August 18, 2004
Al Sadr Must Die
If he has nine lives... use ten bullets...
As the seeminly intractable confrontation between both Iraqi and US forces and Iraqi ne'er-do-well Moqtada Al-Sadr drags on, the US and Iraqi interim government are once again in danger of allowing this situation to fester, and become worse.
Throughout the day, the situation evolved from a promising fait accompli to raid the Ali shrine, to more compunction and negotiation, to a new pledge to yet another plan to end the fighting.
This situation has deteriorated to the point of folly. When the US presses, Al Sadr is allowed to use negotiations as his last line of defense and escape, only to at some other point in time return to the same intractable conflict. All this serves to do is increase Al Sadr's Baghdad street cred as someone who can consistently confront the US and not pay the price. The compunction that prevents decisive action against Al Sadr strengthens him, emboldens him, and makes future dictats from the Iraqi government or US forces a starting point for negotiations.
The time has come, indeed passed, to remove Al Sadr from the equation. Examining the biography of most tyrants, you'll find a history of inexplicable survival, where superior forces seemingly had ample opportunity to deal with them, but somehow they managed to squirm away, every time. We are watching this in real time.
There is something rotten in Najaf, and US forces need to start taking out the trash...
Posted by MEC2 at August 18, 2004 07:19 PM