Sadr's War Within A Breath

You know we don't want the monster taking over
"Tiptoe round tie him down"
We don't want the loonies taking over
"Tiptoe round tie them down"

--Radiohead, Go to Sleep

The more insurgents they kill in Iraq, the more of them that will not make it to our shores. Its the "Flypaper Strategy": lure the militants into battles in the middle east where the US can kill them, rather than have them come to North America to wage jihad. The party is at the militants house this time, not over here. Say, when was the last attack on North American soil? It was....before the Afghan war.

Something to keep in mind. This time, I hope there is no political solution to the Battle of Najaf. The Americans have to kill them until there are no jihadis left: No peace overtures with Sadr, no half-hearted truce until the mahdis have more arms and reinforcements from Iran, no prisoners.

Sadr is weak now. He started out his 'uprising' with 10,000 men. Now what? He's just lost 300, and the city is emptying out.

You ain't got no killers so kill dat
Holdin up your hands and beggin for a pass
You lucky they didn't just to get to dumpin on yo' ass
Cause this game you think is funny is some real shit
So you need to be more careful who you f***** wit, beyotch!
---DJ Quik, Dollars and Sense

True, so true. Every time the US gets close "oh peace, oh lets have a truce, I love democracy" and every time they turn their backs its "death to the americans".

"Whoa, Muth******, you were the man a minute ago!"
---Crystal Method, Tough Guy

Marines Pushing Deeper Into City Held by Shiites
By JOHN F. BURNS

Published: August 8, 2004


BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 7 - American marines drove deeper into the heart of the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Saturday as they fought Moktada al-Sadr's rebel militiamen, and there was little sign that American commanders, who said they were taking orders from the new Iraqi government, intended to heed appeals for a cease-fire from clerics and others claiming to represent Mr. Sadr.

In three days of fighting, including mostly sporadic battles on Saturday, the marines and supporting units from the new American-trained Iraqi security forces have pushed well into the old city, an area the Americans had avoided in their months of on-and-off fighting with the Mahdi Army, Mr. Sadr's black-uniformed militia. The main battleground has been an ancient cemetery alongside the Imam Ali mosque, a golden-domed shrine that is one of the holiest places for the world's Shiite Muslims.

Reports from Najaf told of a city now largely deserted, at least in the center, where American commanders say they have killed more than 300 militiamen. But spokesmen for Mr. Sadr say the toll is only 40.

The American command in Baghdad said Saturday afternoon that the latest casualty figures from the battlefront showed that two marines and one American soldier had been killed, and that fewer than 20 had sustained serious wounds.The leader of Iraqi forces in the fight, Gen. Ghalib Hadi al-Jazaery, said Saturday that his troops had surrounded Mr. Sadr's house in Najaf in an attempt to capture him, but that the cleric was gone.

Much hangs on the Najaf fighting, and on lower-intensity skirmishes in the past 72 hours in other urban areas across central and southern Iraq, where Mr. Sadr's firebrand populism attracts support among young, mostly impoverished Shiites. The central question appears to be whether the decision to confront the militiamen, and to do it in an area of the highest religious sensitivities, will win the support of Iraq's Shiite majority or provoke a potentially crippling backlash against the interim government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, which took formal power from the Americans when the country resumed its sovereignty on June 28.