Want to Know What’s Happening in Najaf?

Read it from the Iraqis themselves, why dont you? Allah (no, not that one. The other one, who is wise in the way of Photoshopping) has links and quotes.

My favorite?

Those occupying and desecrating the holy shrine are almost all completely alien to the city and with faces unseen before by the real locals. Some are not even Iraqi and do not even speak the Arabic language. I tell you this is the truth. Vicious aliens, whether foreigners or criminals and thugs from other provinces, have invaded the great Imams’ resting place. Heinous crimes have been perpetrated against the Najaf people including murder, mutilation, kidnapping and arrest of ordinary people policemen and religious leaders; and please note that this was not done by the Americans, or by the IP or the IDC. That is the truth as God is my witness. Just today, a most venerable religious scholar “Sayed Mahdi Al Hakim” who had been a guest in Saddam Prisons for almost 12 years, has been beaten badly and led to un unknown location by a gang belonging to these occupiers of the shrine. They are surrounding all the venerable religious leaders of Najaf and threatening them. . . .
They say the Americans are desecrating the holy place. No and a thousand times no. The Americans are helping the people of Najaf, they are now truly defending the shrine and attacking a murderous gang, attacking the desecrators and coming to the rescue of the holy shrine. . . . [T]he great alliance that has been forged between the people of Najaf and their American friends, which is one of most solid than anywhere else in Iraq, should be the basis of one great effort that will clean the town and liberate the shrine of our great Imam.

I hope the US and Iraqi forces go in with a vengeance and hit al-Sadr so hard that the Mullahs in Iran get headaches.

I’ve been percolating this for a while now. Who, exactly, is opposing our going into the Imam Ali Shrine? It’s not the Iraqi people, by and large. It’s not been Ayatollah Sistani, whose been pretty flexible on the notion in the last three weeks. It’s not Prime Minister Allawi or the Iraqi government.

It’s been Iran, Syria, and al-Jazeera.

Well guess what, folks. It’s high time that Moqtada al-Sadr pay the piper in Najaf. And we ought to be direct and upfront with the government of Iraq. We ought to tell them that we will gladly drag the renegade cleric out by his scruffy, ill-fitting robe intot he sublight and turn him over to them. But we want them right there telling everyone with a camera and microphone how glad they are for our help and how reverent we’ve been in protecting their shrine from further damage.

I don’t mind our boys dying to help get a democracy on its feet. That’s an important part of what we’re supposed to do as the most powerful democracy on Earth. But this dancing around with Muslim sensibilities has gone on entirely too long. The Iranian government has dragged gotten too much bang for their buck here already and it has to stop.

So if the reports are true and the Iraqi forces move in tonight, I’ll be too happy. If it’s another clumsy feint with a diplomatic snivel behind it, I’ll be that much closer to thinking that we ought to move on to the next threat.

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Category: Fighting the Islamists, Our Foreign Policy