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jayfish Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 02:17 PM
Original message
U.S. Deploys for Showdown With Cleric
Edited on Tue Apr-13-04 02:18 PM by jayfish
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040413/D81U37G00.html

<SNIP>
Apr 13, 2:38 PM (ET)
By DENIS D. GRAY

NAJAF, Iraq (AP) - A 2,500-strong U.S. force, backed by tanks and artillery, pushed to the outskirts of the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Tuesday for a showdown with a radical cleric.

The standoff in the south came as a U.S. military helicopter went down near Fallujah in the west. Three soldiers were wounded and a Marine helping secure the site was killed by mortars, the military said.
</SNIP>


Just keep digging fellas... just keep digging.

Jay
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Jacobin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 02:18 PM
Response to Original message
1. "How to win friends and 'impose' democracy"
NOT.

What a clusterfuck.
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demnan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 02:20 PM
Response to Original message
2. This is what the press conference tonight is about
I was afraid of that.
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hang a left Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 02:20 PM
Response to Original message
3. God help our soldiers.
n/t
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The Stranger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 04:33 PM
Response to Reply #3
16. God help the innocent Iraqi civilians.
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hang a left Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 05:13 PM
Response to Reply #16
19. God help all the innocent human beings
and victims of this horrible war.
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NeoConsSuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 06:34 PM
Response to Reply #16
22. Thank you!
The occupiers, on the other hand, chose to occupy.
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UpInArms Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 02:22 PM
Response to Original message
4. liberating and pacifying
are becoming the new horrific buzzwords for this ultimate fiasco.
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daleo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 02:23 PM
Response to Original message
5. Time to liberate another city into the dust
At some point you have to wonder whether there won't be a large scale military disaster to go along with the endless political disasters.
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FlemingsGhost Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 02:31 PM
Response to Original message
6. Silia and Charybdis
If they assasinate him, he's propelled to martyrdom.

If he eludes them, his legend grows.


Onward Christian soldiers...
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aneerkoinos Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 04:18 PM
Response to Reply #6
15. Scylla and Charybdis n/t
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David__77 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 02:39 PM
Response to Original message
7. It could go either way...
I can't get a grasp on how this all is going. Some media are implying that Sadr will back down. I don't think so. He has been openly targeted for killing now. Further, he seems to realize that even a "truce" would simply be a means to disarm and neutralize his movement and arrest its members. It seems most likely that the Iraqi revolution is on the horizon, the first since 1958.
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northernsoul Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 03:25 PM
Response to Reply #7
11. Sadr has nothing to lose
He knows we're coming to kill him. My guess is that he's going to try to take as many Americans down with him as he can.
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Magleetis Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 02:49 PM
Response to Original message
8. It is unfortunate
that most of the free world must pay for the idiotic greed of a few dumbasses. The US is doomed to failure in Iraq. My heart goes out to all the people who have been killed or wounded.
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pinto Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 02:51 PM
Response to Original message
9. It could have gone differently. The elder clerics didn't seem too thrilled
with the much younger Sadr before Bremmer chose him as a target for reprisals. If Bremmer had worked with those clerics to keep Sadr's influence minimized, made some judicious compromises and let them take care of things we could have had a much calmer outcome than seems to be the likelihood now.

Would have required the negotiating and political skills this administration doesn't choose to use or doesn't have.
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Dhalgren Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 03:10 PM
Response to Original message
10. The Emperor's remarks tonight will announce
the opening of a real blood-bath. He will give authorization for the killing of every Iraqi who happen to be in the way. We have lost the high ground, now we will fill the low-lands with blood. I pray for a swift and final victory for the Iraqi people. When your government is criminal, you do not owe it allegience.
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Zhade Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 03:29 PM
Response to Reply #10
13. "When your government is criminal, you do not owe it allegience."
A-fucking-MEN.

My question is, when will WE THE PEOPLE turn on our imperial masters?
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74dodgedart Donating Member (513 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 03:26 PM
Response to Original message
12. Democracy at gunpoint
You will love the USA, or else
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paulk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 03:45 PM
Response to Original message
14. Najaf is the spiritual center of Shi'ite Islam
a coalition attack against the city is unthinkable. It's the Shi'ite Vatican, sending a Christian army in there is the single most stupid thing the US military could do.

I find it unbelievable that they would even contemplate this.
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cliss Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 06:22 PM
Response to Reply #14
20. I also read that recently,
that Najaf is like the Iraqis' Vatican. And now the US is moving in, getting ready to strike. They'll probably hover in the distance for a while, like the Orcs did in the movie 'Lord of the Rings'.

Our military commanders have completely lost any sense of reason. They're just attacking blindly, without any thought to consequences. While the rest of the world is looking on, the US forges ahead in blind insanity. They're probably under direct orders from Donald Rumsfeld.

I guarantee that Al-Sadr will become their nemesis if they assassinate him. He'll united them all.
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AussieInCA Donating Member (510 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 04:37 PM
Response to Original message
17. BBC news, coalition soldier says offensive ops soon
just heard this on the BBC radio news, guy quoted Sanchez saying it is coming soon and the troops are there for offensive operations.
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leftchick Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 04:39 PM
Response to Original message
18. Hello Holy War!
I guess bushco* will let God sort them out... :puke:
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Yavin4 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Apr-13-04 06:28 PM
Response to Original message
21. Can Someone Explain To Me How We're Acting Differently From
Saddam? Is this not what Saddam used to do? Kill his own people? Now, we're doing it. We've spent billions of dollars lost thousands of lives, only to do what Saddam did.

Meet the new boss same as the old boss.
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