Iraqi cleric threatens action if US forces remain

[Skip_In_Boulder]

Just more reason as to why we should be getting out of these quagmires in the M.E. like we were told was going to be part of the hope and change that would be coming after 2008. Instead we find that we are now getting into more.

BUSHRA JUHI

Associated Press= BAGHDAD (AP) — A powerful anti-American Shiite cleric threatened Saturday to reactivate his feared militia if American soldiers remain in Iraq beyond this year, after a U.S. offer to keep troops on if they are needed.

Muqtada al-Sadr issued a statement to his followers on the eight anniversary of Saddam Hussein's ouster that stopped just short of calling for violent action against U.S. forces. He accused "the occupation" of inciting panic, corruption and unrest among Iraqis.

His statement was read aloud at a huge protest of tens of thousands in Baghdad's Mawal Square, near al-Sadr's stronghold in an eastern Baghdad slum. The cleric is in Iran, where he has been studying religion for the last several years.

"What if the invasion forces will not leave our lands?" al-Sadr asked in the statement, which was read at the protest by his aide Salah al-Obeidi. "What if the U.S. forces and others stay in our beloved lands? What if their companies and embassy headquarters will continue to exist with the American flags hoisted on them? Will you be silent? Will you overlook this?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9588788

[Iwasthere]

1. That is how it all started

Remember way back before the idiot stole the presidency... Osama was threatening, wanted us off land. This was why he struck us, NOT for our freedoms. Yet we just keep clumbsily stompin around over there. The entire budget bullshit could easily be resolved, STOP GOING TO WAR!

[CJvR]

3. Osama got a promotion?

Osama doesn't rule a land and never did. The only thing he ever ruled was a gang of murderous scum.

[Fuddnik]

2. Didn't anybody tell him the war is over?

Some people just won't listen.

[Skip_In_Boulder]

4. I don't think they have the best internet connections over there

so he may not have gotten the memo. :toast:

[Name removed]

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