August 22, 2004

...WITH A WIMPER:

Insurgents in Najaf begin to drift away (Stephen Farrell, August 23, 2004, The Times of London)

BEHIND the defiant rhetoric of Mahdi Army commanders, the reality in Najaf is that the number of Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr's guerrillas visible on the ground has fallen noticeably in the past three days, which saw heavy bombing of their positions by American warplanes and ground artillery.

On a visit to the front lines yesterday, The Times saw large clusters of fighters armed with belt-fed machineguns, grenades and Kalashnikovs stationed at every entrance to the old city — which houses the golden-domed shrine to Imam Ali — and at numerous ambush points within.

But their numbers and weaponry were considerably depleted from two weeks or even a few days ago.


Oh well, so they don't get to be martyrs and we aren't made to look like monkeys after all. Who'd have dreamt?

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 22, 2004 6:53 PM
Comments

Most of these "fighters" are simply tourists. When they think victory is already won, they're out there shouting. There is a lot of romanticism in being a martyr, but once they see the Americans (and the Iraqi govt) is actually going to fight and see the corpse of another volunteer, then the romance seems to fade.

Posted by: Chris Durnell at August 23, 2004 2:35 AM

They're just not serious. As noted in other posts, it's like a game or carnival, not actual war, even when people get killed. It reminds me of the early battles of the civil war, where civilians went out to watch and have a picnic. American bloody-mindedness put an end to that.

Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at August 23, 2004 8:25 AM

AOG: You got something there. So many talk about the ignorance of Americans, well, just how much information, accurate information, about the effectiveness of the American military does anyone think the Mahdi Army militia members actually have? Unless they actually saw it in action, their info came from Al-Jazreea. This does not bode well for them the reality of the American military appears all around them.

Ignorance such as that is invariably fatal.

Posted by: Mikey at August 23, 2004 10:46 AM

Argghh! "This does not bode well for them when the reality of the American military appears around them."

Proofread, proofread, hit "post" and then notice my own typo!

Argghh!

Posted by: Mikey at August 23, 2004 12:04 PM
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