after being driven away blindfolded to a makeshift prison deep in the semidesert landscape outside Kufa, the visitors were left under loose guard at the mosque's main entrance and, for about an hour, inside the courtyard. There, seething antagonism for Westerners blended with a haphazard, almost chaotic approach to maintaining control. Hundreds of worshipers made their way into the mosque past groups of men toting Kalashnikov rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, and a variety of bayonets and knives.
This flock of misfits is what hysterics insist represents the true nature of Shi'ites? It's like judging Americans by the militia movement. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 7, 2004 11:57 PM
I'm not overly concerned about the rascals holed up with Muqtada. It's the fact that Hezbollah and the Iranian paramilitaries have taken over large parts of the country that's troublesome.
This makes Iraq like Vietnam : the local rebels are supported (and now even replaced) by troops from neighboring countries (Syria allows the Hezbollah to go into Iraq). The US lost in Vietnam because they were unwilling to confront those countries. Bush seems to be equally unwilling to do so. He's rapidly turning into some kind of new LBJ.
Posted by: at April 8, 2004 2:37 AMOh it'll be easy enough to find an excuse and remove the Iranian government.
About the only way Bush resembles LBJ is via his Texan origins and his high spending.
Posted by: M Ali Choudhury at April 8, 2004 4:58 AMOh and stick some sort of name into your comments.
Posted by: M Ali Choudhury at April 8, 2004 4:59 AMSorry, Ali, I forgot to mention my name.
Bush resembles LBJ in being clueless on what to do in Iraq. I have said on several occasions that I have the distinct impression that GWB has somehow lost the initiative since the fall of the Hussein regime last year. And not only in Iraq, where his administration has repeatedly shown that it doesn't know what to do or even who its enemies are (they always claim that it is unknown who committed an act of violence), but also domestically.
And now his spokesman is becoming a latter-day Mohammed Al-Sahaf, claiming that there is no uprising and that everything is under control while various nutcases, terrorists, Iranian agents and Hezbollah killers openly defy the coalition troops.
Can somebody please wake up the White House, Ali Khamenei has just started a war in Iraq and unless something is done about that, he might actually win.
Actually, Peter, no name was necessary. I recognized the style.
Posted by: David Cohen at April 8, 2004 7:43 AMThings are going a lot better in Iraq than the media would lead one to believe. How many soldiers are interviewed by the major networks? The situation is pretty stable except for a few hotspots. If Khamenei has started a war he better move much more quickly. He'll soon have democracies bordering him on two sides!
Posted by: Bartman at April 8, 2004 9:51 AMDo these people represent Shi'ites? Bear in mind that this is a sect whose members beat themselves to pulps with chains every year for Ashoura. Like it or not, they represent a far more significant section of Shiites than the militias here do their populations. Unpopular kooks don't organize convoys with thousands of civilians that go on and brave Marine roadblocks. There's definitely something there.
Hate'em all you want, I don't care for them myself, but don't underestimate them.
Posted by: Derek Copold at April 8, 2004 4:06 PMI'll buy the militia movement comparison when the militia movement turns out 500,000 marchers in Times Square.
Agreed, the Sadristas are incompetent. It does not follow that they are insignificant.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at April 8, 2004 4:07 PMWhere are the 500,000 followers of Sadr?
Posted by: oj at April 8, 2004 4:25 PM