Friday, March 28, 2008

Streetwalkers in Baghdad

Daily, since the invasion of the open city of Basra, by Nouri al-Maliki, at the head of the Iraqi Army, thousands march in protest, in the streets of Baghdad. There is and has been, a complete curfew in effect. The police and coalition troops that patrol the streets don't stop them. They do not pay attention to the frequent checkpoints or the armed guards that man them. There is a square surrounding a shrine in the heart of the shattered slum that is Sadr City. It is here they gather.

Read the words spoken by Mazen al-Saadi one of the many speakers to address the crowd.

"After Saddam's infidel regime collapsed, many parties pretending to be in the opposition and speaking in the name of the poor and oppressed climbed to the top of our shoulders. After they had achieved their goals, they became as mere slaves and puppets in the hands of the occupiers."

These guys don't sound very happy. We probably should have left there a long time ago and it's clearly not going to make the situation better, no matter how long we stay.

1 comment:

beebs said...

Prime Minister Maliki is fighting a splendid little war, according to our President "all on his own without direction from the US" in Basra against the forces of the Mahdi [?] Army.

His army suffered many desertions when many of the troops changed sides to fight against the occupation.

He called in helicopter air strikes from Uncle Sam. That wasn't enough, so now British and US warplanes are carpet bombing Basra, 500 pound bombs that NEVER kill civilians, a city of three million.

That wasn't enough, so now he drags in US combat forces to bail his hummingbird ass out. At least our troopers won't desert to the other side. I hope.