so what's really going on ?

cheney & patraeus 3-17-08-- cheney's surprise visit to iraq

In push for political unity, Cheney visits Iraq
Unannounced visit comes before fifth anniversary of U.S. invasion

3:50 a.m. ET, Mon., March. 17, 2008
BAGHDAD - Vice President Dick Cheney opened a new U.S. push for political unity in Iraq on an unannounced visit Monday, just ahead of the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.

Cheney landed at Baghdad International Airport, then flew by helicopter into the dusty, heavily secured Green Zone for talks with U.S. military and diplomatic officials and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. It is Cheney’s third vice presidential trip to Iraq where 160,000 American troops are deployed and the U.S. death toll is nearing 4,000.

Cheney’s first meeting was a classified briefing with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq who met him at the airport. Crocker and Petraeus are scheduled to travel to Washington next month to give a status report on the war.

So the liar-in-chief dubya bush pretended surprise earlier this week when his puppet government's prime minister in iraq, nouri al maliki launched an attack on the al madhi army of shia leader muktada al sadr.

bush in public statements claimed no prior knowledge of these attacks breaking the 6 months of ceasefire with al sadr's forces --a ceasefire al sadr had recently asked to renew btw when the fighting "suddenly" broke out between al maliki's government forces and al sadr's militia.

but the mainstream media seems to have forgotten that old "slick" cheney was in iraq about ten days prior to this week's attacks to meet with general petraeus and with iraqi government leaders including iraqi prime minister nouri al maliki himself.

wonder what they talked about?

well maybe it had something to do with this statement from an iraqi policeman in basra found 3-28-08 in an article at times online.co.uk :

“We already heard two weeks ago that we were going to attack the Mahdi Army, so we were ready,” he said. “I decided to take off my uniform and join my brothers and friends in the Mahdi Army."

so bush's pretense at surprise upon news breaking concerning the fighting and then yesterday calling it, "a defining moment in iraqi history",was more of his bullshit. this move on al sadr's militia was planned long in advance--and washington well aware of it.

al maliki , like bush, is a puppet carrying out, through cheney, daddy bush and friends' will. general petraeus was selected for the job that he has because he rewrote the Us army book on counterinsurgency.

the timing of this campaign becomes less curious considering bush has only ten months left in office to make iraq more pacified and not only are the 160,000 surged up american troops scheduled soon for draw downs in number , the british troops in southern iraq are also drawing down , reducing presence in iraq, preparing for a needed buildup in afghanistan against a rejuvenated taliban.

the Us by provoking this fight with al sadr, must believe it has the sunni insurgency pacified enough to risk having to make a sudden redeploy to southern iraq to help squash al madhi army--or to save the al maliki government's iraqi army if things continue to badly for them against al sadr's militia.

judging from the reports , things are not going well for the iraqi government's forces.

March 28, 2008 times online.co.uk

Iraqi police in Basra shed their uniforms, kept their rifles and switched sides
James Hider in Baghdad

Abu Iman barely flinched when the Iraqi Government ordered his unit of special police to move against al-Mahdi Army fighters in Basra.

His response, while swift, was not what British and US military trainers who have spent the past five years schooling the Iraqi security forces would have hoped for. He and 15 of his comrades took off their uniforms, kept their government-issued rifles and went over to the other side without a second thought.

Such turncoats are the thread that could unravel the British Army’s policy in southern Iraq. The military hoped that local forces would be able to combat extremists and allow the Army to withdraw gradually from the battle-scarred and untamed oil city that has fallen under the sway of Islamic fundamentalists, oil smugglers and petty tribal warlords. But if the British taught the police to shoot straight, they failed to instil a sense of unwavering loyalty to the State.

“We know the outcome of the fighting in advance because we already defeated the British in the streets of Basra and forced them to withdraw to their base,” Abu Iman told The Times.

“If we go back a bit, everyone remembers the fight with the US in Najaf and the damage and defeat we inflicted on them. Do you think the Iraqi Army is better than those armies? We are right and the Government is wrong. [Nouri al] Maliki [the Iraqi Prime Minister] is driving his Government into the ground.”

The reason for his apparent switch of sides was simple: the 36-year-old was already a member of the al-Mahdi Army which, like other militias, has massively infiltrated the British-trained police force in the southern oil city. He claimed that hundreds of others from the 16,000-strong force have also defected to the rebels’ ranks.Abu Iman joined the new Iraqi police force after the invasion, joining the Mugawil, a special police unit infamous for brutality, kidnapping and sectarian murders.

“We already heard two weeks ago that we were going to attack the Mahdi Army, so we were ready,” he said. “I decided to take off my uniform and join my brothers and friends in the Mahdi Army. All these years, we were like a scream in the face of the dictator and the occupation.” He said: “I joined the police because I believed we have to protect Basra and save it with our own hands. You can see we were the first fighters to take on Sadd-am and his regime, the best example being the Shabaniya uprising.”

Abu Iman said that the fighting raging in Basra yesterday was intense because the al-Mahdi Army was operating on its own turf. He was confident that the Shia militia would prevail because its cause was just.

“The Iraqi Army is already defeated from within. They come to Basra with fear in their hearts, knowing they have to fight their brothers, the sons of Iraq, because of an order from Bush and his friends in the Iraq Government. For this reason, all of the battles are going in the Mahdi Army’s favour.”

Major-General Abdelaziz Moham-med Jassim, the director of operations at the Ministry of Defence, played down reports of defections in the Basra police force. “The problem of one policeman doesn’t make up for the whole of the force,” he said.

In recent months Major-General Abdul Jalil Khalaf, Basra’s police chief, has tried to shake up the force and drive out militia infiltrators, who have wrought havoc in the past, often turning police stations into torture cells in which factions settled vendettas and power struggles with murder and abuse. But he only narrowly escaped an assassination attempt yesterday when a suicide car bomb attack in Basra killed three of his policemen. A local tribal leader said the police directorate building was later gutted by fire.

after this article was brought to my attention , on further examination i ventured :

now , if the brits leave southern iraq, and things down there further unravel, the Us is fooked. bush doesn't have the troops to effectively garrison the sunni triangle and the south. if bush shifts significant troops to the south to bolster the failing iraqi army and police he risks being undermanned in the triangle .

should the sunni insurgency sieze the moment to go back on the offensive against the Us, that combined with the south in turmoil and in a Us election year, would be like the tet offensive from the vietnam era all over again .

this comparison could not have possibly escaped the sunni insurgents since saddam was the architect of the sunni insurgency and made the iraqi military officers carefully study vietnam as their model of insurgency.

politically, a tet-like offensive would knock out the last of the Us populace's stomach for this war. the idiot bush in this present gamble against al sadr's militia has handed the iraqis everything they need for a victory .

they have to know by now that it was bush and negroponte, not iran who orchestrated and unleashed the shia death squads against the sunni communities and sunni insurgents.

to oversee creation of iraqi versions of negroponte's battalion 316 death squads in honduras was why negroponte was brought to iraq.
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/COH405A.html "torture at cia battalion 316"

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FG01Ak02.html negroponte past and present

the iraqis would have to be blind not to see the Us played shia against sunni by assassinating leaders ,raiding homes and executing inhabitants, car and truck bombing mosques and holy shrines on both sides to intensify the conflict and bleed off the strength of the sunni insurgents until the sunnis realized they could not win fighting both the Us and the shia and agreed to rent themselves to the Us for $10 per man per day.

now the "pacified" sunnis may need the Us like a big-daddy figure to keep the shia from trying to slaughter them --but can the Us get and keep the shia in check ?

for that bush needs the mullahs and ayatollahs in iran's good will and influence on iraq's shia--something the Us can't get by continuing to threaten iran and saber rattle against it and continuing to threateningly move Us aircraft carrier groups into the persian gulf and directly off the coast of iran .

if bush fails to check al sadr , the war could easily reintensify, Us casualities significantly increase, the country further fractionalize and unravel assuring a democratic party victory in november 08.

dub and cheney are betting the whole farm on 80,000 sunni militia/former insurgents continuing to live quietly on broken promises in the midst of raw sewage and sporadic electricity with limited amounts of clean drinking water -- with also every vestige of modern infrastructure and normal life in shambles under the constant overbearing presence of a hated, ham-handed and occupying foreign army--as the iraqis have lived for five years now.

*also , did you notice the policeman says he got word of this attack 2 weeks ago ? wasn't cheney in iraq the same time ? so much for the bush lie about al maliki deciding on his own to attack the madhi army.