Retain the Deserters

Friends,
This is almost funny. Al Sadr is asking to have those 1,300 deserters reinstated. You are shitting me. Our troops are fighting with, against, and for these assholes. What a fucking mess!
Bring our troops home!
Rev O

"The intervention of Mr Sadr is the latest development in the political fallout of a continuing operation dubbed “Charge of the Knights”, launched by Nouri al-Maliki, prime minister, three weeks ago against what he called “lawless” gunmen concentrated in the southern port city of Basra."

"Sunday’s statement by Major General Abd al-Karim al-Khalaf, Interior Ministry spokesman, that 1,300 troops in Basra and the central town of Kut would be fired has confirmed that the desertions were a big cause of the government’s retreat.
Mr Maliki is likely now to come under heavy pressure to purge the security forces of Sadrist sympathisers, both to impose discipline in the ranks and to allay the fears of Sunni Arabs, who have long worried about Shia militia “infiltration”.

Shia leader defends troops who gave up arms FT London
Moqtada al-Sadr says the Iraqi forces fired for refusing to go into battle with his followers should retain their jobs because they were ‘driven by their religious duties’