Sadr City--Another Fallujah in the Making? Lenin's Tomb

Tweet "So, the news from Iraqi sources is that barricades have been suddenly set up by the US around Sadr City. Recent raids have been stepped up, and firefights are taking place daily, with scores of deaths. A recent air strike on a house in Sadr City killed four civilians. Some military experts are egging the Bush administration on: "If our troops do not enter Sadr City, they belittle the notion of a 'surge' because they would leave a leading militia unscathed", said a chap from IISS (the same think-tank, in fact, that supplied Blair with a rather important propaganda report in 2002).

"Of course, attacking Sadr City and other areas where the Mahdi Army has a popular base is dangerous for the occupiers, since it is by no means clear that they can defeat a combined Sunni-Shiite rebellion. However, given that the demand made on the Sadrists to give up arms and cease militia control of Sadr City is so utterly ludicrous - with, oh you know, occupiers bombing one side, and mysterious car bombings and mortare fire hitting the other - it is not going to be met. I fear another Fallujah. And I never thought I'd have t say this, but watching the Democrats actually criticise Bush's surge policy (albeit they will do as little as possible to stop it) brought a moment of shame and horror, as the next words out of the newscaster's mouth were "but the Prime Minister applauded Bush's decision...". Now, short of revolution, how do we stop this bastard? How do we make our opposition felt in our supposedly representative institutions?

From Lenin's Tomb