Comments (25)

Haider is the voice of hundreds of thousands of IRaqis-- the silent majority-- who support the US but will be killed for speaking out. We owe our thanks to these iraqis, as they have suffered more than we have in trying to win the peace.

Moqutada al Sadr stands for nothing but his own vain desire for power. No serious IRaqi respects. He is young, uneducated and has nothing but his family name and a penchant for arousing violence in the ignorant masses.
He is Rev. Wright with a turban, and i thank barack obama for having the good sense to denounce leaders in the community who spew populist nonsense. Unfortunaately, Barack waited too long to denounce rev. wright, but that's an opinion for a different blog.

Thanks Haider for what you do and best of luck to you and your family.

this is one my favorite sites. thanks for giving a real face to war. nice job post global.

very good mariano correct in all respects !
Leaving iraq ,HOW , they'd get shot in the back and never make it . How come the people don't realize this ? Lets make an attempt, tonight 0330 bagdhadtime .Let's go crank up and go ,pick up the embedded comrads ,drive and/or hover into safe grounds ,into the fortified MEGA Bases.Hold out there until FEB 2009 a new CinC will have finally the course of action .

RickNHouston posted:

"We cannot defeat an ideology that teaches martyrdom. This is ... will continue until they wipe one side or the other off the face of the earth or the end of the world ... whichever comes first. We are just giving them more targets to aim at."

My comments:

Some kernels of truth here. There has been ongoing violence in Iraq for a very long time. Adding US troops to the mix didn't cause the violence and removing them won't put a stop to it.

Rick says that a political movement that glorifies "martydom" cannot be defeated, it can only be exterminated. I call extermination a defeat. This is unfortunate but true. As a civilized nation, we shrink from the necessary conclusion that the only way to achieve peace is to kill or imprison (incommunicado) all of the members of the group. We can't talk to these people because talking does not, can not accomplish anything but a delay in the inevitable, either they die or we do. That's how they want it. That's why Jimmy Carter's attempt to negotiate with Hamas is a fool's errand. They guy means when buthis worldview simply cannot comprehend the sort of thinking he is faced with.

Since we cannot bring ourselves to attempt some sort of "final solution" to the problem, and we unobligingly refuse to surender, our only alternative is endless warfare. Guess what? Endless warfare really is the best option. Horrible but true.

NowRick's final assertion, that the occupation of Iraq "We are just giving them more targets to aim at." That's right. Targets that shoot back. Targets that kill 20 terrorists for every one of our own that they kill. It's a sacrifice. A trade-off. An ugly purchase of peace elsewhere with blood in Iraq. That's the true strategic premise behind the Iraq war. Before the invasion the terrorists were atacking unarmed US civilians and diplomatic personnel around the world, now they're all attacking the best and strongest military in the world in Iraq. It's one our armed service members make willingly, I just wish they didn't have to do it.

It's a bleak and harsh world and it's only natural that kind and sensitive souls like Jimmy Carter willingly turn a blind eye in favor of a kinder and gentler worldview in which dialogue and undestanding can solve all troubles.

I sympathize with Haider's plight, but he is a traitor. Plain and simple..

It is time the American media stopped buying the governments determination of who the hero is and who the vilian is.

Haider brought this upon himself by colluding with the enemy.

Who are the Iraqi "troops" being trained to fight? The only obvious "enemy" in Iraq" is US! And a few "outsiders" there to train and kill US; these guys can be contained by our 50 cent Sunni militias!
After, 5 years, the Iraqi "troops" still refuse to kill other Iraqi's...isn't that good?

After 5 years, we still have most of the Iraqi population opposed to us; we are fighting and dying for the Iraqi's closest to our "enemy", Iran; and all we seem able to do is create "Jewish" style Ghettos to contain the various sects in their sanitized religious enclaves; and we still can't exploit their resouces!

I hope the corporations and their owners are making a lotta money; they will need it if the "people" ever realize how much of a sucker they have been!

MORE PROOF OF HOW AMERICA CANT STOMACH A WAR.
i FEEL SORRY FOR MY COUNTRY.I GUESS WE SHOULD JUST GIVE UP,BECAUSE SOME MAY DIE FOR A BETTER CAUSE .4,000 DEAD IN 5 YEARS THAT IS NOTHING

This story reminds me of the American collaborators left behind in Vietnam when the last helicopters left Saigon. It's unfathomable that people of the generation closest to that conflict couldn't see this coming. Maybe it was because the two people in charge had "better things to do" and so missed the unforgettable lessons of war.

Yonkers, New York
19 april 2008

I can only sympathize with Mr. Haider and his family.

My hope is that the British will prove true to their word and grant Mr. Haider and his family asylum in Britain--and do it quickly before someone else suffers the fate of his uncle-in-law.

A Sophoclean tragedy of historic dimensions is unfolding in Iraq.

It is not only that some 4,000 US troops have been killed--probably needlessly; some 29,000 , more injured (12,000 so severely as to require expensive treatment the rest of their natural lives); some 90,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed so far and thousands more injured; and around 2 million middle-class Iraqis have been tragically displaced, having fled for their lives to Iran, Jordan, Syria and other countries.

Much of Iraq pretty much has been reduced to rubble and dust. Its infrastructure has been so devastated that it will take billions in terms of Iraqi and US funds to repair them--and probably also several years for the job to get done.

And that is not all.

Iraq is still very much in the midst of a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites. Now that the Shiites are in the saddle, for them its payback time against the Sunnis--and they are making no bones about their thirst for vengeance.

What complicates the tragedy is that Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and his Shiite Mahdi Army are caught in an internecine power struggle with the Shiite government, military and police forces under PM Nouri al-Maliki.

Caught in the middle are U.S. forces numbering some 168,000 led by Gen. David Petraeus. These forces pretty much are in a sticky quagmire, not really knowing what they are in Iraq for right now and under the present circumstances of civil war, anarchy and chaos.

The world's consensus is that Iraq now is incalculably worse off than before US Comnander-in-Chief George W. Bush, the Decider, invaded Iraq preemptively and unilaterally on the basis of inadequate, misleading and even "doctored" intelligence.

But there is no way to put the genie back into the bottle. There is no way to undo the terrible mistake George W. Bush and his band of trigger-happy neocons, obviously fixated on remaking the world in America's own "democratic" image--by military force if that is what it takes.

Talke about imperialism, hubris and reckless arrogance!

And so it will take the next President and his admistration to clean up the terrible and costly mess which Mr. Bush will surely be leaving behind him.

He will be retiring in ignominy to his Crawford, Texas ranch, there to ponder how everything he laid his hands on turned to ashes.

Mariano Patalinjug
MarPatalinjug@aol.com

A million dead? About the same figure for total deaths in the Iran-Iraq war which involved the movement of large army groups. How is this possible considering the forces involved?

Unfortunately the US did not cut off Sadr's head, impaled it on a pike and affixed to the top of a tank, and then paraded it through Sadr city when they had the opportunity. To defeat the enemy you actually have to kill him and his bases of support. Apparently they no longer teach this at US War Colleges.

Folks, the war of Iraqi Occupation is ALSO a pretext for American imperial presence in the Middle East which is intended to secure American global 'primacy'.

Terrorists are not a global threat, they are sustained problem for nearly ever mature world order or empire. Before it was terrorist Muslims, there were nationalists terrorists, including zionist terrorists, white power terrorists including the KKK, nazi terrorists, communist terrorists, even democratic terrorists. In the 19th century, communist terrorists, nationalist terrorists, even democratic terrorists.

The Roman empire faced "terrorist" militant resistance from the Jewish tribes in Palestine.

Whatever the case regarding terrorists and militant resistance, American leaders think they need to be an imperial power in Iraq to protect American world power.

Sad business about Iraqis trying to escape from Shia death squads. I don't know, maybe the US and the UK should simply take over the entire country and actually stay there for a 100 years, or maybe more. A new colonialim, if you will.

Steve Real, GET real. Everything I said is correct. Check for yourself (Wikipedia etc). Steve Real's disconnected, irrational rant typifies the non-arguments of the Bushies and the crazy American right-wing.

A million dead?

that's 3846 people a week
get off the pipe Aussie!
Vietnam?
3 million people died in Cambodia alone
after we left Vietnam.
650,000 in Vietnam alone.
(that was after the war)
which means the pace of killing only acceralerated
when the last American left Vietnam

Is that the kind of peace you want?
your own private "killing field's"?

The foriegn Sunni extremists and Iranian back Shia extremists have exterminated more Iraqis
then Iraqis fighting Americans or Iraqis fighting Iraqis.

The Middle Easterner is putting a real hurting on on the good people of Baghdad.

So are we to hide like cowards after we broke
the place up?
NO.
This is the time to grow up and be a man
and take responsibility
to stick this one out
and help the good people of Iraq.

Because no one else will
help the good people of Iraq
except for US my friend.

Things are looking up buddy.
Nouri Al Maliki is finally taking control of Sadr City piece by piece.

If he can whip back the Medhi Army in the next 12 to 18 months?
then that's it.
Game over.
He will have effectively won
and taken control of the rest of Iraq.
But he has to have guts of steel
to finish this job
or he's a dead man.

It's as simple as that.

Nobody from the US is looking to move to Iraq anytime soon
it's their country,
and the oil is cheaper to get out of the ground from the Saudia Arabia anyways.

that's economic realities

Ah, America! "You" never learn. It's now a MILLION dead in Iraq and counting. Plus millions of wounded, and millions of refugees. Little electricity. Poor sanitation. Atrocious "security". You really are great friends to the Iraqi people!! And the original invasion was all based on lies. Look back in history-Vietnam, THREE MILLION dead. Again based on lies. And who won that one? For God's sake, vote for Obama; he would make a wonderful President, and you just might get back the international reputation you have now lost. As it is, the world despises Mr Bush and his cronies. Just telling it like it is!

One cannot develop an understanding of what Iraqis want by just hearing the single, or a few, individuals.

During my last visit to Iraq (late 2005), I Moqtada al-Sadr and many of his "security forces" in person....but I've also met plenty of Iraqis on all sides of the issue. Last summer I traveled to Jordon to visit with refugees and better understand their current situation.

Perhaps more Americans should get off of their couches, talk to Iraqis in person, before pronouncing.

Charlie Jackson
Texans for Peace

A FAMOUS GENERAL ONCE SAID : "RATHER THAN SWAT FLIES, IT IS BETTER TO REMOVE THE MANURE PILE". THE BAND OF CRIMINALS THAT CALL THEMSELVES "THE MAHDI ARMY" AND THEIR LEADER, AL SADR SHOULD BE NEUTRALIZED BY FORCE OF ARMS OR BY ARREST FOR ACTS OF TREASON AGAINST THE DULY ELECTED GOVERNMENT OF IRAQ. IN A DEMOCRATIC STATE RELIGIOUS LEADERS MUST BE TEACHERS RATHER THAN ACTING AS POLITICAL THUGS. THE AVOWED PURPOSE OF ALL THIS MILITARY ACTION IS TO CREATE A DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED GOVERNMENT THAT OPERATES WITHIN A CONSTITUTION.

I wonder how the French, Dutch, and others treated the native population that collaborated with the Nazis during WW2.

The Madhi Army does have blood on their hands, but not as much as other factions in Iraq. A lot of what you said about them above is false.

The "extremism" here is the western forces who went into Iraq in a war of aggression to destroy the place. THOSE ARE THE EXTREMISTS I WORRY ABOUT.

Who has the right to decide to mitigate between to religious sects that have been at war with each other for a thousand years? That’s five times as long as the US has been around. Whether we leave now (which would help our economy and troops) or in a 100 years like good old McCain who cares about the middle class, but not that much to cease a war in which they will be the ones paying for it. It's ok for McCain because he made $100M, so he's not worried about the cost. These people are going to continue to kill each other whether we stay or leave. I wish some people in Washington would study history and learn from the past since history tends to repeat itself. Besides, do you think Iran wants an unstable Iraq as their neighbor? I recall them brokering peace, but I could be wrong. How can you try and fix one country when you can’t even fix your own? That's george uu bush for you. I believe real change will come about when we elect Obama as the next president of the US.

Posted on April 18, 2008 19:22

..."AofSeattle:
This is the reason we must remain steadfast in opposing those who do not believe in a free Iraq. We cannot stand by and it and the greater Middle East implode...."

That comment makes you just as ignorant of reality as they are. We cannot defeat an ideology that teaches martyrdom. This is the exact same war they have been fighting since 1726 B.C. and will continue until they wipe one side or the other off the face of the earth or the end of the world ... whichever comes first. We are just giving them more targets to aim at.

That comment makes you just as ignorant of reality as they are. We cannot defeat an ideology that teaches martyrdom. This is the exact same war they have been fighting since 1726 B.C. and will continue until they wipe one side or the other off the face of the earth or the end of the world ... whichever comes first. We are just giving them more targets to aim at. Leave Israel to determine its own fate among the Arabs & the world's troubles will be solved.

The insanity of the Zionazi's will all come to an end when they appoint McCain President even though he loses badly to Obama. The ensuing revolt will spell the end of the Zionazi's once and for all.

so is the cause and fate of traitors.

Unfortunately, even 100 years of occupation won't "free" Iraq, so why continue adding to inflation by printing money to cover this mess? Define free, anyway. To me, "free" is the absence of restrictions, other than violence, theft, and fraud. The US forces in Iraq are certainly enforcing more restrictions than those (curfew being one). I wouldn't call Iraq free now, so what are we doing to fix that? Nothing.

Einstein:
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

This is the reason we must remain steadfast in opposing those who do not believe in a free Iraq. We cannot stand by and it and the greater Middle East implode.