Redstate

I mean, it doesn't suit the pig's complexion *at all.*

By Moe Lane Posted in Foreign Affairs | Iraq | Maliki | Sadr — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

The pig being "the inconvenient truth that objective reality is determined to trump the established media narrative regarding Iraq." Latest version?

Anti-US cleric shifts strategy for Iraq elections
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD - Followers of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr will run candidates on other party tickets in upcoming Iraqi provincial elections, a top aide said Sunday, in an apparent bid to sidestep what they believe is a government campaign against their movement.

The decision is part of a sweeping strategic change by the militant cleric as the Shiite-led government gave Shiite militiamen in an al-Sadr stronghold four days to surrender heavy weapons or face arrest.

The new strategy includes a decision announced Friday by al-Sadr to set up an elite wing within his Mahdi Army to fight the Americans, enabling him to reassert control over his 60,000-strong militia that the U.S. says has fallen under Iranian influence.

Al-Sadr's followers hope to use this fall's provincial council balloting to loosen the grip on power that their Shiite rivals have enjoyed since the January 2005 elections, which the Sadrists boycotted.

Skipping aside the "decision" in the third paragraph - bluntly, Al-Sadr's credibility regarding being able to oppose either us or the legitimate Iraqi government has taken a hit over the last few months, and it doesn't seem to be keeping the latter from continuing to roll up Iranian distribution networks - please note how the final abandonment of a strategy that started in 2005 with the boycott of the Iraqi elections is touted as a "sweeping strategic change," instead of, say, an "abject strategic retreat." But no doubt we'll have it explained soon enough why this wholesale abandoning the Sadrist brand name is actually really the CLEVERIST IRAQI REVOLUTIONARY TACTIC YET!!!!!11!!!1

Well, I'm personally breathless with anticipation.

Moe Lane

PS: And to think: if we had only listened to Senator Barack Obama and run away last year, we might have avoided this entire messy little exercise in applied politics and instead gone with the terrible clarity of an actual civil war.

Shucks.