Militant cleric issues demands of coalition

[Chicago Democrat]

(snip)
Referring to the Iraqi people, he said "I demand in your name":


"To get back the voice of Iraq and for the previous dictator and have Saddam Hussein tried in a Supreme Court.


"For a stop to this terrorism and to release all those of al-Sadr followers who have been arrested. They are not guilty of anything but accepting Allah.


"Not to bury the voice of the Iraqi people under the ground of the politicians and the diplomats. You must organize an Iraqi constitutional government away from these occupation forces or any other wing.


"To choose who you want and not to let anyone impose on you who your leader is.


"The investigation of the crimes of the occupation forces and bring justice to those who have committed the crimes.


"A guaranteed date of departure of the occupying forces."

rest at...

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/10/iraq.sadr/index.html

[Chicago Democrat]

1. Sounds reasonable to me

This man is not our enemy.

God save us from this tragedy.

God Save America!

[maggrwaggr]

2. "this man is not our enemy" is a little naive

considering he would like to see all Americans dead.

I mean, I don't blame him for wanting Americans out of his country, but c'mon ....

If I was a soldier over there, I'd DEFINITELY consider him my enemy.

[kalian]

4. That's too bad...considering that WE are the ILLEGAL OCCUPIERS...

get the picture? Its ironic. We don't support bush but we do "support
the troops". Its not mutually exclusive.
We need to get out of Iraq now....there's NOTHING that we can
negotiate given that we are there ILLEGALLY.

[maggrwaggr]

9. dude, I "got the picture" a long time ago

But it would be naive of anyone to assume that Sadr is any kind of a "nice guy". He's a shrewd political animal and a power monger. These guys are like the midevil (sp?) popes of old.

I wouldn't trust him any further than I could throw him.

In the current situation you can't trust anybody. That's one of the reasons it's so FUBAR

[Chicago Democrat]

6. "considering he wants all Americans dead." is a LIE.

He wants occupying Americans dead. Mercenaries. Their allies. Iraqi collaborators. Not 'all Americans.'

Americans generally are found in America. Remember we invaded his country and now Bush is totally trying to occupy it forever, and the so-called "democracy" Bush promised is a cruel joke. No its worse, its a crime. Unfortunately, for those caught in the US armed forces, they are complicit and completely culpable. That is why Bush must be defeated in November and those guilty of these war crimes must be punished.

American Armed forces invaded Iraq on fabricated evidence and have instigated this rebellion through various means... To quote the article Sadr spells out the case for this rebellion which began when the Americans closed Sadr's newspaper.

Quote:

"The attacks began by the occupying forces. It all started with the false accusations and the shutdown of the Al Hawza newspaper," al-Kadhim said, referring to Coalition Provisional Authority administrator Paul Bremer's two-month shutdown of the Baghdad newspaper, published by al-Sadr supporters, for inciting violence.

Al-Kadhim said coalition forces "have killed innocent people, women, and children ... and still our position remains one that is trying to be peaceful, but they don't let us."

"The occupying forces have attacked al-Kufa, Najaf, here in Baghdad, and in many other cities, and they are the ones who initiated everyone of those attacks by the orders of (President) Bush and everyone till the last official representative they have here."

Al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia over the last week have been fighting with coalition-led forces in the cleric's bastions of support, among them Sadr City in Baghdad, Najaf, Karbala, Kut and Nasiriya. U.S. forces are in the process of retaking Kut from Sadr forces, which still have some control in the holy Shiite cities of Najaf and Karbala. (Full story)

"We are in the position of defending ourselves against all those who confront us," al-Kadhim said. "What are we supposed to do when the helicopters shoot at us? We say and we advise that all they need to do is to stop what they are doing and this problem will be solved."


(refer to this link)
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/04/10/iraq.sadr/index.html
That is what the man said, that is the 'why' of this...

[atreides1]

8. What You Say Has Merit

It is a little naive to think that this man is not an enemy of the US, but he seems to be the only one that will speak up about it.

Our country has many enemies, for myself I feel safer having this one out in the open, it's those who at this point in time that are
appearing to be our friends that worry me.

I can say with some degree of certainty that there are probably a few
countries that would like to see nothing better the the US having it's nose rubbed into the dirt. And I'm not just talking about those that have disagreed with us about this war.

The US really does not have many friends, at least not ones that we don't offer money. With the exception of the UK, most if not all of the other Coalition forces are there, because the US is paying them to be there, not out of any sense of loyalty or because of the "War on Terror"!

I guess Spain is there of it's own free will, at least until the end of May or June.

As I said I feel safer knowing where my enemy is!

[skooooo]

3. Ain't Gonna Happen......

..."We" won't go for any of that, I bet.

[Chicago Democrat]

11. Yes i agree.... The apes are in charge... Its so upsetting to see our

US marines kill and be killed for Bushs' lies

[keopeli]

5. It sounds to me like Sadr really does want a Democracy of some fashion.

[Veggie Meathead]

7. Sadr's demands seem reasonable, if we can negotiate a

timetable for the orderly withdrawal of our troops from Iraq.The threat of civil war has receded because Sadr's insurrection has united
Sunni, Shia and even the kurds against the occupiers. The pretext we have used of bringing Democracy to Iraq lies threadbare and the IGC under Chalabi has been exposed as a group of Quislings ready to do the bidding of the American occupiers.

In spite of the reasonable demands made by Sadr, I doubt it will be accepted because the real agenda of the Bush administration its PNAC
remains well cloaked in platitudes.Expect this reasonable demand to be summarily turned down and bloodshed to continue both among Iraqi civilians and our soldiers.Like another person said in another context,"it will be necessary to destroy Iraq in order to save it".

The long nightmare of Iraq is just beginning.

[Veggie Meathead]

10. The last thing the U.S. wants in Iraq is true democracy.Its long

efforts to groom Chalabi as the next head of a Quisling government has now hit the skids.The Bush Administration is now going to impose
a true quisling government with no native born Iraqis on the
panel.All its pretexts ( WMD's, AlQaeda-Iraq connection and bringing
Democracy to the Iraqi people) have been exposed as frauds.The hidden agenda such as it is, of maintaining American hegemony in the region
to protect its oil supplies, to deny oil supplies to potential rivals,
projecting an aggressive stance against all Arab/Muslim countries, will be gradually revealed once the Arabs are cowed into accepting American hegemony.

The foundations of a century old religious war between the Christian West and the Muslim East are being laid.The twentyfirst century is looking to be bloodier than the twentieth.Pray for our children and the children's children.

[Chicago Democrat]

12. Pray for our children and the children's children.

I will when I stop crying.