Now that we've cut a deal with Sadr in Najaf like the one we cut in Fallujah -- we back off, and let the bad guys go, in exchange for which we don't have to take the PR hit of leveling their cities -- can we pause to remember Bush's rhetoric about having the resolve to stick with the fight? Sistani said blink, and he blinked. So much for the warrant for Sadr's arrest -- it's been "suspended:"
- The agreement, hammered out between Mr. Sadr and Iraqi leaders and approved by the Americans, calls for the Mahdi Army, whose fighters have held the city since April 5, to put away their guns and go home, and for the American forces to pull most of their forces out of the city. Under the agreement, the Americans can maintain a handful of posts inside the city and may still run patrols through the city center.
....In a major concession to Mr. Sadr, the Americans and Iraqi officials promised to suspend the arrest warrant issued against him for his suspected involvement in the murder of a rival cleric in April 2003.
....The agreement fell into place after the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most powerful Shiite leader, delivered a stern message to the Americans urging them to get behind the deal.
According to two Iraqi Shiite leaders, American officials signed onto the agreement with Mr. Sadr only after they received a forceful note from Ayatollah Sistani and other senior clerics, passed to them by Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie.
But we got them to agree that we can "run patrols through the city center", so that'll show them who's boss, right?
Why anyone thinks that Bush's speeches have any relationship to what we actually do on the ground is beyond me.
etfs -- t.s.
