U.S. Denies Raid on Najaf Is Imminent

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A13125-2004Apr14?language=printer


U.S. Denies Raid on Najaf Is Imminent
As Talks to End Standoff Continue, Troops Prepare to Capture Cleric Sadr

By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 15, 2004; Page A19


While U.S. military commanders in Iraq have massed forces on the outskirts of the holy city of Najaf, Pentagon officials said yesterday that the United States is in no hurry to send troops into the city and attempt to seize the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr.

More than a week of bloody fighting with Sadr's militia in Baghdad and other cities has left several hundred Shiite fighters dead, badly weakening Sadr's force and throwing the cleric on the defensive, the officials said.

At the same time, the Bush administration remains under strong pressure from moderate Shiite clerics and Iraqi political authorities to resolve the standoff in Najaf -- one of the holiest Shiite cities -- without more bloodshed.

As behind-the-scenes negotiations proceed with Sadr, a defense official privy to the U.S. position said Sadr's arrest remains an essential objective. The official also said that the administration opposes the option of exiling Sadr to Iran or anywhere else.

..more..

"The bottom line is, nothing is being considered in which he goes free," the official said. "In our view, the option of him staying in Iraq as a free man -- or leaving -- is not acceptable."


"If the militia surges forward and takes us on, we're going to go in," the defense official said.

on.

It took a long time. But they finally got the word that they were using a match to hunt for Sadr in a country made out of gunpowder.

But they're afraid that he could incite again in the future. So they're at a stand-off. If they mess with the holy city of Najaf where Sadr's forces control the holiest site in the center of the city, they will have 120,000,000 Shiites ready to kill them.

This is why the British are saying publicly that the US troops better learn to chill out and quit killing women and children.

The British military do not support Blair and they're stuck in the hornet's nest with Americans who are poking the nest stupidly.

Are we going to look at this as the start of out down fall? The silly things Bush does seems to make EU and China seem bigger to the rest of the world all the time. Have we lost it?Are we building an Empire or trying to hold on to it? Between the hearing, Bush press thing and the endless war I feel we are at a lose on what we are doing.

It they're denying it, that means it's probably coming. Just waiting for the convenient excuse i.e. "If the militia surges forward and takes us on, we're going to go in."

Herr Bremer would be glad to help them along with that surge. How much you wanna bet they will be 'pushed?'

It they're denying it, that means it's probably coming. Just waiting for the convenient excuse i.e. "If the militia surges forward and takes us on, we're going to go in."

Herr Bremer would be glad to help them along with that surge. How much you wanna bet they will be 'pushed?'

small arms munitions (as these are in short supply), food, water, fuel, etc.

I could be wrong, of course.

At the very least, the U.S. will betray any terms of a surrender. We've done it so many times before, why stop now just because it would unite all of Iraq and the Muslim world against us?

That just might be the goal.