Terrorist says no. This speaks for itself. (HT Hot air).
U.S. trying to open a dialogue with al-Sadr, commander says
The U.S. military is seeking talks with Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr directly and through the government of Iraq, according to a top American general.
A Sadr aide confirmed that U.S. officials had approached the anti-American cleric’s supporters but said that Sadr would never begin a dialogue with what they describe as “occupation forces.”
“He has a grass-roots movement that he’s always going to have; [not if he were dead] we have to recognize that,” Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the second-ranking American commander in Iraq, told McClatchy Newspapers in an interview this week. “We’re trying to talk to him. We want to talk to him.” […]
Odierno told McClatchy that he wasn’t sure whether Sadr’s resurfacing in the Shiite holy city of Kufa last week was a good or bad thing for American forces in Iraq…”I’m mixed; I’m not sure yet,” Odierno said referring to the effect of Sadr’s return on security. “I’ll take a wait-and-see attitude.”
The U.S. military has begun to draw distinctions between Sadr and what it calls “rogue” Mahdi Army members. [Has anyone checked with Muqtada about this?] It most often links the men whom it detains and kills to Iran through their weapon of choice: explosively formed projectiles, which are armor-piercing bombs that the American military claims come from Iran. Separating Sadr from the Mahdi Army commanders [in our own little fantasy world to justify negotiating with a terrorist enemy] whom the American military is targeting could set the stage for U.S.-Sadr talks.
Hmm, okay, that’s like if we decided, in our own made-up world, to ‘separate’ Hitler from the concept of ‘the Nazis’ making it easier for us to negotiate with Hitler? Because it’s the Nazis who are the bad guys and not Hitler, because he’s…separate?
Sweet God. Is it possible everyone making decisions about Iraq is on drugs? Is the president being blackmailed? Is there a nuclear bomb ready to go off? Is the president drinking? Seriously. I really can’t explain this anymore; I’m at a complete loss.
I am at the same loss as you Tammy, and it is driving me nuts. First Iran, and now an avowed terrorist? Once again, I am afraid, we are going to lose a war without losing a battle, courtesy of politically correct BS that will only hasten our own demise.
As I was listening to Glenn Beck this morning, I took something he said to heart, in a way. He wants us all to back away from the madness for a while, seek succor in what we hold dear, and then look at the world from that perspective. I turned him off, turned up the iPod and enjoyed the sunshine for a short time. Now, less then 24 hours later, I am back reading the blogs, the news, and scrambling for my duct tape…Sorry Glenn, burying our heads in the sand, even if it is in the sand of what we hold dear, is not going to work. Only when enough people begin to lose hope, begin to fear for thier futures, will we snap out of the malaise that is allowing this to happen.
Bush apparently now sees himself changing from a Harry Truman mode (resisting aggression in Korea) to an Eisenhower mode (let’s talk and be nice, solve nothing definitively,and leave American troops hostage for unending years: I WILL GO TO KOREA!)
Yeah, Stonemason. This is completely ridiculous, even worse than ridiculous. Have terrorists gassed all of Washington with some unknown hallucinogen? I can’t make sense of this any more either, Tammy. As Stonemason has said, any sticking our heads in the ground is living a fantasy, perhaps the same fantasy being lived in Washington right now. (only it ain’t the ground many there have stuck their heads in). I will hold to my “ideal” though (the real America. She’s still around here somewhere). If this is ever again to be government, of, by and for the people, then we have to continue to be America, the people, not the government, and make our voices heard, paying attention to what’s up all around us and screaming like we tell our kids to if a stranger ever so much as touches them. Nobody in DC remembers how to say “No!” real loud. Because our Country is being touched by strangers and many of the strangers are those who are supposed to be protecting Her. And maybe it’s also time we made our voices heard in heaven too. America needs serious, serious help.