Rice, in Baghdad, calls al-Sadr coward

From the relative safety of Iran Al-Sadr urges his followers to go to their deaths with dignity. "You have nothing to loose but your lives" he said. He is indeed a monumental fat coward, why can't his followers see that?

Well, on the other side of the coin, the esteemed leadership of the United States sees fit to continually send men and women to potential death on the frontlines of Iraq, for the sake of hubris and muddled cause. Not to mention the armchair generals hiding in the green zone. Rather poor choice of words for Rice in the greater scheme of things.

Everton2,

I agree. But the correct spelling is lose. Sorry, had to say it. :)

Where is George? On vacation?

Where is George? On vacation?

He's cowering somewhere else

But that wouldn't have anything to do with the assertion that directing a conflict from a foreign venue is equivalent to cowardice.

Rice is an idiot - al Sadr knows that Baghdad isn't safe - it's more common sense he isn't in a place where he is likely to be killed.

Um....how did Rice enter Baghdad to have this very meeting? - oh, that's right, in yet another dead-of-night-rooftop-hopping flight.

Pot, meet kettle.

"But that wouldn't have anything to do with the assertion that directing a conflict from a foreign venue is equivalent to cowardice."

It's your assertion.

And it's pretty revealing.

For one who claims to be American...

Al-Sadr speaks and people listen. Big surprise? Not really. He sat back and watched the US go through that wonderfully dreamed up "surge" and when we had to bring home troops, because we don't have the numbers to keeps up that type of presence, then he raises his ugly head.

I guess you could murder him and that might silence him and his followers....? Nah, might really piss off the hornets.

Guess you could start bombing every suspected hide out, but we're not to accurate at that.

I guess we can stay for 50 years to keep the sides apart, we know McCain is kewl with that.

If we stay till relations with all sides are peaceful, we'll be there for 100 years.

May we all thank george bush for starting this fiasco. We short a few soldiers. Maybe he could encourage his daughters to enlist and fill the ranks.

First of all, the only people who listen to this guy are the people who live in the slums. he is the leader of the poor who are the least educated people in Iraq. how hard is it to brain wash kids w/o jobs or a future? and his plan is what? ok, get rid of the US will create this many jobs? actually, what is his economic plan?

by the way, i have the same disdain for Republicans who voted for Bush.

dano2002 - "First of all, the only people who listen to this guy are the people who live in the slums. He is the leader of the poor who are the least educated people in Iraq. how hard is it to brain wash kids? By the way, i have the same disdain for Republicans who voted for Bush."

I ditto that last comment. It's more than clear that Americans (most of them in name only) who really should exercise their gray matter are the ones who are still backing Bush/the war.

In fact, the blind, unthinking support from these war supporters is probably one of the only reasons why top ranks like Condi Rice are STILL sneaking into Iraq in the dead of night, 5 years after the war began.

But if you ask these same war supporters to front up support the war either personally or financially and they'll run and hide in their basements.

What was that word Condi used again?...was it "C-o-w-a-r-d?"

Checking....yeah it is!

[Sezwho] - "But that wouldn't have anything to do with the assertion that directing a conflict from a foreign venue is equivalent to cowardice."

[redacted] - It's your assertion. And it's pretty revealing. For one who claims to be American..."

What is your point? Patriotic Americans know this war is wrong and they see the negative effects it is having on their lives, families and the U.S. economy.

If things are going swimmingly, why is Bush's job approval ratings - of the war and of the economy - in the toilet?

And why are Condi and other top ranked U.S. officials slinking into Iraq in the dead of night while the Iranian President gets a red carpet welcome for a trip announced more than a month in advance?

It's the attitudes of AINO's (Americans In Name Only) like yourself that are in no small way responsible for the continuing fiasco we see in Iraq.

redacted - you would have a stronger argument if your base assumption was even remotely close to reality.

You mentioned the "liberation of Iraq."

If, by liberation, you mean -

Iraqi's dying at a faster rate under U.S. occupation than they were under Saddam. the spectre of thousands more dying slow and painful deaths due to the thousands of tons of DU that has been pumped into their country by your country's military. the further destruction of their country's infrastructure. the displacemnt of more than 4 million of their people (and many of the ones that your Govt. has heralded as returning are only coming back because they have been kicked out of the countries they went to.) the segregation and walling off of many Iraqi communities, and a whole lot more.

All for what?

to avenge 9/11? to stop Saddam's WMD program that..um.....didn't exist due to the fact the poison gases your Govt. sold him reached their use by date just after Gulf War I?

Yawn - here we go again, must decide foreign policy with "polls."

"If things are going swimmingly, why is Bush's job approval ratings - of the war and of the economy - in the toilet?"

I always laugh to see that foreign observers of our Great Experiment actually think polls decide anything of import in American politics.

Truman polled far lower than Bush.

History remembers him quite differently though.

I figure it will be the same for Bush.

redacted - "foreign observers of our Great Experiment"

Last week you near nuked your credibility by implying climate change wasn't much of a threat.

Today, you label an uncalled for war in which close on a million, probably more, innocent people have been killed or had their lives ruined, a "Great Experiment"?

No doubt you'll next claim America had some kind of "moral authority" to "free" Iraqis...

Hole, stop digging, you probably get my drift.

sushisake writes: "Today, you label an uncalled for war in which close on a million, probably more, innocent people have been killed or had their lives ruined, a "Great Experiment"?"

Can you read and infer? You spoke of Bush's ratings in polls.

I wrote:I always laugh to see that foreign observers of our Great Experiment actually think polls decide anything of import in American politics.

Your obsession with Bush and America has you so wound up you can not even follow your own thoughts and arguments.

Try to raise the level of your posts.

You're boring me.

In Basra, Iraqi government forces have taken control of the "last bastions of the cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s militia." In Baghdad, too, government troops killed militants presumably loyal to Sadr in Sadr City.

In response to this string of setbacks, Sadr, the courageous cleric who is believed to be holed up somewhere in Iran, issued a "final warning" to the Iraqi government: give up, or else! Astonishingly, the "mainstream" press, which has mis-reported the current clashes between government and Sadrist troops from the beginning, reported Sadr's threat straight.

Sadr's "final warning" struck me more as parody. It reminds me of something, but I can't quite think what. Oh yes, this is it:

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/04/020338.php

'“I know he’s sitting in Iran,” Rice said dismissively, when asked about al-Sadr’s latest threat to lift a self-imposed cease-fire with government and U.S. forces. “I guess it’s all-out war for anybody but him,” Rice said. “I guess that’s the message; his followers can go to their deaths and he’s in Iran.”'

Hahahahaha.... meanwhile, bush launches an illegal war based on lies from the comfort of his ranch in Texas. Hmmmm....... So if Sadr is a coward for being in a neighbouring country, how many more times is bush a coward for being even FURTHER away from the fight (note: bush has also never been involved in war in his life and even skipped out on it in the past, as did his VP, and most of his staff)?

“I know he’s sitting in Iran,” Rice said dismissively, when asked about al-Sadr’s latest threat to lift a self-imposed cease-fire with government and U.S. forces."

That has to hurt.

An American, a woman, basically in Muqtada's kitchen and callin' him out, callin' him a coward.

"Maaaaaajor insult in the Arab world," no?

I reckon Sec. of State Rice wouldn't have said it though without getting tacit approval from Maliki first...

Why does anyone pay attention to what Rice says anyway? She is a liar that should, along with many of her friends, be jailed (at least). Here is a short summary of some of her recent lies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gqaw5UnHA4

Soon-to-be Ayatollha is surely shaking in his boots after being called coward by an infidel woman....

The stupidity of Condoleeza and other Western politicians is mind-boggling.

'An American, a woman, basically in Muqtada's kitchen and callin' him out, callin' him a coward. "Maaaaaajor insult in the Arab world," no?'

Let's try this again.... okay, so we've got a woman who supports a failing war and a complete loser government and can't announce her going to Iraq until 3 hours before because she's scared... and this is before rushing back home to the safety of being thousands of miles from the war zone she calls a man being a coward for being a few hundred miles from. Hmmm.... does anyone know a stronger word than hypocrite?

Rice stopped being a joke when she redefined what being a joke meant. Anyone who actually takes her seriously is even funnier than she is.

I have a challenge for Rice, pick up a gun and go outside the green zone and show how much of a coward you AREN'T. After that, you may have a smidgen of credibility to make comments like you do. Until then.... well... just try not to say anything while I'm drinking soda -- it's hard to clean off my computer screen.

She calls al-Sadr a coward just because he is hiding in Iran?What she really wants him to do? Perhaps she wants him to stand in the middle of the road in Baghdad and shout:Who dare to kill me? I am al-Sadr and afraid of no one. Then after his burial,Condi Rice will change her mind and give him the title: The bravest man on Earth.OBL should also immitate this. If only thing is that easy!

"Rice, in Baghdad, calls al-Sadr coward"

Hooooaaaaaaahhhhhh. Git some, Condi.

"have a challenge for Rice, pick up a gun and go outside the green zone and show how much of a coward you AREN'T. "

Ever heard of "darers go first"?

"Rice, in Baghdad, calls al-Sadr coward"

“I guess it’s all-out war for anybody but him,” Rice said. “I guess that’s the message; his followers can go to their deaths and he’s in Iran.”

These guys all talk about how they have no fear of death, can't wait to get to paradise, 72 virgins waiting for each and every holy warrior.

That Condi Rice she shore is cruel; she seem to be hinting ol' Mooky idn't like the other fellahs...

"rice, in Baghdad, calls al-sadr coward."

I wonder if she'll follow it up by making fun of the gap in David Letterman's teeth and Imelda Marcos' shoe collection, just to complete the trifecta.

Seriously, not helping, condi.

Taka

How does Rice know Al-Sadr is in Iran?

Like Bush & Co. knowing Saddam had weapons of mass destruction?

We have been hearing this sort of stuff from the Bush gang. I wonder that there are still people who are not sick of it.

Redacted - "An American, a woman, basically in Muqtada's kitchen and callin' him out, callin' him a coward."

You're right, she did call him a coward. Right after she bravely slinked into Iraq under cover of the dead of night in a bold and inspiring chimney-hopping midnight helicoptor run from an unnannouced flight on an unscheduled plane that took off at an unspecified time from an unknown U.S. airbase.

No, redacted.

That was Rice's assertion. To which I wondered about George's geography vis-a-vis his military efforts. To which you responded that George placed a conservative black woman as the head of State. To which I observed that George's choice of Secretary of State has nothing to do with the truth of the Secretary of State's assertion.

Nor would it have anything to do with whether I'm an American or not. But you seem to prefer diversion to relevance.

Well, none of us here have served in the type of combat that exists in Iraq, and on the other hand no one here would even consider the possibly of living under men such as Sadr or Saddam. I can't really say anyone here has the right to issue such challenges to anyone else. Yet, some still do.

How come Condi doesn't call the rich boys and girls in this country cowards?

dano2002 - First of all, the only people who listen to this guy are the people who live in the slums. he is the leader of the poor who are the least educated people in Iraq. how hard is it to brain wash kids w/o jobs or a future?

It's the poor that are the fighters for this country. It isn't the rich that take the oath and physically protect this country. It isn't the brightest minds that are doing this fighting, but Condi goes in the cloak of darkness and calls Al-Sadr a coward. Look who's calling the kettle black.

The US's military isn't a military of the affluent in the United States, it's a military build on the backs of the poor.

The US's military isn't a military of the affluent in the United States, it's a military build on the backs of the poor.

Wrong Answer adaydream

By assigning each recruit the median 1999 household income for his hometown ZIP code as deter­mined from Census 2000, the mean income for 2004 recruits was $43,122 (in 1999 dollars). For 2005 recruits, it was $43,238 (in 1999 dol­lars). These are increases over the mean incomes for the 1999 cohort ($41,141) and 2003 cohort ($42,822). The national median published in Cen­sus 2000 was $41,994. This indicates that, on aver­age, the 2004 and 2005 recruit populations come from even wealthier areas than their peers who enlisted in 1999 and 2003.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/cda06-09.cfm

Sailwind: too simplistic. Even within these populations, there's different distributions of wealth. I am sure anyone earning the medium wage doesn't fill compelled to go off to Iraq.

smithinjapan: Too bloody right. Give her a rifle and send her off. Let's listen to her blustering then.

sailwind,

I just read this article that says that moral waivers were up over 50% for 2006/07. I don't think these numbers were considered either.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Army_doubled_felony_waivers_for_recruits_0421.html

Condi has some "grit"! It is the world's love affair with "politics of appeasement" that have allowed the growth of butcherous governments hiding behind so called Islamic law. Sadr is a coward.

Maybe I have it all wrong, but to me a coward in this conflict is someone who kills innocent people, civilians, from a safe distance, and that is exactly what this Al-Sadr has been doing.

Maybe I have it all wrong, but it seems cowardly to kill innocent people , civilians , from a safe distance with pilotless drones , missiles , artillery , and oh umm ... bombing ! That is precisely what this the American adventure has been doing , nest' pas ? Perhaps I am mistaken , but I don't think so .

The Perilous Pea, The difference is that the US and its allies have been trying to stabilize the region, and we are not discussing the success rate. Al-Sadr's aim is to continue de-stabilizing the country.

Those are contentions with which there is as long a contrasting view as there is short supply of evidence to provide any support . In fact one elementary view suggests the fundamental difficulty regarding stabilisation is tied directly to the unilateral American military force being the central problem . This is a point addressed by Iraqi patrioits . American response has been and continues to be pointing fingers , insult the indigenous population and , oh , respond militarily to a political situation . Perhaps I am mistaken , but I don't think so ...

Those are contentions with which there is as long a contrasting view as there is short supply of evidence to provide any support So, if these are contentions, does that mean the US are not actually trying to stabilize the area but pursuing different interests? Is that what you are alleging? The US responding militarily to a political situation. Isn't that the same then as what the non-aligned militias in Iraq, including this war lord Al-Sadr has been doing? Perhaps I am . . . whatever

The unsettling idea that a campaign to sell the ideas of WMD is now understood as a fact with notably dubious , strained , and tenuous pedigree is no longer contentious . So if a concerted effort to invade Iraq was brought about by indirect and unstated objectives with a straining the bowel pedigree ...

The elementary , universal (not the disgraced neocons !) view suggesting the fundamental difficulty regarding stabilisation being tied directly to the unilateral American military force as the central problem is not a mystery . A point adroitly addressed by Iraqi patrioits , yet , somehow mysteriously left unanswered by the mighty diplomatic corps of the proud unbending unilateral American occupying authorities . A simple enough question .

The US military providing an often irrational , along with unaccountable mercenaries , incendiary response's to the indiginous peoples of Iraq . These Iraqi's who now have been made to long for those that were once pariahs . Including the use of force with the native Iraqi political figure , Diplomat , and Cleric Al-Sadr who due to his great intelligence and skill has attempted to work around the blunt edge of military forces only to be ignored ? Perhaps it is too much to ask that Iraqi's in their own land be given equal footing to the miltary force occupying their land . Whatever ...

presto345:

"Al-Sadr's aim is to continue de-stabilizing the country."

Says who? Instability is not a long-term goal. Like all muslim clerics/warlords, of cours Al-Sadr wants stability eventually.... a stable state where Sharia is the law, the mullahs rule, the woment are under cover, the Kaffirs are either dead or pay the Jihzay, and the homosexuals have all been disappeared. There is nothing "unstable" about this. Unpleasant, yes, but not unstable.

There are reports that Mooky's own family is turning on him...

"Iraq’s Josef Al-Sadr says that Muqtada Al- Sadr has tainted Our Family Reputation; --We will deal with him internally.

Alseyed Josef Alsadar a member of the honored Sadar family wrote a letter to Alrafedain news (Nida'a al Rafidain News) which said: "Muqtada al-Sadr has tainted the reputation of this respected family, and the family disowns Muqtada. We are as innocent of him as the wolf is of the blood of Josef (Biblical (Old Testament I believe) and Koranic reference). The family is working on ways to discipline him with in the family. Consultations for this are held at the highest level to come up with punishments for its rogue son."

http://www.plnewsforum.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/32105/

i agree 117%. those guys are a bunch of clowns. Should be glad americans arent stooping to their immature war tactics.

japanyesterday:

" i agree 117%. those guys are a bunch of clowns. Should be glad americans arent stooping to their immature war tactics. "

I agree many more percent. But remember the Americans have stood by while the Shiite government wrote the Sharia into the Iraqi constitution (which had been secular before). Now who is the real clown?