So, you know that war in Iraq that can't be won...

...it seems the Iraqi army is starting to use the training we've been giving it and start taking charge of insurrget controlled areas.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080520/wl_nm/iraq_dc_7;_ylt=AmzyXAP6yiUZOKS6cpRkxVVX6GMA

So, I'm wondering why this isn't a story in the election season?

We're still in Iraq? You wouldn't know it by reading or watching the news.

Hard to compete with American Idol and the playoffs...

We really should start omitting those electronic chips that turn the television off before and after those events.

I'll officially declare it "won" when all of our troops are back home with their families

Well Obama can't say anything about it....considering he voted against it.

Edited to show the training.

Maybe, just maybe, this had nothing to do with the Iraqi military successfully doing anything. Wait, yeah, that's pretty much what your article says.

Because it's not news. Sadr's forces remain intact. They decided that now was not the time to fight. All indications are they retain the ability to fight at a later time of their choosing. Not a single member of the Madhi army appears to have been detained or disarmed. If this was a victory, something only time will tell--it seems unlikely as this has all happened before, without victory, and it rates to all happen again many, many times before Iraq stabilizes--it certainly had nothing to do with any military actions taken today.


Just before hitting "submit reply," I remembered that google is your friend:

Yeah, so you got this one entirely wrong. It's the U.S. Army that did the fighting and dieing here, and the truce was negotiated by Sadr in the hopes of getting the U.S. army to leave. The Iraqi army in no sense whatsoever made use of any training or took charge. Looks like my video edit was probably spot on.

The Iraqis doing their own policing of militants is a good sign.

Not there yet, but we're a lot closer than the "civil war" doomsayers of a year ago would've had you believe.

Yes, your fellow Americans are *so* stupid and shallow, aren't they? It must be hell having to live amongst such Neanderthals.

Shut up, cunt.

Stop calling her a cunt. That's uncalled for.

So, we haven't won WW II then?

Fuck off and mind your own business.

You get confused when your pet name gets passed around, huh?

He's found a line he likes, and he's been using it on two boards all day. Months away, and this is apparently all he's got.

Takes one to know one, Tamar. Still haven't gotten over me "profiling white people," huh? What was it? Oh yeah, I said the thugs who made the bomb threat to Barack Obama's office must have been a bunch of crackers and you threw a fit. I've gotta hand it to you. You are one vindictive chick, and a fine moderator, too. Turn the bitch mode off. You're gonna get tired.

Number_6?

[?=I think we all know what lines he likes]

Got a better explanation for him?[/?]

Don't like a thread?

Just derail it.

Jesus.

Twenty minutes for that retort? I'm not the tired one, methinks.

Hey...racist remarks are racist remarks and stupid is as stupid does. You made the race assumption with no evidence, despite Clinton's HQ getting torched in the same town the month before.

I see it's still bothering you though.

It really bugs you when someone calls you on your shit, doesn't it, Tamar? Yeah, I'm sure it was the Black Panthers who made threats to Barack and Hillary. I'm such a racist against white people. You've got my number. Never trust whitey, boys and girls.

And here we go kiddies, hang oooonnnnn!!! Wheeeee!!!!!1

What shit?

That I thought it stupid to make assumptions? That assuming the race of the perps with no information besides the race of the victim is retarded?

You are an idiot and continue on in that fine tradition this evening.

Whatever you say, Tamar. Say.....is that you in the avatar? Are you white??????? Well, that explains the behavior. What can you expect from whitey?

Hee. Take a chill pill, Tamar.

Clearly, I am not the one in need of some kind of pill right now.

Damn 6, you're right cranky today, here and over at TrekBBS. Who pissed you off?

ROTFLMAO.....

Oh, for those of you who missed it, and honestly, who could blame you for not hitting the youtube link, Pardot posting a 20 second clip of what appears to be Iraqis being led in calisthenics by the US military.

Because, you know, all the US military training in Iraq is summed up by a 20 second clip of the Iraqis not being able to follow effectively in jumping jacks. LOL.

This may be one of the weakest retorts in the history of Wordforge. Certainly Pardot would shred it if it a 20 second clip of calisthenics were posited as an indication of how effective the training was.

A disproportionate number of those casualties were not US forces. Look it up. There certainly haven't been hundreds of new US dead in the past few weeks.

Yes, they capitulated and allowed 3/4s of their territory to be annexed. Iraqi government troops patrolling these streets is a first since Saddam Hussein's reign.

Yes, they feel weakened and threatened because they continue to have to give ground and territory they previously controlled.

And if it's true they aren't militarily defeated, and I don't think a reasonable assessment of conceeding the majority of their territory back to the Iraqi government control because they feel triumphant and resurgent, then it indicates that the al-Maliki government resolved this through their political power - and that's even BETTER news.

Really? So the fact that Moqtada acceded to an agreement that states the Iraqi government can disarm the militiamen doesn't seem relevant to you? Well, guess that goes with the blinders.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ghs4PaY0FYHZE-z9xMWZptTwJp_g
Five Madhi army militiamen detained, caches of weapons seized.

That would be day one of the new patrol area in ground previously denied to the Iraqi government because they lacked the ability to project power there.

Yes, day after day. What's more important is the fact that the milita's leadership has conceeded the fact that they are indeed under the government's control. Moqtada al Sadr has aquiesced to this.

US troops were involved in the initial fighting. However, they have been removed form the area - JCD'd link from the New York Times:

The long-awaited military operation, which took place without the involvement of American ground forces, was the first determined effort by the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to assert control over the sprawling Baghdad neighborhood, which has been a bastion of support for Moktada al-Sadr, the rebel cleric.

The operation comes in the wake of the government’s offensive in Basra, in southern Iraq, which for the time being seems to have pacified that city and restored government control.

The Iraqi forces met no significant resistance. By midday, they had driven to a key thoroughfare that bisects Sadr City and taken up positions near hospitals and police stations, institutions that the Iraqi government is seeking to put under its control.

Of course, the fact that you are taking the Madr militia's spokes person as the person you are relying on to get your information on where the US military is deployed is pretty fucking laughable.

And we are back to

ROTFLMAO!!!

This just goes back to what we've been saying all along. After defining the war as a war that is morally wrong and MUST fail, many liberal detractors have painted themselves into a position where they have to argue against any apparent success.

The Iraq War has little to do with Vietnam when it comes to the physical and political realities on the ground in that country, but it sure as fuck sounds the same from the anti-war movement at home.

Military success in Iraq, let alone real political success for the democratically elected government, is political failure for those who have no other alternative but to root for the war to fail.

Everything old is new again! Maybe it will even work this time.

This is happening because the Mahdi Army would not accept a ceasefire agreement unless American troops were kept out of Sadr City, and Iraqi ones used instead. It has nothing to do with the increased efficiency of Iraqi forces.

Think about it- U.S. Troops, fully capable and well armed are removed from the city because we've been putting up one hell of a fight and the Madhi only capitulate on that condition and that they be replaced by the fledgeling forces of the new U.S. "trained" Iraqi Army.

"Sure, we'll (pretend to) put down our guns as long as you make those tough guys leave, so that we can (pretend to) be friends with you!"

Iraqi Control is better than no control.


And if we have to go in again, we've already got JCOPS established, and hopefully a HUMINT network is being put in place so we'll know where they are.

All things that couldn't be done before the ISF had a presence in the district.

Quiet, Anc. Just because you've been there doesn't mean you know what's going on.