Reconciliation In Iraq "Isn't Happening"

In Advance of Gen. Petraeus' Report To Congress This Week, Reporters Discuss What Recent Violence In Iraq Means

(CBS/AP)  Iraqi troops backed by U.S. forces battled Shiite fighters in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood in clashes that killed 22 people and wounded more than 50, despite a cease-fire between the government and the militia, officials said Sunday.

The fighting was a sign of how brutal the past few weeks have been for General David Petraeus, reports CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan, because she said, "he really was looking at a year where he had imagined to be quite successful in reducing violence, particularly in Baghdad and some of the surrounding areas."

Speaking with Bob Schieffer on Face The Nation, Logan said that the gains made by agreements with militias (including from Sunni tribes and some Shiite tribes) to work with the Americans have almost disappeared in the face of the recent violence which spreads so quickly from Basra in the south of Iraq.

"It's really about two things," Logan said. "It's a fight amongst the Shiites for power in Iraq - what the future of this country is going to look like, how the Shiites will divide Iraq among themselves - but perhaps even more importantly it's a fight between the U.S. (who backs the Iraqi government and Iraqi security forces) and Iran (who backs those militias).

"This is really the proxy war that everybody talks about behind closed doors but nobody wants to admit to in public."

She noted that many of the rockets and mortars fired against Baghdad's Green Zone were launched from Sadr City, the base of militant cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose militia was engaged in fierce fighting with Iraqi forces in Basra.

"General Petraeus really has a very difficult issue on his hands because Sadr City is home to the Mahdi Army and militia loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, one of the most powerful and popular in the country. It's densely populated.

For the U.S., They are on the outskirts of Sadr City but for them to move deep into this area, they risk a potential bloodbath. Nobody wants to see that happening.

The U.S. has been looking for a political solution to that, trying to bring Moqtada al-Sadr on board. They've been successful to a degree but what has been seen in the last few weeks - and there were 20 people reportedly killed overnight in clashes between U.S. forces and the militia inside Sadr City - what you've seen is a very determined defense by these militias not wanting to give up the rocket launch sites, or any ground.

"In the words of the American commander who is in charge of Sadr City, he said this fight began as a fight for these launch sites. Now it's all about killing Americans."

Schieffer asked, with the attention given to fights with militias, "Whatever happened to al Qaeda, the terrorists?"

According to Logan, "The U.S. is very careful to say that al Qaeda has been defeated but they are not gone, not by any stretch of the imagination. They know that al Qaeda is there. They're waiting for their opportunity to come back. They took advantage of the violence and the fighting amongst the Shiites. That's exactly what they'll do: Be looking for opportunities like that to turn around the security gains that General Petraeus was able to make."

While Logan said that al Qaeda was significantly hurt by the agreement made with the tribes - with the additional American "surge" troops brought into the country to try to force the Iraqi government to accept reconciliation measures within that nation's government - al Qaeda has moved north towards the city to Mosul. "It's very much now an Iraqi organization, predominantly."

In anticipation of the progress report to be delivered to the House and Senate this week by General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, national editor of the Washington Post, said the recent violence in Basra poses a tremendous challenge for the administration.

"In many ways, the violence in Basra is the most perhaps honest assessment of where things stand in Iraq today, where things stand in terms of the status of Iraqi security forces," Chandrasekaran told Schieffer. "There are very credible reports that more than 1,000 Iraqi soldiers defected rather than fighting against fellow Shiites in the south. It raises real questions about the progress we're making in training and equipping Iraqi security forces."

Also brought into question is the role of Iran, which it was reported helped broker the crease-fire in Basra through the intervention of a senior Iranian military commander. "Of course, it shows the ascendant role of Iran," he said.

Chandrasekaran also said the Basra violence shows the degree to which political reconciliation - a key benchmark that the United States is looking for in Iraq - "simply isn't happening.

"It's not just Sunni-Shiite lack of reconciliation, but it's intra-Shiite fighting," he said.

Chandrasekaran said Maliki moved is worried about Shiite political parties' fate in upcoming provincial elections, and so made the military moves in Basra in order to try to marginalize and contain Sadr. "All of this has to be looked at through the lens of domestic politics in Iraq," he said, "but what it says to us here in Washington is that efforts at reconciliation are not going as well as the Bush administration would like us to believe."

Nancy Youssef, chief Pentagon correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers, said the United States is in a precarious position with Maliki: "The U.S. military officials that I've talked to say that they were working with Nouri al-Maliki to craft a long-term, thoughtful plan" to deal with the security issues in Basra. It appears that what the U.S. didn't want was what happened, which was a very sudden, ill-planned attack that potentially put the gains of the surge in jeopardy.

"In this case, the U.S. says that it wasn't informed about what the plan was, and then had to rush and get air combat support in place when the Iraqi security forces couldn't handle the fighting."

---

Read the full "Face the Nation" transcript here.

[docadams3]

No nation gets a free pass from the blood and iron that nation-building requires. We need to get out of the way and let them start killing each other until they get their fill. No outsiders can prevent a civil war, none prevented ours, Vietnam''s, or any of the essential birthings of modern nation states, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, Russia. Name one that was born in peace. As horrible as it will be, it is not our business, it''s theirs. We need to have a productive relationship with the winner.

[excoachken]

To docadams3: Well stated and totally accurate.

[joyous88]

neoconism is right on;

the neo-cons have turned the USA into just one more

third world country, a debt ridden third world country

proud day to be a republicon??

The question now is who are these 18% morons that still support these criminals and how do we get rid ot them?

[feelfree1]

Lara Logan, Bob Schieffer, General Betrayus,

Re: "Reconciliation In Iraq "Isn''t Happening"

How can there be any reconciliation in Iraq, as long as a criminal and brutal invasion of their country continues, and as long as the illegitimate stooges installed by the invaders remain in power?

It is painfully clear that the Iraqi "government" officials are neither legitimate nor sovereign.

Re: "Whatever happened to al Qaeda, the terrorists?"

Obviously, the "al-Qaeda-in-Iraq" boogie-men are little more than a Made-in-USA psy-ops ruse, aimed at providing an excuse to remain in Iraq, where none exists.

The fictional "al-Qaeda-in-Iraq" hoax will continue to be "defeated" and revived, as it suits the immediate interests of the Bush regime.

[feelfree1]

%u201CWhy we stand for immediate withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq%u201D

%u201CTHE U.S. occupation of Iraq has not liberated the Iraqi people, but has made life worse for most Iraqis.%u201D

%u201CTens of thousands of U.S. service people have been killed or maimed, and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis have lost their lives as a result of the U.S. invasion in 2003, the ongoing occupation, and the violence unleashed by them.%u201D

%u201CIraq''s infrastructure has been destroyed, and U.S. plans for reconstruction abandoned. There is less electricity, less clean drinking water, and more unemployment today than before the U.S. invasion.%u201D

%u201CAll of the justifications initially provided by the U.S. for waging war on Iraq have been exposed as lies; the real reasons for the invasion %u2014 to control Iraq''s oil reserves and to increase U.S. strategic influence in the region %u2014 now stand revealed.%u201D

%u201CThe Bush administration has insisted again and again that stability, democracy, and prosperity are around the next bend in the road%u2026But the U.S. has deliberately stoked sectarian divisions in its ongoing attempt to install a U.S.-friendly regime, thus driving Iraq towards civil war.%u201D

%u201CWe call on the U.S. to get out of Iraq %u2014 not in six months, not in a year, but now.%u201D

www.ipetitions.com/petition/OutNow

[heartlight3]

I also agree with docadams3 - We have done all we can do militarily, and they need to work out their own differences. We can offer to help them diplomatically, politically, and economically, but we need to bring our soldiers home and deal with our own problems.

[feelfree1]

Related-

"Seven out of 10 Iraqis want foreign forces to leave: poll"

"LONDON: More than two-thirds of Iraqis believe US-led coalition forces should leave, according to a poll conducted for British television ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion. The ORB/Channel 4 News survey suggested that 70 percent thought multinational forces should withdraw....It threw up stark statistics on the human cost of war, which began on March 20, 2003, its effect on infrastructure and daily life, plus the bloody sectarian violence that erupted in the aftermath of the invasion. A quarter of those surveyed said they had lost a family member to murder. In Baghdad, that figure rose to nearly half (45 percent). Some 81 percent had suffered power cuts and 43 percent had experienced drinking water shortages. In the last month, more than a quarter (28 percent) had been short of food....ORB and its local partner IIACSS interviewed 4,000 Iraqis in person between February 24 and March 5. afp"

[veteran72]

The fact we need to leave is a given. But there needs to be a reconing with the Criminals that conspired to Illegally Invade and Occupy this Nation, and murder it''s people, along with over 4000 Americans, all for money and oil. We can never heal as a Nation, either in our own eyes, or those of the rest of the World, until we show our Constitution and Rule of Law are not just empty words, but living Documents, that apply to everyone equally, from the poorest among us, to the wealtiest of the elite.
Bush and Cheney and all those who conspired with them deserve, at the very least, life Prison Sentences, and at the most, the Death Penalty.
Those responsible for enforcing this accountability, our Congress, must also be held accountable for their failure to perform their duty as our representatives.
Anything less will be allowing the cancerous growth of Fascism to fester, ultimately killing us all.

[feelfree1]

veteran72 at 04:08 PM,

Excellent, excellent, analysis.

Holding those responsible to account is crucial, in my opinion.

[vet999999]

They are playing to our press to manipulate our society and the tradegdy is, it is working. They have been very quite and now are making lots of noise because Gen. Petraeus will be testifying before congress. We need to stop reacting to these people and blaming our country. We are headed down a very steep slop if you use these events as ammunition against our troops and our cause.

[feelfree1]

Re: "Nancy Youssef, chief Pentagon correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers, said the United States is in a precarious position with Maliki: "The U.S. military officials that I''ve talked to say that they were working with Nouri al-Maliki to craft a long-term, thoughtful plan" to deal with the security issues in Basra. It appears that what the U.S. didn''t want was what happened, which was a very sudden, ill-planned attack that potentially put the gains of the surge in jeopardy."

Nonsense. ******** Cheney visited the Maliki puppet just ahead of the failed offensive.

The terrorists and traitors in D.C. are now scrambling to distance themselves from the effort, because it was such a clear loser for them.

The chances that the Iraqi stooges would conduct a major military operation without coordination with U.S. forces are ZERO.

This failed mass-murder operation has Cheney''s stench all over it.

[sgtrds]

2 more soldiers dead in the green zone today with 17 others wounded. Quagmire accomplished. More blood on Bush and Cheney''s already bloody hands. They are as guilty of murdering every one of our dead troops as if they''d shot them themselves. They sent them off to die for absolutely noting more then the profits of a few large corporations, with no doubt some kickback millions for them. Bush and Cheney are mass-murdering scum and belong in prison.

[smirk5]

It''s plain and simple. The surge didn''t work.

[feelfree1]

Al-Sadr has called for a million person demonstration next week, demanding an end to the illegal U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

I predict that attendees will eclipse this target number.

The people of Iraq have every right to defend themselves.

Best of luck to them!

[joyous88]

this war is over and we lost,

now we are losing the occupation, but you can count

on Bush, he avoided serving his country during the

Vietnam war and he willavoid any responsibiilit here

when he is gone someone else will have to find the

balls to get us out of Iraq

[whatithink-2009]

Two words : The British.

Those who do not learn from history are destine to repeat it.

Ask the British how long they stayed in Iraq in their attempt to control that country.

[demslie]

Excellent, excellent, analysis.

Holding those responsible to account is crucial, in my opinion.

Posted by FeelFree1

Bush and Cheney and all those who conspired with them deserve, at the very least, life Prison Sentences,

Posted by veteran72

You notice, these Democrats have never said a word against the genocidal murders that belong to terrorist groups. No, the Democrats support these killers because of their world famous situational ethics. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". The enemy of Democrats is George Bush therefore any terrorist, who whould gladly slaughter American Children, is the perfect frend of Democrats and their evil politcal agenda, as the posts here show. Democrats and these people here have shown endless patients and understanding for the terrorists and endless hate and anger for American. Gee, I wonder who the enemy is?

[pollroller1]

Our kings and queens want to keep that oil flowing at any cost. We peasants are paying for this war with our hard earned tax dollars while our kings and queens are raking in the profits.

[whatithink-2009]

demslie,

You should look up the word "terrorist" in the dictionary. I don''t think you really understand the meaning.

[veteran72]

demslie qualifies as a true 18%er. Stone Stupid,...

[baghdadshere]

Al-Sadr has called for a million person demonstration next week, demanding an end to the illegal U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

I predict that attendees will eclipse this target number.

The people of Iraq have every right to defend themselves.

Best of luck to them!

Posted by FeelFree1 at 04:21 PM : Apr 06, 2008

FallFree1,,,,Your retarded jihadist.Its easy and comfortable to use your keyboard to call Iraqis to protest. Why dont you take an airplane and trip to Baghdad so you can join the demonstrators?

[blackwater66-2009]

Give us some time, we''ll get things under control. Germany took decades to calm down and weed out all the undesirables and insurgents. What do you think will happen if we leave or cut and run as it were from here? Do you think peace would than come to the land ? Do you think the oil prices would go down or would they up to $200.00 a barrell?? Get on the band wagon son !!

Stay the course !!

[iphyt4u]

The strategy is to take the Americans money, and then to kill a few every other day. That way, the Iraqis can justify that the Americans invest more money. The Americans built a city within a city that they call the green zone. It''s surrounded by enemies, it''s destruction is almost certain. The private no-bid contracts resulted in huge profits for companies like halliburton and blackwater. The American people were financially raped by the Bush administration. If you don''t stand up, you deserve to be taken advantage of. Home of the brave, has been replaced with home of the pathetic rubberheads. Go ahead my fellow Americans, sit around and do nothing.

[ioweign]

Gee, I wonder who the enemy is?

Posted by demslie at 04:24 PM : Apr 06, 2008


A look in a mirror will be revealing...

[barbaraf4]

I have always believed that if the citizens of a country are oppressed, then it is THEIR job to risk life and limb to gain their freedom from the oppressors.

If the Iraqi''s were oppressed by Saddam, then they needed to do something about it. By themselves.

America needs to stay out of other peoples'' wars. ie: Korea, Somolia, Vietnam and Iraq to name a few.

[whatithink-2009]

The irony is many of the Bush supporters can''t even find Iraq on a map. It is truly the blind leading the blind. Unfortunately, the rest of us are stuck in the middle of it.

[whatithink-2009]

barbaraf4,

I don''t mind supporting other people who are being oppressed. However, this war was never about people being oppressed. It was supposed to be about WMDs that didn''t exist.

[bgwinnett]

Build walls to divide them. Thats what they did in Northern Ireland to achieve "peace".

[joyous88]

the republicons have become a fascist party

their leader bush is but a common criminal

we have lost the war in Iraq, we are losing the

occupation, and if we had a war on terror the neo cons

and their criminal bushcain would lose that as well


liars and thieves

[feelfree1]

nrgmizer at 04:27 PM

Funny, and true!

[feelfree1]

Re: "Build walls to divide them. Thats what they did in Northern Ireland to achieve "peace".

Posted by bgwinnett

Already tried and failed.

Next?

[bozworth4]

FallFree1,,,,Your retarded jihadist.Its easy and comfortable to use your keyboard to call Iraqis to protest. Why dont you take an airplane and trip to Baghdad so you can join the demonstrators?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by BaghdadsHere at 04:34


What''s wrong with protesting the illegal invasion here?

[ioweign]

I have always believed that if the citizens of a country are oppressed, then it is THEIR job to risk life and limb to gain their freedom from the oppressors.

If the Iraqi''''s were oppressed by Saddam, then they needed to do something about it. By themselves.

America needs to stay out of other peoples'''' wars. ie: Korea, Somolia, Vietnam and Iraq to name a few.

Posted by barbaraf4 at 04:44 PM : Apr 06, 2008

Exactly - a few like to point out The Iraqi Liberation Act of 1998 which Clinton signed as authorizing the Iraqi invasion. The Act calls for $97 million in "aid" to the Iraqi people in their quest to get rid of Saddam. As anyone can see, $97 million wouldn''t even cover the travel expense to have the US military invade Iraq...

[bgwinnett]

Already tried and failed.

Next?

Posted by FeelFree1 at 04:54 PM : Apr 06, 2008

The nuclear option then: Partition.

[edward1975-2009]

You can''t change a people that wish not to change. It is time to cut our losses and realize that a failed strategy has brought us to the point we are now.

[fnewton1]

What is based on fraud will remain fraud. Now, if one goes to the web site: (http://icasualties.org/oif/) a few seconds will pass and then they will transform you to another web site. This seems to be the latest attempt in blinding the public.

[feelfree1]

Re: "The nuclear option then: Partition."

Posted by bgwinnett

So you are in favor of mass-murder of civilians, just to appease your tendency for a tantrum?

How does this differentiate you from others that support acts of terrorism?

[whatithink-2009]

In our attempt to battle against fundamentalist Islam, we invade one of the most secular countries in the Middle East. Not only this, we turn the country over to a group who want to create the Islamic Republic of Iraq (similar to Iran).

Our invasion has driven out all the Christians (or at least the ones who haven''t been killed yet).

Our invasion has meant many women are now afraid to walk around without being covered (as before the invasion there was no such rule).

Very smart.

[bgwinnett]

We could also do what the Romans did to Israel in the 6th Century, destroy it and disperse them all over the Globe, wait I think we''ve done that too.

[feelfree1]

fnewton1,

Re: "http://icasualties.org/oif/"

This site is still working fine for me.

[barbaraf4]

"I don''t mind supporting other people who are being oppressed. However, this war was never about people being oppressed. It was supposed to be about WMDs that didn''t exist." Posted by whatithink
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Agreed; however, we were also being told about the brutality of Saddam, his brothers and his sons against the Iraqi citizens.

Since we haven''t invited another country to come in and rescue us from the Bush Administration, I think it should be every country for themselves.

[whatithink-2009]

barbaraf4,

LOL. True.

If someone invaded our country, the Bush supporters would be out there with bonbons and rose petals.

[jn122736]

Thinking back over the past few years it looks like the situation in Iraq hasn%u2019t really changed much, except in the daily number of American troops being killed.

The violence has always been going strong, or just a pause and a breath away from igniting.

As for what happened to Al Qaeda; the same people who are fighting now have been fighting all along. The name/s may change but the faces don%u2019t.

My question is, exactly who is/are Al Qaeda-in-Iraq. Are they the Sunni fighting against the Shiite and U.S. occupiers, the Shiite fighting against the Sunni and U.S.occupiers, or perhaps the Shiite fighting against other Shiite%u2019s for control?

Many of the suicide bombers of late have been women. Were they Shiite or Sunni? To my knowledge this information has never been reported in the news.

How would outsiders have access to Iraqi women when they are not allowed to even speak to anyone out side the family?

One would assume that, with the additional troops (surge) that were sent into Iraq last year, there would be more American casualties (at least until these insurgents, Al Qaeda, Terrorists, et al. were eliminated or otherwise dispensed with) not less.

Are the troops being kept more out of harms way now than in the past? If so, that is at least one good thing.

There are always more questions than answers about this Iraq fiasco.

[ioweign]

Give us some time, we''ll get things under control. Germany took decades to calm down and weed out all the undesirables and insurgents. What do you think will happen if we leave or cut and run as it were from here? Do you think peace would than come to the land ? Do you think the oil prices would go down or would they up to $200.00 a barrell?? Get on the band wagon son !!

Stay the course !!

Posted by blackwater66 at 04:35 PM : Apr 06, 2008

Germany did not take decades. Germany was divided up four ways. West Germany was a member of NATO on 9 May 1955. Germany declared war on the United States on Dec. 11, 1941 and its unconditional surrender was on May 4, 1945. In less than ten years, Germany was stable enough to be trusted to be an ally in NATO.

And Iraq is still stuck on religious issues after 5 years...

[whatithink-2009]

jn122736,

I''m not sure how to answer your questions. I do know that Iraqi women were not that oppressed, relative to average treatment in the Middle Eat. Saddam even had several women in his cabinet. Women were able to vote, get an education and work outside the house.

[feelfree1]

jn122736,

Re: "My question is, exactly who is/are Al Qaeda-in-Iraq."

This entity looks overwhelmingly like a fictional enemy, aimed at undermining the legitimate Iraqi resistance, "linking" the illegal invasion of Iraq to the idiotic "War on Terror", and providing an excuse for the illegal invasion to continue, where no such reason exists.

The "al-Qaeda-in-Iraq" ruse will be "defeated" and revived, as it suits the agenda of the regime.

Re: "Many of the suicide bombers of late have been women."

This looks like more BS. The more recent effort to paint "al-Qaeda-in-Iraq" as being reliant on women bombers looks like an effort to paint this imaginary group as being "desperate" and in their "final throes", once again.

[veteran72]

Sadaam was a former neocon puppet, who got a swelled head and forgot that the same Criminals that put him in power to do their bidding against Iran, could just as easily take it all away and cancel his opulent life. He became arrogant and self deluded, (not unlike the neocon cheerleaders and apologists posting here today.)
Cheney and the Neocon Nazis decided it would be easier and more profitable to just kill Sadaam, and move in themselves, taking ALL the oil and not having to pay for the privilege, while making a ton of cash in no-bid military contracts, as a peripheral benefit in the process.
After nothing quite went as they planned, they played it by ear, and soon realized they would have to make enough to last themselves for the rest of their days, in foreign non-extradition countries.......
It''s tough being a Lowlife Scumbag Neocon Nazi War Criminal.......

[sgtrds]

Partition.

Posted by bgwinnett at 04:58 PM : Apr 06, 2008

Partition is the only real chance at a peaceful solution, though a long shot one at best. We need to stop trying to maintain the phony idea that there is or ever was a real Iraq. Iraq was a phony made up country by the British in 1921. It has no long history of unity.

[whatithink-2009]

Just another example. Before we invaded Iraq, female drivers could be seen everywhere throughout Iraq. The situation has completely changed since the invasion. Completely.

How can we fight against fundamentalist islam by turning them more fundamentalist?

[bgwinnett]

Iraq has got to be the most stupid country ever created.
YOU CAN''''T MAKE A LAND OF TRIBES INTO NATIONS. Look at Africa and Afghanistan.The concept of Nationhood is alien to some people, so is democracy too.