Apr 16 2008

Mahdi Army Getting Pounded, SurrenderMedia Exaggerates Minor Set Back

Published by at 8:00 am under All General Discussions,Iraq,Sadr/Mahdi Army

I will start with the Stupid SurrenderMedia trick of the week as they take a minor setback with a small group of Iraqi troops and try and extrapolate it into a representation of the entire Iraq war. The so called debacle is about one small group of Iraqi troops who acted like liberal democrats and ran from the terrorists, who were then replaced with troops less liberal and more stalwart:

A company of Iraqi soldiers abandoned their positions on Tuesday night in Sadr City, defying American soldiers who implored them to hold the line against Shiite militias.

The retreat left a crucial stretch of road on the front lines undefended for hours and led to a tense series of exchanges between American soldiers and about 50 Iraqi troops who were fleeing.

Oh my God! A stretch of road in Sadr City was left undefended for hours! How can we win a war when this kind of thing happens! Quick, run and hide and whimper. Pullease.

“If you turn around and go back up the street those soldiers will follow you,” Captain Veath said. “If you tuck tail and cowardly run away they will follow up that way, too.”

Captain Veath’s pleas failed, and senior American and Iraqi commanders mounted an urgent effort to regain the lost ground. An elite Iraqi unit was rushed in and with the support of the Americans began to fight its way north.

This episode was a blow to the American effort to push the Iraqis into the lead in the struggle to wrest control of parts of Sadr City from the Mahdi Army militia and what Americans and Iraqis say are Iranian-backed groups.

What a crock of SurrenderMedia garbage. There was no blow to American efforts. And in fact the fight against the Mahdi Army is going quite well (more on that in a moment). Some cowards collapsed in fear, some seasoned fighters took over, and we lost not an inch of ground. The fact this was so well covered with cameras and embeds would make me first wonder if it was another staged act for the clueless and easily duped media. I have no proof – except a string of numerous fake stories planted by the enemy in the news media ever since 9-11. Other than that well known (and well worn) pattern there is nothing to suspect the SurrenderMedia is just producing pro-terrorist propaganda since defeat in Iraq is slipping away from them.

The NY Times, being in the forefront of the SurrenderMedia, had to ignore a lot of other stories and events to create the delusion that we are losing to the Mahdi Army. If you look outside the NY Times and across a range of reporting you find the opposite is true. Take Bill Roggio’s reporting on how the battle for Sadr City and Basra is proceeding as planned (generally) and in measured steps (so as to not get killed or have innocents killed):

Iraqi and Coalition forces are pressing the fight against the Mahdi Army in northeastern Baghdad and the southern port city of Basrah. Iraqi troops have cleared two Mahdi Army strongholds in Basrah and reportedly have surrounded three others as they prepare to press the operation. In Baghdad, the Iraqi Army and US forces continue to clash with the Mahdi Army while forces have moved into southwestern Sadr City and set up a “demonstration area” to distribute aid and provide local security.

Or how about the reporting by AFP from Basra and the sea change in conditions there since the Mahdi were purged:

Three weeks after Iraqi troops swarmed into the southern city of Basra to take on armed militiamen who had overrun the streets, many residents say they feel safer and that their lives have improved.

The fierce fighting which marked the first week of Operation Sawlat al-Fursan (Charge of the Knights) has given way to slower, more focused house-by-house searches by Iraqi troops, which led on Monday to the freeing of an abducted British journalist.

Residents say the streets have been cleared of gunmen, markets have reopened, basic services have been resumed and a measure of normality has returned to the oil-rich city.

The port of Umm Qasr is in the hands of the Iraqi forces who wrested control of the facility from Shiite militiamen, and according to the British military it is operational once again.

However, the city is flooded with troops, innumerable checkpoints constantly snarl the traffic, residents are scared to go out at night despite the curfew being relaxed, and the sound of sporadic gunfire can still be heard.

An AFP correspondent said three northwestern neighbourhoods once under the firm control of the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr — Al-Hayaniyah, Khamsamile and Garma — are now encircled by Iraqi troops who are carrying out door-to-door searches.

Two other neighbourhoods once dominated by the Mahdi Army, Al-Qiblah in the southwest and Al-Taymiyyah in the centre, have been cleared of weaponry and many people have been arrested, military officials say.

Residents expressed relief at the improved security.

Doesn’t sound like we are back on our heels, it sounds like the Mahdi are contained and being rounded up and the locals are damn glad to be rid of them. There will always be some who don’t get, can’t do it or just don’t agree with what happens. Fact of life. But the media cannot expect to be taken seriously when they try and hoist these rare exceptions as the symbol of the greater populace. It is a joke and those who employ such propaganda are jokes.

Here is a bizarre story which I could exaggerate into something more than it is, if I had to concoct facts to make believe I had a clue what is going on. It is an interesting one, because it is (a) from a severely anti-American, pro-terrorist site and (b) it signals a change in Sadr City towards our success:

After a week of intensive bombing and embargo, Sadr-City accepted the American deal to form an “Awakening Council”, alrafedain reported that Abdallah Jasim al-Ali head of “Sadr-City Tribal Council” announced today of forming a militia in Sadr-City to counter the Mahdi Army.

He gave instructions to hang Mahdi Army members from light-masts if they fight against the government forces or innocents as the MA did with the Sunnis before.

I don’t read Arabic so I cannot validate the linked article. I don’t trust the site to report honestly, it is mostly propaganda. But I would not it as a possible signal of big changes coming. If the people of Sadr City and Basra have their own Awakening and start killing (or more likely turning in intelligence on) the Mahdi Forces amongst them this will end quickly and be another blow to extremism in Islam. The people know who is hiding weapons amongst their families. At some point they will want them gone, no matter what it takes.

Some other interesting reads about the pounding the Mahdi are taken can be found here and here. Never rely on one source of news to get the big picture, they are very informative reads.

75 responses so far

75 Responses to “Mahdi Army Getting Pounded, SurrenderMedia Exaggerates Minor Set Back”

  1. 75 says:

    “perfidious”

    Truthy’s pulling out all the stops.

  2. VinceP1974 says:

    Terrye

    Vince:
    This is just great. You are making these idiots’ points for them.

    Spare me your drama. the only side I’m on is the truth. Which I know you cant stand when I criticize Bush. Somehow you think he’s immune from all criticism.

    In any case here is what Hugh Hewitt says about a US official who was in Iraq:

    John Agresto’s memoir of his service in Iraq as senior advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education came out this week. He’ll join me in the third hour today.
    It is a very personal book, full of regret and sober observations on the mistakes made throughout the post-invasion period. There is plenty of blunt talk as well. Example:

    “We insisted that the Ayatollah Sistani was surely a “moderate” and a friend to civil and religious liberty despite all the hard evidence to the contrary. Let me repeat my previous observations and predictions: The Ayatollah Sistani is an Islamist bent on establishing a theocracy not far removed from that found in Iran. He is an open anti-Semite and a not-too-subtle anti-Christian. he threw his support behind democratic elections because they were the handy vehicles for imposing religious authority all over Iraq. Nor is he the only one, or even the worst, only the most prominent. Yet while I believe the evidence is as clear here as it is in the case of Chalabi, we only see what we want to see,, not what’s visible. In our religious lives, Hope may well be a virtue — but in foreign policy it is more often a sin, a temptation to willful blindness.”

    And he issued a fatwa for all gays and lesbians to be killed.

    He’s a great guy huh?

  3. WWS says:

    Sistani, like all muslim clerics, would no doubt like to establish a theocracy – that is the form of government which Islam itself calls for. However, even though he would prefer one *like* the Iranian gov’t, he has never allied himself *with* the Iranian govm’t, and that is a huge and extremely important distinction. He has also never affiliated himself with the Mahdi Army or the Badr brigade, two powerful groups who greatly desired his support.

    Characterizing Sistani as some kind of great guy who thinks like Americans do is of course, ridiculous. It is not possible for anyone like that to have ever risen to his position. That’s like saying the Archbishop of Canterbury might call for Sharia law – oh wait, bad example. But I digress.

    Anyway, *Because* Sistani obviously opposes Iranian influence, even if only because he sees it as a threat to him personally, and because he opposes Al Sadr, probably for the same reason, his influence becomes something that America can use to further our own goals. If he is willing to work for a unified Iraq, for WHATEVER reasons of his own, then he is valuable to us and someone we need to work with.

    Hirohito didn’t help us run post-war Japan because he loved America – we used him and people still loyal to him because it suited our own best interests to do so. You *Have* to have a significant group of people in a country you’re trying to manage on your side to succeed – the lack of that as much as anything is why Iraq was in chaos until the Petraus strategy turned things around.

    Is Sistani a great guy I would like to have a beer with? Hell, no. Is he a useful and valuable ally for this country? Absolutely yes.

  4. Whippet1 says:

    ooh, ooh, ooh. Truthy’s getting rather touchy. Either that or he must have a bee under his burka. Allah Akbar! won’t be far behind!

  5. Whippet1 says:

    Truthy…
    Here’s just a little sample of the friends you support… You must be so proud. But don’t call the terrorists…they’re such sweet nice little people.

    http://patdollard.com/2008/04/intercepted-al-qaeda-letter-reveals-tactics-strategy/

  6. 75 says:

    Paints quite a different picture than Truthy, doesn’t he?

    http://www.macsmind.com/wordpress/2008/04/16/insurgents-depressed-in-anbar/

  7. truthhard2take says:

    Stupid 75 approves of Bush’s theft of Kosovo from Serbia on demographic grounds, as he condemns Russia’s pull on territories
    on exactly the same grounds.

  8. truthhard2take says:

    And yes, American support of Kosovan independence was crucial if not decisive.

  9. truthhard2take says:

    Vince

    By American definitions, 99% of Iraqis are “anti-semites,” and 95% want severe proscriptions put on sexual deviations. So what? Sistani
    aside, you don’t have enough pro-Israelis and social liberals by your definition to put together the government of one small city there,let alone a nation.

  10. truthhard2take says:

    Whipped

    If we were using real names I could have you in a court of law. You can’t find one supportive reference to “AQ,” of mine, but you can find the claim supported by the Iraqis themselves in many polls, and by experts like General William Odom, that they can clean out foreign jihadists after we leave more effeciently than we can.

  11. truthhard2take says:

    WWS

    “Our goals” will never be assented to by Sistani, who refuses to even meet with an American barbarian who seeks,as he and you both know,and you transparently reveal, to install a puppet regieme in Iraq.

  12. Whippet1 says:

    Truthy,

    “If we were using real names I could have you in a court of law. ”

    Left by truthhard2take on April 17th, 2008

    What in the world are you talking about? Threats now? Ooooh, I’m scared… Grow up Truthy…

  13. 75 says:

    LOL!! Truthy’s lobbing threats now…and to anonymous bloggers no less. Note to Truthy: With your record of corrspondence here I’d say your chances in court were slim to none.

    It’s a hot kitchen, dumbass…grow a pair or leave.

  14. […] the ‘news’ from both journalists and propagandists – all with the same credentials. As I noted before, Basra is now a much better place after Maliki took action. The failure of Basra is another media […]