Sources say: Sadr scared out of Baghdad - or not
Having just watched the tail end of Bush's press conference it's unsurprising that we're getting conflicting reports on Sadr's whereabouts. The two questions I saw Bush answer on the subject were a study in contrasts. Compared to his robotic delivery of the SOTU address, our President, who announced that he was not going to add Presidential Pundit to long list of titles, came across as totally lost. He stopped mid-sentence, clearly forgeting his talking points and then mumbled some incoherent platitudes. Perhaps I missed it earlier, but he gave no indication he even knew his spokesman announced Sadr's departure. Maybe he's afraid to get caught in another "misstatement" on videotape that will later come back to haunt him.
In any event, chief US military propagandist, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, claims Sadr left town weeks ago and is hiding in Tehran. Needless to say, the implication they're trying to plant is that their surge is working and scaring the bad guys away. It seems much more likely they don't have a clue where Sadr is and are trying to flush him out by taunting him with false reports that imply he's a coward.
Meanwhile, senior Iraqi officials stated they met with Sadr only days ago in government offices and that Sadr is moving around but is still definitely in the city. It appears the administration's contentions, along with the rightwing noise machine's glee at the announcement may well be premature, and pointless, since everyone agrees even if Sadr is in Tehran, he won't stay there forever.
In any event, chief US military propagandist, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, claims Sadr left town weeks ago and is hiding in Tehran. Needless to say, the implication they're trying to plant is that their surge is working and scaring the bad guys away. It seems much more likely they don't have a clue where Sadr is and are trying to flush him out by taunting him with false reports that imply he's a coward.
Meanwhile, senior Iraqi officials stated they met with Sadr only days ago in government offices and that Sadr is moving around but is still definitely in the city. It appears the administration's contentions, along with the rightwing noise machine's glee at the announcement may well be premature, and pointless, since everyone agrees even if Sadr is in Tehran, he won't stay there forever.
posted by Libby Spencer at 12:36 PM
2 Comments:
This whole kerfluffle with Sadr has me scratching my head. It definately has that sense of the propagandists shuffling the deck chairs around as the USS Illegal Invasion goes aground, but how did a leading cleric of a sect that for the most part didn't attack the invaders all of a sudden become a wanted guy? I know the efforts to put a face on the enemy is ever present, but who cares where this dude is? Is there going to be a slaughter of shiites if he's liquidated as the new Evil One? Perhaps what we're about to see is the end result of the Sunni Saudis taking Cheney to the woodshed last year, making it perfectly clear that Shiite influence in Iraq and Shiite Iran had to be crushed.
I think in their simplistic minds, our military geniuses believe they can make a case for bombing Iran for "harboring" Sadr. They have probably been trying to figure out how to vilify him ever since his political party became so powerful in the new government. That definitely not part of the plan.
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