BAGHDAD — Iranian officials helped broker a cease-fire agreement Sunday between Iraq’s government and radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, according to Iraqi lawmakers.The deal could help defuse a wave of violence that had threatened recent security progress in Iraq. It also may signal the growing regional influence of Iran, a country the Bush administration accuses of providing support to terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere.
Al-Sadr ordered his forces off the streets of Iraq on Sunday. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki hailed al-Sadr’s action as “a step in the right direction.” It was unclear whether the deal would completely end six days of clashes between U.S.-backed Iraqi forces and Shiite militias, including al-Sadr’s…
If by the surge, you mean the surge in influence of Iran, or the surge in power of Muqtada-al-Sadr, then the surge is working. How about a surge in truthful reporting about Iraq from US media? That's a surge that would be useful.
Posted by: Charles on March 31, 2008 10:09 AMAgree. How about a surge in truthful reporting about
the entire region?
When we first occupied Iraq, the Iranians applauded, said nice things about us and tried to make friends. Colin Powell and many ranking officers in all services thought that we should respond favorably to these overtures.
President Bush, in his wisdom, thought it more fit to follow the advice of those known experts Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld, feeling (I suppose) that they would know more and better about such things than career officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.
Contrary to popular opinion, the Iranians per se are not at all badly disposed towards the United States. What we should be doing is making friends with them, and driving a wedge between Shia and Sunni (and Persian and Arab). They were our allies once: they will be our allies again.
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