All you need to know about what's going on in Iraq this week
Maliki on Wednesday gave militants in Basra 72 hours to surrender themselves and their weapons, but on Friday extended the deadline for handing over the weapons until April 8.
"All those who have heavy and intermediate weapons are to deliver them to security sites and they will be rewarded financially," he said in a statement issued by his office.
You don't even have to read between the lines. Maliki put his foot down, and no one listened to him. He tried to bust Moqtada al-Sadr's movement ahead of the upcoming elections, and it's backfiring. His forces aren't fighting for him, and he's counting on us to bail him out.
Lovely.
UPDATE: And the backtracking begins:
Al-Maliki's office also announced it has given residents in Basra until April 8 to turn over "heavy and medium-size weapons" in return for unspecified monetary compensation.
The deadline is separate from the three-day ultimatum announced Wednesday for gunmen to surrender their arms and renounce violence or face harsher measures, government adviser Sadiq al-Rikabi said.
The move instead appeared to be aimed at noncombatants who may have weapons like machine-guns and grenade launchers either for smuggling purposes or to sell to militants or criminal gangs.
Labels: Iraq
Since 1949, Durhamites have slept soundly, secure in the knowledge that, in our town, erection can be depended upon. Now, thanks to the power of the internets, we can spread that security all over the world.
5 Comments:
I don't know about "no one's listening to him." He obviously has control of the Iraqi army at this point, which while it's not the power it was when we idiotically disbanded it four years ago, is still a bunch of semi-trained guys with tanks and guns.
Whether that's a greater force than the Mahdi Army is a question that obviously has yet to be resolved. At some point, if Iraq is ever going to return to being a non-failing state (no guarantee), there's going to have to be a number of reckonings like this. I guess I see it as a positive sign that it's already happening. Nevermind that all signs point to the endgame being a Shi'ite dominated government with close ties to Iran. Maybe, if it gives an indirect broker through which to talk to Iran without the neocons and the pro-Israel hardliners blowing their lids, that's actually a good thing.
By
Unknown, at 12:15 PM
TPM is reporting that the Iraqi police are deserting en masse to join the Mehdi Army, leaving the Iraqi Army to "man the checkpoints" and the US to do the dirty work of fighting the Mehdi Army.
My take is that Maliki realized no one was listening to his "demand" of surrendering by tomorrow morning, and he toned it down. then, someone, probably from the US embassy, noticed that his new "request" for weapons to be turned in, under what TPM is calling a "buy-back program," made him look like a chickenshit. So they're backtracking and saying there are two different weapons turn in programs.
If you do read between the lines, at the BBC for instance, or the London Times, it looks like the Mehdi Army is at least holding its own against the so-called Iraqi Army (which is essentially just the Badr militia with a new name, anyway, at least the only parts of it that seem to want to mix it up with the Sadrists), and may even be on the advantage in numerous locations throughout Iraq.
Hard to see how Maliki comes ot of this any stronger. And if the US ends up bombing significant portions of Sadr supporting towns and neighborhoods, i don't think "disaster" will be too strong a word to describe the outcome.
By
Barry, at 12:36 PM
Politicizing tragedy
Last week an anonymous commenter cheesed me off by trying to use the tragic murder of Eve Carson to score political points.
Looks like he was in good company.
Labels: idiots
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I guess it all depends on which tragedy is politicized and who can be damaged thereby.
By
Locomotive Breath, at 1:04 PM
So we've agreed that Iraq is a tragedy?
And a disaster?
And a clusterfuck that could have been avoided?
By
Barry, at 1:48 PM
Iraq has been a tragedy for about (fill in a random number of decades). I'd enumerate the number of ways it was a tragedy but I'm sure you've bought into the Michael Moore version of little children flying kites.
Five years later it is less of a tragedy. There is a hope for further improvement. Unless a let's-run-away Democrat is elected. In which case, it's guaranteed to be a tragedy again.
For a Democrat it's too important to maximize political gain to worry about what happens to a bunch of Iraqis. Ironically the candidate who says he has the "Audacity of Hope" says Iraq is hopeless and wants to abandon them. Hope for me but not for thee.
By
Locomotive Breath, at 3:05 PM
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