TPM : Josh Marshall stunned at how quickly Iraq coming apart...

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_04_04.php#002812

I must say I am stunned at how quickly things seem to be coming apart in Iraq, particularly in the south. I can't imagine this particular takeover will be permitted to last for long. But at least for the moment, according to CNN, Sadrist forces have taken control of Najaf, a city of a quarter million people and one of even greater religious significance.

Here's a brief report I got this morning from a friend working as a private security consultant in Iraq (but not for the CPA), who we should be hearing more from in the coming days ...

Hey Josh ... thanks for the concern . I wrote the other day but power went out. This place is HOT! I am driving with max Iraqi bodyguards (whom I have just finished training), max weapons and max bodyarmor. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING with this Moqtada Sadr thing? Were they just bored with Fallujah. The place is a hornets nest now. Armor is all over the streets but doesn't seem to have disrupted most city life ... I told (a reporter) two weeks ago we were "one massacre away from the second Intifada of Iraq." Well I think we are there now.

More soon.

-- Josh Marshall

[CHestonsucks]

1. re: Iraq coming apart at the seams

I'm more surprised that things haven't come apart sooner.

I get the impression that Muslims in this country are determined to resist any "democracy" that Bush and his minions, using our military and tax dollars, are trying ever more desperately to install.

[BootinUp]

2. Its gotta be tough for families

that have sons or daughters over there right now. Say a prayer for them.

[Cuban_Liberal]

3. One Marine killed this weekend grew up here...

... until his family moved to Chicago a few years ago. His maternal grandparents, aunts and uncles still live here, and they're all just devastated. *sigh*

[flpoljunkie]

4. Our troops should never have to fight in a war we do not have to fight...

Bush's war is an unnecessary, unwise war, and our troops are paying the price for his and Cheney, Rummy and the neocon's folly.