Why are American troops in Najaf?

[BlackJack8324]

Richard Reeves United Press Syndicate
Monday, August 16, 2004

So what are we Americans doing in Najaf? Is killing the followers of a nasty Shiite preacher, killing them at the gates of the most holy shrine of Shiite Muslims all over the world, vital to the national interests of the United States and its allies?

And why is it that we are killing Shiites, the wretched of the earth in the secular Sunni Muslim country of Saddam Hussein? That is the same Saddam who murdered the father of the preacher five years ago. Was that our clear intent and realistic objective in invading Iraq? Would the American people and Congress - and our allies - have supported a $200 billion war to get a preacher, Moktada al-Sadr?

"I know what I'm doing when it comes to winning this war," said Bush last Wednesday. That's good to hear. What exactly are you doing in Najaf? Killing bad guys, I guess. If that is the criteria for putting the Marines around the shrine of the Imam Ali, then we will be at war forever, everywhere.


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