WP: Shiite Urges U.S. to Give Iraqis Leeway In Rebel Fight

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/26/AR2005112601211.html

Shiite Urges U.S. to Give Iraqis Leeway In Rebel Fight
Americans Have Blocked Tougher Tactics, Cleric Says

BAGHDAD -- The leader of Iraq's most powerful political party has called on the United States to let Iraqi fighters take a more aggressive role against insurgents, saying his country will only be able to defeat the insurgency when the United States lets Iraqis get tough.

"The more freedom given to Iraqis, the more chance for further progress there would be, particularly in fighting terror," said Abdul Aziz Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Shiite Muslim religious party that leads the transitional government and whose armed wing is the most feared of Iraq's many factional forces.


Instead, Hakim asserted in a rare interview late last week, the United States is tying Iraq's hands in the fight against insurgents. One of Iraq's "biggest problems is the mistaken or wrong policies practiced by the Americans," he said.


In more than an hour of conversation at his Baghdad home and office, Hakim denied accusations that the Shiite-led government's security forces -- with alleged involvement by his party's armed wing -- have operated torture centers and death squads targeting Sunni Arabs. He also renewed his call to merge half of Iraq's 18 provinces into a federal region in the oil-rich, heavily Shiite south, and he played down Iran's interests in Iraq, saying that the Shiite theocracy to the east wants only what the United States claims to want: a stable Iraq.

[cantstandbush]

1. We've just traded one evil maniac for another at a cost 2100 US

soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

[grytpype]

2. Can we call it a civil war now?

Sounds like the second we leave the Shiites are going to slaughter the Sunnis.

[mazzarro]

5. Definitely - we now have semi-declaration of war

All that is left is for the Shiites to decide when to initiate it openly - whether to do so while the US is still officially in charge or after. I will think the Shiites will run out of patience real soon and start doing things openly their own way anyhow!

[Yupster]

6. That's been my call all along

We won't have an official Civil War until the Mahdi Army is mobilized and sent into the Sunni Triangle.

It will be a short war and a large refugee problem for Syria.

[teryang]

3. Of course, Colonel Steele is soul of restrait on torture centers...

...and death squads. Where would anyone get the idea that the Iraqis have death squads or torture centers? Of course, the American contractors and CIA are opposed to such tactics as they have demostrated so clearly at Abu Ghraid, Nicaragua and El Salvador. Renditions, don't bring that up. We are totally opposed to dissappearing people. We just won't let the Iraqis take the gloves off, we are too good.

Some Rovian wanna be wrote this. He'll probably get a promotion.

[enigma000]

8. So you think this Abdul Aziz Hakim doesn't exist?

Or the interview was faked?

I don't doubt his message. The Shia have taken a great deal of abuse, both under the Sunni dominated Ba'ath regime and from the suicide bombers of the resistance. The Shia know the US will start to leave, and when they do their militias (and the Kurd's militias) will be much more......unpleasant in putting down the insurgency.

You ain't see anything yet. But hey, that's what we want, right? Troops out of Iraq NOW!

[teryang]

9. This is scripted

Part of the propaganda campaign. It couldn't get any dirtier than it already is. The former bathists and Kurds conducting torture are backed by the CIA. They are working for the current Shia controlled government.

Let's see he wants us to stay but he wants us not to interfere because we're not tough enough and there is no torture. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

[enigma000]

10. but propaganda aimed at who? n/t

[catnhatnh]

4. Torture???

We'll show you torture,Wimps!

[Eugene]

7. Hakim wants a free hand to "clean out some areas."

Thanks for the country! Now run along and invade Syria.
We're busy here crushing the opposition.

BushCo has replaced the Baath with an Iranian backed
regime that is just as ruthless. This is the example
of freedom and democracy that the Arab world should
emulate?

:kick: A kick for the morning.