Friday, April 11, 2008

Look at this Amir Taheri analysis of the Battle of Basra, it blames the whole fiasco on...Iran. Unsurprisingly, coming from a guy like Taheri, who seems to be the sort of US-asskisser a la Chalabi and Ajami, this analysis closely sticks to what US officials talk about all the time: the Iranian-backed Scary Special Groups, he doesn't really cite any references, a thing he has apparently done in past reportings.

p.s. Sorry for not writing about April 9 and/or political developments, I can barely have time to sleep these days.

15 comments:

CMAR II said...

I suppose he could have blamed it on Sadr. Would that have made him a US ass-kisser too? I guess he would have been a loyal Arab if he blamed Bush. That makes sense, right? Because Maliki consulted the US military commanders about this and did exactly what they told him to do, right? No?

Since I think this "fiasco" is not a fiasco but just what needed to happen in Iraq, and because I think it deserves credit and not blame, I'm giving it all to Maliki. Does that make me a US ass-kisser or an Iraqi ass-kisser?

You've been saying for months now that Iraq is screwed because the sectarian divisions in Iraq are so deep. But now Sunni and Shi'a Arabs in the Iraqi Aramy are working with volunteers provided by the anti-Sadrist sheiks in the south to take out the Mahdi Army at the knees. This is good news, right?

I think some Iraqi bloggers suffer from Maliki Derangement Syndrome (MDS). They have become so used to condemning Maliki for this or that (including the legitimacy and influence of the Mahdi Army) that they can't turn it off when he does exactly what they have been saying he should do for 2 years.

Anonymous said...

But now Sunni and Shi'a Arabs in the Iraqi Aramy are working with volunteers provided by the anti-Sadrist sheiks in the south to take out the Mahdi Army at the knees.

You can't be serious if you think you can pull off this statement on an Iraqi's blog. Sunni and Shia Arabs in the Iraqi Army working together with "volunteers" to take out the Mahdi Army? Are you fucking serious? Do you think there are still any Sunni units or officers left in the Iraqi Army? Maliki admitted up to 10 thousand Dawa and SIIC loyalists into the army in the last few days but he still refuses to admit any of the Sunni Awakening militias. Can you Americans get your heads out of your asses for a moment?

that they can't turn it off when he does exactly what they have been saying he should do for 2 years.

Maliki should reign in ALL militias, including his own and those of Badr/SIIC that are firmly rooted into the Iraqi security apparatus and provincial councils in southern Iraq. There are two dozen militias operating in Basra and all are involved in criminal rackets and smuggling operations and massive plunder and theft, including the governor's Fadhila militia. Why did Maliki single out Sadr's militia at this time if it were not to ensure his party retains control of the south? Why did Maliki attempt yesterday to exclude the Sadrists from running in provincial elections because they have a militia? Do the rest of the parties running not have militias? Or is it the fact that those militias are more loyal to the US vision of Iraq whereas the Sadrists are opposed to it?

Anonymous said...

And, Kid, I wouldn't put any importance to anything Amir Taheri says. He is the Iranian Fouad Ajami, and no one, besides the American Right, really pays attention to his rubbish.

ahmed said...

cmarii,

don't you ever get tired of trying to work anything remotely related to the US to be good news? gee whiz buddy, it's almost as if you are paid oh aw cough excuse me..sorry...calm down, guy.

nobody is having maliki whatever syndrome, it's just that it seems a bit too funny to me that everything in iraq is fucked up because of iran, which is basically what mr. taheri says, kinda reminds you of the sort of stories chalabi used to tell the CIA who were all singing "tell me what I wanna hear", muqtada is bad all right, but he is not an iranian stooge.
look buddy, i know i issued a fatwa on all of you, but rhuslancia seems all right and jeffery can be a bit of a jerk on the weekends, but neither of them are as deliberately stupid as you are, please, man, i mean, seriously?

RhusLancia said...

Hey Abbas, an 'Anonymous' left this comment at Zeyad's today:

Iran will back the Mahdi Army so long as it helps achieve its interests: being a thorn in the side of US forces and cleansing vital parts of the country from Sunnis. It will not back the Mahdi Army against it's main allies and enablers in Iraq. Again: Iran's alliance with Sadr was tactical and has served its goal, while its alliance with SCIRI-Dawa-PUK-KDP (also known as the "Iraqi government") is strategic and long term. Why else do you think both sides turned to Iran to broker a ceasefire?

I think that's pretty accurate. What do you think?

My take is, Iran will f--- with Iraq as long as doing it is in its interest. And right now, their interest is in tying up the US military and slowing down democratic progress. It's not like they've had to invest too heavily to do that, or suffered any significant consequences.

CMAR II said...

[abbas] muqtada is bad all right, but he is not an iranian stooge.

Let's see...Mookie has spent the last year hiding out in Qom, IRAN. Are you really going to tell me he's not an Iranian agent? ("Stooge" implies he doesn't know what he is doing) I guess he did that because Iran wasn't crazy about him. Who else would you give a pass like that?

Abbas, this is GOOD NEWS. It has nothing to do with the US (except that good news for Iraq is good news for the US). Petraeus said he was against the crack-down on Sadr. How is this pro-US spin? Just over a week ago, you said this:
Hey, if al-Maliki is indeed capable of saying what he says is going to do, then I'm all for this guy by all means, the Sadrists, with their strongly supernatural bent and retrograde barbarism isn't something you can negotiate with, let alone be secure in having along in building a meaningful democracy....but I would only approve of what you're doing when you get the Sadrists, and that's not going to happen anytime soon. the Sadrists are way, way more powerful."

So what's the alternative to what Maliki is doing? You've told me you want the US to leave so Iraq can just get on with the genocide already. Are you sure you are not feeling a little perverse disappointment at Mookie troubles? Or maybe you are OVER-estimating Mookie. Why is he offering a new concession to the government each day? Najaf is no longer a refuge for them. Sadr's circle of goons there are having done to them what they did to anyone else who got in their way starting in 2003. The blow-by-blow events suggest that the trend is the opposite of what you are promising. And I'll reiterate that this is exactly what Iraqi bloggers (especially the most virulent Maliki-haters) have been saying should be done.

Or are you getting regular checks from Muq... *cough* ahem *hack*

annie said...

abbas, late night..consider me lazy. i didn't bother to even read past the first paragraph of the NEW YORK POST article, you know why?

they are the most flat out zionist ,neocon ,(somewhat)msm raq in the entire country. you might as well read MOSSAD when you open the link..

also i must confessed i scrolled past the last post for similiar reasons..

tomorrow when i am fresh and energized i will read the crap. but seriously, linking to the nypost is a forgone conclusion... massive neonut propaganda rag

annie said...

cmar, you dude.. like.. i am curious.. what's your paycheck?

grand a month? 2? does it cover your rent? healthcare? both?

Anonymous said...

"Are you fucking serious? Do you think there are still any Sunni units or officers left in the Iraqi Army? "

Actually Sunnis still lead the army as they always did , as to why there are less sunnis in the army in general it has to do with them not volonteering . I think the iraqi army looks exactly the way it did before 2003 : sunni leads , chiite fights .

"Maliki should reign in ALL militias, "

I assume ALL here includes Sunni militias ( including the so called awakening) and the Beshmerga.

annie said...

as to why there are less sunnis in the army in general it has to do with them not volonteering . I think the iraqi army looks exactly the way it did before 2003 : sunni leads , chiite fights .


yer nuts

Bruno said...

Abbas, Taheri has been caught telling lies several times before. He's also related to the Neocons, which automatically makes him suspect in my book.

And yes, CMAR has fallen off the edge ...

Anonymous said...

" Suhair al-Qaysi " ?
The girl from Arabiya , right Abbas?

She looks alot like Marilyn Manson .

annie said...

bruno He's also related to the Neocons,

he writes for benador associates which is neocon/mossad central.

other writers include Charles Krauthammer,Richard Pipes,Natan Sharansky,James Woolsey,Meyrav Wurmser,Richard Perle,Alexander M. Haig, Jr.,Michael A. Ledeen

can't be any more entreched than that!

annie said...

entrenched ..

sorry, i should really read what i write before i click.

annie said...

sourcewatch

Jim Lobe describes Benador as follows:

"When historians look back on the United States war in Iraq, they will almost certainly be struck by how a small group of mainly neo-conservative analysts and activists outside the administration were able to shape the US media debate in ways that made the drive to war so much easier than it might have been… But historians would be negligent if they ignored the day-to-day work of one person who, as much as anyone outside the administration, made their media ubiquity possible. Meet Eleana Benador, the Peruvian-born publicist for Perle, Woolsey, Michael Ledeen, Frank Gaffney and a dozen other prominent neo-conservatives whose hawkish opinions proved very hard to avoid for anyone who watched news talk shows or read the op-ed pages of major newspapers over the past 20 months."
— Jim Lobe, The Andean Condor among the Hawks, Asia Times, August 15, 2003.



clip

In May 2006, Canada's National Post ran a sensational story by Benador associate and Iranian exile Amir Taheri. The piece claimed that Iran's government had passed a law requiring Jewish residents to wear a yellow insignia -- reminiscent of the policies of Germany's Nazi regime. The story was quickly debunked and the National Post apologized. Eleana Benador admitted that her PR firm had planted the piece. [52]
.....

Taheri might seem to be one of Benador's biggest liabilities. In fact, he is right now the agency's proudest coup. On May 30--just days after the National Post's apology for running his false story on Iranian Jews--Taheri was one of a group of "Iraq experts" brought to the White House to consult with George W. Bush on the disastrous situation there.


there's more at the link....