Thursday, August 28, 2008

Iranian News Cleverly Disguised As Iraqi News

Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the 60,000-strong Mehdi Army (a Shi'ite militia) has announced that the cease-fire order he issued (first for six months in August 2007, then for another six months in February 2008) will now be in place indefinitely.

While not explicitly calling for disarmament, he stated that the Mehdi Army would be reshaped into a primarily religious and cultural organization and renamed al-Mumahidun. The Mehdi Army was the most motivated and best-organized single force threatening Iraqi stability, so this is great news for the American presence and Iraqi government.

Be aware, however, that al-Sadr has actually been living in Iran (a Shi'ite state) since early 2007 and it is no great reach to assume that al-Sadr's words and actions since then (if not before) have been an extension of Iranian policy. This indefinite extension of the cease-fire is a likely indicator of a compromise having been reached behind the scenes between the US and Iran.

1 Comments:

Blogger leo said...

You would like Mad Men, you corportate sell out. You forget your commie roots, but that's okay. I'd like to propose to you that we start working on Grad Men, about a group of Stalingrad propaganda makers in the 60's, like a mirror image of captialism and communism. Tell me that wouldn't be awesome!

Two other things:

1. In the midst of PalinPalooza, I heard that there is a major third party in Alaska that wants to make them their own independent country. Have you heard of this before? I'm very intrigued.... who do they think they are, Quebec? Can we let Texas do the same thing so the rest of us don't have to deal with them?

2. One NFL site was going over the offseason moves for each team, and they said the Steelers were "sad to see all-league guard Alan Faneca go, but it may have been addition by subtraction, because he was a bad influence on the younger players." WTF? Have you ever heard anything about him?

1:27 PM  

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