Home

Widening the Iraq War

Comment by Larry Ross, January 17, 2007

Bush's purpose in sending 21,000 or more US troops to Iraq is to create even more chaos and violence. He also wants to create incidents he can blame on Iran, so as to justify a US attack on Iran. The more violence and killing the US can create, the more their puppet Iraqi government will believe they need US troops. Bush names any opponents of the US illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, such as Muqtada al-Sadr, as linked to 'terrorism'. In spite of massive rejection of Bush policies in the US, Bush is still acting as if he is above the law and any criticism. He believes that only he and his neocon advisers have a right to dictate the reality of the day. Thus if he decides to decree some new insanity, such as making war on al-Sadr, then all America must them follow their commander-in-chief and provide the tax payer money he demands for this purpose. In spite of a mountain of evidence that US mid-east policy is very much influenced by Israel, Bush and his aides have decreed that any public recognition and criticism of this fact, is automatically condemned as "anti-Semitic".  

Remember Bush's self-empowering slogan: "You are either with us, or with the terrorists."  Bush and his aides claim that only they have the right to define, who is, or who is not, a terrorist, or who is aiding terrorism. They claim that their word is law, and that they have the right to enforce it, including kidnapping and imprisoning anyone in the world, including Americans who oppose their rule.  It may look like the nonsense dictatorship formulas used for controlling and intimidating the public portrayed in Orwell's book "1984". But these formulas are working in the US today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Attack on Sadr will widen war in Iraq

By Patrick Cockburn, January 14, 2007

BAGHDAD: He is a strange figure to be targeted as the number one enemy of the US in Iraq. Four years ago, few had heard of the Shia nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr inside or outside Iraq. Even somebody as suspicious as Saddam Hussain did not think he would play any role in the coming crisis.

Now he holds the future of Iraq in his hands. He has far more popularity and legitimacy than many of the pro-American Iraqi leaders cowering in the Green Zone. He is seen by millions of Shia in Baghdad and across southern Iraq as their spiritual and national leader.

Rightly or wrongly, he is feared by most Sunnis as their nemesis, a physical symbol that they are battling for their existence in Iraq.

He has now become part of the White House's demonology in Iraq. At one time the US believed that Saddam Hussain was responsible for all its problems in Iraq — problems that would be resolved once he was overthrown. Today Sadr, a 32-year-old cleric in his black robe with fierce, staring, dark eyes, is denounced as the fomenter of sectarian warfare.

Many Iraqi leaders never leave the Green Zone. Sadr has never entered it. He has a cult-like following. He controls Sadr City, the ramshackle, sprawling slum in east Baghdad which is home to 2,5mn Shia, important cities such as Kufa and provinces such as Maysan.

Continue.....