Word: iraqi
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Even as General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker made their case on Capitol Hill for maintaining U.S. troop levels in Iraq, a key Iraqi advocate of sending them home was making a power play. Tensions had been high in Baghdad Tuesday morning, in anticipation of a million-strong march against the U.S. occupation called by Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. His Mahdi Army had been engaged in weeks of violent clashes with U.S. and Iraqi government forces in the capital and in the southern city of Basra, and many in the capital feared the worst. But on Tuesday...
...Despite the cautiously optimistic assessments offered by Petraeus and Crocker, many Iraqis remain pessimistic about the weeks and months ahead. The country is still reeling from the fresh wave of violence brought on by Maliki's disastrous military offensive against Sadr's militia that began in Basra two weeks ago. On Tuesday, Sadr City - the sprawling Baghdad Shi'ite slum that is the capital's largest neighborhood and a stronghold of the Mahdi Army - remained locked down as fighting continued between militia fighters and Iraqi and American forces. Politicians from a number of parties warned of an impending humanitarian crisis...
...government backed Maliki's statement, even his allies acknowledged it would be an uphill battle. "Let's be realistic, Maliki's main goal is to wipe out the Sadrists before elections because he knows his bloc will lose to them," Alia Nasayif Jasim, a legislator from the secular Iraqi National Accord party, told TIME. "It is impossible to wipe out the Sadrists. If the government is serious, it should dissolve all militias including those linked to the government. If it goes after all the militias equally, the Sadrists will agree to disband...
...Sadr himself, who maintains that the United States is the chief enemy, warned in his Tuesday statement, "If the national benefit requires us to unfreeze our army to achieve our goals, we will do so." And with the increasing incursions of Iraqi and American forces into Sadr City and other Mahdi Army strongholds, the cleric will be under growing pressure to act on that warning...
...Both Democratic presidential candidates will be able to point to the recent fighting in the southern city of Basra as evidence of poor Iraqi leadership and ill-prepared and unmotivated U.S.-trained Iraqi troops. While Iran helped negotiate a deal that curbed the fighting in Basra, Tehran continues to supply Shi'ite groups linked to cleric Moqtada al Sadr with lethal weapons and training that continue to take a toll on U.S. forces, Pentagon officials say. That, they add glumly, suggests Iran could continue a game of hard-nosed cat-and-mouse for as long as U.S. troops...