Yes, absolutely, but we need for the SHI'ITES to see this. They will, in time, grow to resent his using these holy sites as bases for military operations. If we blow up mosques, they will not blame al-Sadr, they will blame us.
SOME do, but the VAST majority do not. That is why, with a Shi'ite population of 10 million, al-Sadr has an estimated 20,000 (one fifth of one percent) troops. If we go out and raze holy sites, that number will explode dramatically, as will the situation in Iraq.
The uprising or "insurgency" against the US occupiers has been going on for the last 12 months. Hundreds of soldiers have died. Why risk anymore kids coming home in caskets?
I think we should have our troops drive trucks around the city with loudspeakers blaring kumbaya and ask them nicely to come out of the churches, put their weapons down and turn themselves in.
It isn't JUST the Shi'ites in Iraq, though. It is Shi'ites worldwide. In addition, they didn't rise up against Saddam because he WAS their leader and, despite his flaws, kept the peace. They knew they did not stand a chance against Saddam because of the tactics Saddam was willing to use, tactics that the US is prohibited from using under the Geneva Conventions (at least the parts not "rendered quaint").
In a sense -- but the fact that we now face both a sustained shi'ite and a sunni/wahbbi uprising is bad, bad, news. Remember -- the oppressed shi'ites were the people we were going into Iraq to protect (which, of course, represents a total 180 from a decade ago -- in which Iranian backed Shiites were thought to be the bad guys and saudi style sunnis were good.) Are we damned either way? yes, of course. However, did we (GWB) willinglly put ourselves into the kind of situation where we are damned if we do/don't, despite warnings to the contrary? yes. Accountability.
Or, our troops could do a re-mix of a musical stand-by favorite... "Arrrrrrrrrrrrr-meggedon! Where the nukes come sweepin' down the plains."
That's what happens you act unilaterally, costing American taxpayers millions of dollars. The UN and Allied Forces aren't there to clean up our mess for us this time. Not to mention the fact that Spain pulled out recently.
If you're old enough to recall, we have used loudspeakers before to get people to exit ... I believe it was a church.
Baqui, That is what would happen even if the UN were there. Iraqis need to sort out their own problems and come to a government that THEY want. Saddam being gone is a good thing, let the country decide how to run itself. The only thing is that the Kurds are not having any issues in the North.....maybe we should support them breaking off into their own country. DD
Then we can forget about Iraq -- and let the younger generation who grew up learning how to build bombs and watching their parents kill and be killed by americans turn into productive global citizens. We're f-cked, anyway you slice it. The dream of turning Iraq into a secular pro-western democracy was wishful thinking in the best of times. It went from a weak totalitarian regime isolated from its neighbors to a terrorist breeding ground -- at this point Iraq turning into a decrepit theocracy like Iran rather than an anarchic Al qaeda playground is probably the most palatable realistic option. Mission accomplished.
And if some Koreshish militants housed themselves in the church of the holy sepulchre, the Vatican, or Capitol Hill, we should just blow'm up and then rebuild them?
