One Utah

While John McCain travels the campaign trail talking happily about how “al Qaeda is on the run,” Iraq is on the verge of a total breakdown. Americans are not even fighting al Qaeda in Iraq or anywhere else thanks to the incompetence of the Bush administration.

Anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr gave a final warning to the Green Zone government today to halt a U.S.-Iraqi crackdown against his followers or he would declare “open war until liberation.” This is so serious it even got a brief mention on the TV news tonight.

“I’m giving the last warning and the last word to the Iraqi government — either it comes to its senses and takes the path of peace … or it will be (seen as) the same as the previous government,” Sadr said, referring to Saddam Hussein’s fallen regime, without elaborating.

“If they don’t come to their senses… then we will declare an open war until liberation.”

On VetVoice, Brandon Friedman says that the U.S. has “totally underestimated” the consequences if the Mahdi Army and other anti-occupation Shiite militias are left with no choice but to fight it out with Maliki’s regime and rival Shiites led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, whose Badr Organization holds most of the key positions in the American-backed Iraq Security Forces.

This has the potential to be the corner-turning-point for which everyone has been waiting for the last five years… just in the wrong direction.

As al-Sadr’s declaration implies, widespread resentment of Hakim’s faction goes back to the Saddam Hussein regime. Muqtada’s father Grand Ayatollah Sadeq al-Sadr, who stayed in Iraq and opposed Saddam, was assassinated in 1999. Other Shiite leaders went into safe exile in Iran and the West.

The U.S. military command in Baghdad is not ready for what’s coming. How do I know? Their latest idea is to build a wall in Sadr City. That’s going to stop rocket attacks on the Green Zone?

UPDATE: Missing Links has a partial translation of Sadr’s warning (and a link to the Arabic original).

Previous One Utah posts:

Iraq: Can’t Tell Who We’re Fighting Without a Scorecard (April 9, 2008)
A Fiasco Within a Fiasco (April 1, 2008)
Basra Update: US Has Few Options (March 29, 2008)
Mahdi Army Winning Basra Fight (March 28, 2008)
Iraq: Staring Into the Abyss (March 27, 2008)
Mahdi Army Cease Fire Expires Saturday (February 20, 2008)
Shocker: Iraq ‘Surge’ Not Really Working (February 1, 2008)
Iraq’s Hezbollah (December 13, 2007)

This entry was posted Saturday, April 19th, 2008 at 7:28 pm and is filed under Disaster, Iraq, John McCain, Mahdi Army, National Politics, This Blog, War. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.