Foreign Correspondence

[otraque]

Heavy duty:Muqtada Damns Rumsfeld
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
http://juancole.com/

There was more violence on Monday in Baghdad, according to AP:

' Bomb blasts in Baghdad and north of the capital - many of them targeting Iraqi police patrols - killed at least 11 more people Monday and wounded more than 40. They included a U.S. soldier killed in a roadside bombing in east Baghdad, the military said. A U.S. Marine was reported killed Sunday in the western insurgent-plagued province of Anbar. '


Angry Shiites in Sadr City appear to have strung up 4 Sunni Arabs and hung them from lamp posts, after the attacks on Sunday.

The governor of largely Sunni Arab Salahuddin Province barely escaped assassination on Monday.

Young Shiite nationalist leader Muqtada al-Sadr said Monday that Iraq is in a state of civil war. He responded to guerrilla provocations against Sadr City, with bombings and mortars having killed over 50 persons there Sunday, by ordering his Mahdi Militia NOT to engage in reprisals.

Like many Iraqi and Arab observers, Muqtada was shocked when US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said last week that the US military would not intervene in an Iraqi civil war, leaving that to Iraqi forces.



' "May God damn you," Sadr said of Rumsfeld. "You said in the past that civil war would break out if you were to withdraw, and now you say that in case of civil war you won't interfere." '


Cole: I have to admit, it is hard to see what use it is to have US soldiers in Iraq if they won't be deployed in a genuine national emergency.(edit: Now Juan goes into his DEEP , we are so innocent BS---though always OPPOSED to this war, he never damned the U.S., just attacked it for incompetence and bad decision---Cole is excellent source for news, but he is Liberal Academic. He would NEVER suggest U.S. wants this civil war and are zeroing in on Iran now---like most libs(versus RADS) they can't THINK TOUGH,they can't THINK SINISTER; they NEVER want get uncivil and make lashing accusations.

In short , Liberal Academics have all the "passion" of a George Will.
Juan "George why don't drop by when your pass through Michigan and we can have tea and discuss together how we both now feel this war was not a god thing". George "Why, be happy too. I was , i admit slow to seeing this would be debacle."---end editorial aside:Max:)