Lieberman said the senators met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, and urged him to break his ties with Muqtada al-Sadr and disarm the anti-U.S. cleric's Mahdi Army militia, which has been blamed along with Sunni Arab insurgents for the sectarian violence and ruthless attacks on U.S. forces.
Al-Sadr controls 30 of the 275 parliament seats and is a key figure in al-Maliki's coalition.
Lieberman said the delegation left its meetings with al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani and other Iraqi officials believing "there is a force of moderates within the context of Iraqi politics coming together to strengthen the center here against the extremists."
He said the delegation was "quite explicit" about "how important it is that the Iraqis themselves begin to take aggressive action to disarm the militias, to stop the sectarian violence and to involve all the people in country to governance," including promised provincial elections." Yahoo News
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More pathetic baloney. As usual, we Americans insist on believing that some individual bad person must be responsible for resistance to our enlightened ideas. We seem to think that this must be true since the masses "obviously" would favor what we want for them is they were allowed to accept our ideas by the bad people. The idea that these poor benighted foreigners might have seriously different plans for themselves is clearly beyond us.
Listen up. If you kill Muqtada al-Sadr and destroy his militia it WILL NOT stop the war among the peoples in what was Iraq. pl
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the only real decision that the Bush Administration has any say in is WHEN we leave.
Even then, I suspect that we may be overtaken by events and be forced out either militarily, possibly with the loss of tens of thousands of American lives, or economically.
Some of you may be aware that the dollar is getting weaker and that central banks around the world are quietly reducing their dollar exposure and "edging towards the door" so to speak. If Interest rates continue to rise the housing bubble is going to burst dramatically and trigger a recession. If this occurs, we may literally not be able to afford to stay in Iraq.
Then there is the matter of Iran, and its bombing, something I believe is going to happen, which would effectively seal the doom or end of America as a major world power, given our dependence on oil.
I've watched a little of Bush's performance recently and it is scary. I'm concerned that we are governed by a mad man, whose ideas are informed by religion and a self interested group of corporate plutocrats, and the dutiful servants of the Likudnik government of Israel.
Thirty years ago I coined my own law of government:
"Governments achieve the exact reverse of their stated intentions"
Bush is going to be remembered as the President who ruined the United States: Militarily, Economically, Constitutionally and Socially, to the point where I believe civil strife and the balkanisation and break up of the United States are a distant but distinct possibility.
It will take about one hundred years to repair the damage he has done to America's reputation, Constitution, Economy and Society - if America survives at all, and that may be in the hands of foriegn powers.
Sorry to be so gloomy, but I see nothing good at all coming from this man and his madness.
Posted by: walrus | 15 December 2006 at 03:37 PM
walrus:
I do not recall any historical figure that started a war and then ended it voluntarily when it did not go as planned.
Others might be able to name some such person.
My point: Highly unlikely that US would leave Iraq between now and 2008.
Posted by: Babak Makkinejad | 15 December 2006 at 11:03 PM
Soomvung Hong,
I belive segments of the Mahdi Army operate on their own, you are right some of them likely do attack innocent Sunis. Nevertheless, his militia has fought the US and al-Sadr has repeatedly reached out to the Suni resistance as well as calling for an end to sectarian strife. His group is totally unlike the Badr group or SCIRI.
Posted by: joe osorio | 16 December 2006 at 12:37 AM
For those of you who are saying that al Sadr is "our best hope" I am just curious what your goals for Iraq are?
An anti-American Iraq?
An Iraq that is representative of only a small portion of it's population? (al Sadr's political bloc did not get widespread support)
A pro-Iranian bloc?
Just curious? and what makes you think he has the best interests of Iraq in mind and not just the best interests of his own militia?
Posted by: Mark | 17 December 2006 at 08:58 PM
Hi Mark,
Good questions. I shouldn't have wrote "our best hope", I meant "Iraq's best hope". Sorry. I would assume there will be an anti-American leadership in Iraq, after all the US has done no legitimate government made up of collaborators with an enemy occupation would have any hope of survival. I don't recall how much support al-Sadr gave to the elections so can't comment on that. Unlike Hakim al-Sadr is an Iraqi nationalist, not beholden to Iran. Does he have the best interests of Iraq in mind rather than his militi-I feel his reaching out to Sunnis while attempting (not successfully enough-not enough control over his militia?) separates him from other Shia leaders and shows his interests are national rather than strictly Shia. Of course this is all my opinion, I am no expert.
Posted by: joe osorio | 18 December 2006 at 10:32 PM