What a Mess

Friends,
What a mess. And our soldiers are going to be involved more and more. I think this is what al Maliki has in mind. While Washington has the neo-cons running the show he better take advantage. And while Basra is ungovernable it sure is close to our "arch enemy" Iran. The Bush boys now making a big show of some of the arms being made in Iran. Duh. But how many were made in the good ol' USA? or lost from our unprepared army at the beginning? or given the arms directly from US to quell violence? or given to the Iraqi Police (oxymoron)? or given to any of the many Sunni groups by our best buddy Saudi Arabia? This is now Shia vs Shia as the pages of the Koran are now dividing even further down. We have not even heard from "the insurgents" or Al Queda of Iraq. And so now the USA is drawn in farther and farther and Iran once again resonates in the neo-con vocabulary. What a mess!

Peace and Love,
Rev O

".......as the American role in a campaign against party-backed militias appeared to expand. Iraqi army and police units appeared to be largely holding to the outskirts of the Sadr City fighting, as American troops took the lead."
" The clashes suggested that American forces were being drawn more deeply into a broad offensive that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, launched in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday, saying death squads, criminal gangs and rogue militias were the targets."
"The U.S. officials, who were not authorized to speak on the record, said that they believe Iran has provided assistance in the past to all three groups -- the Mahdi Army; the Badr Organization of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, Iraq's largest Shiite party; and forces loyal to the Fadhila Party, which holds the Basra governor's seat. But the officials see the current conflict as a purely internal Iraqi dispute. "
"The adviser said the militia's weapons, some of them made in Iran, are more powerful than those of the Iraqi army."

U.S. Armor Forces Join Offensive In Baghdad Against Sadr Militia BAGHDAD, Washington Post, March 28 -- U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in the vast Shiite stronghold of Sadr City and U.S. aircraft bombed militant positions in the southern city of Basra, as the American role in a campaign against party-backed militias appeared to expand. Iraqi...