[Gank]

Originally posted by tEAbAG
Sure, if you don't count the Shia uprising in '91 (during which the US shamefully sat idle while they were slaughtered).  The Shia were treated as 2nd class throughout Saddams (Sunni dominated) reign.
.

Wrong, the Shia uprising was aimed at the ba'athist regime, which was not limited to Sunnis, it also had its share of Christians like Tarik Aziz and Shias like the new president Allawi. It wasnt a Sunni-Shia conflict, As for staying for the clean-up, do you honestly think the US is going to pull an about turn and start doing things right for once? Have you been paying attention for the last year?

About the big and little dog thing, some people seem to forget that the biggest guy doesnt always win, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Somalia etc all come to mind.

[Rictor]

venezuela recently, though that was more political.

But Vietnam, Afghanistan (I assume you're reffering to the Soviets) all took a few years. Attrition is the name of the game. Its been, what, a year and a half in Iraq? Yeah, give it a few years, maybe they (insurgents) will actually pull it off and make it too costly to stay.

[Bobboau]

"do you honestly think the US is going to pull an about turn and start doing things right for once?"

no...

oh look, Sadr is getting another last chance. well the seige of Najaf is off for the moment, ehh, sort of...

[Blue Lion]

It's a game of red light, green light.

[tEAbAG]

More like 'Damned if you do, Damned if you don't'.

[Janos]

Originally posted by ionia23


Same thing all little dogs do: pee all over the place.

This is indeed the right answer.

[ionia23]

Originally posted by Bobboau
"do you honestly think the US is going to pull an about turn and start doing things right for once?"

no...

oh look, Sadr is getting another last chance. well the seige of Najaf is off for the moment, ehh, sort of...

not no more .  Mr. Sadr blew it.  If he wants martyrdom (well, death anyway), looks like he's going to get it.

And a whole hell of a lot of other people who just want to go to the grocery store, or school, or coffee.

[Woolie Wool]

I think it's better to have a dead martyr than a living terrorist mastermind. Say your prayers, al-Sadr.

As for the civilians, I think the Iraqi and American forces have been telling people to stay the hell away from that mosque for weeks.

[Gank]

Originally posted by ionia23


not no more .  Mr. Sadr blew it.  If he wants martyrdom (well, death anyway), looks like he's going to get it.
 

Wrong, looks like Sadr wins again:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040820/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_12

Originally posted by Woolie Wool
I think it's better to have a dead martyr than a living terrorist mastermind. Say your prayers, al-Sadr.

Hehe, hes not a terrorist anymore woolie, at least according to Allawi, he now has a place in Iraqi politics.

Originally posted by Woolie Wool
As for the civilians, I think the Iraqi and American forces have been telling people to stay the hell away from that mosque for weeks.

I think the average Shia isnt going to pass a bit of heed to US warnings to stay away from the mosque, because they know that even the US isnt stupid enough to even put a dent in it given that the majority of middle eastern oil lies in Shia dominated areas.

[vyper]

[q]I think it's better to have a dead martyr than a living terrorist mastermind. Say your prayers, al-Sadr.[/q]

Since you're not in the minority, that explains how the **** the entire situation we're now in happened. (everything from USS Cole, 9/11, and anything else that I can't remember because it's been double plus unexisted).

[Rictor]

also, AFAIK Sadr and the Mahdi have not really killed all that many civilians. They are more or less restricted to fighting US soldiers and Iraqi polce, which means you can't label them terrorists. However, to the average Joe who watched CNN, anyone who opposes America is a terrorist, regardless of what the word actually means. This term has been so overused and misused, thats its lost all its weight.

Europol has recently stated that anarchist groups and terrorists or "pre terrorists" and ought to be watched with extra vigilance.

...seriously, pre-terrorists, they actually used that term. I guess we've got about 6 billion pre-terrorists running around right now, I'de say thats a pretty big security crisis, wouldn't you?

[vyper]

We're meant to be live in a free country, that's a threat enough to the powers that be.

[Rictor]

Well colour me surprised

MONTREAL - Sarah Bardwell did not get the names of the four FBI agents and two police officers who questioned her and her roommates late on the afternoon of July 22 on the front porch of their house in Denver. "We asked them for their names and they said they wouldn't give us their names because we wouldn't give them ours."

"They told us they were doing preemptive investigations into possible – I think their exact words were 'terrorists, anarchists and murderers.' Then they specified [it was about people] that may be planning actions for the RNC or the DNC," she says in a telephone interview from her house.

edit:
And some more
http://www.iht.com/articles/535088.html

dirty filthy anarchists, they're downright unAmerican.

[Flipside]

Wow! If they are looking for the source of the Terror problem, why didn't they just go stand in front of a mirror, would have saved them the petrol at least :/

You know, this really shows the difference between 'Big Country Politics' like the US and 'Small country politics' like the UK. If something like this made the papers in the UK, I'm pretty sure there would be a countrywide condemnation of it. Not because of what happened as such, but because it's obvious what doors could be opened for the Secret Service if this sort of thing is taken silently.

[vyper]

My orange sig seems appropriate again...