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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (136888)	6/17/2004 3:55:15 PM
From: Andrew N. Cothran	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Quisling? Maybe you should visit Norway and talk to any Norwegian about Quisling. After all, it was Vidkun Quisling, one of their own, who became the traitor used by the Nazis to subjugate that brave people. They would tell you what it is really like to live under a dictatorship and they would also tell you how thankful they are that the US and its allies took more than five years to return their country to them, freeing them from a tyranny almost as brutal as that of Sadaam Hussein. And we have been in Iraq for a little over a year. Boy are you impatient. Tell that to Hussein. You seem to have a truly reliable source of information re: the day to day political and military changes now undergoing rapid transformation as we approach the June 30th handover. Lots of patriotic Norwegians were assassinated under the Quisling/Nazi occupation in Norway. Did this cause Norwegian patriots to cower and to flee in terror from their responsibilities to restore their country to freedom? Waiting. . .waiting. . .waiting . . .Just as Germans waited after WWII. And the Japanese waited after Hirohito. And the Italians waited after Beneto Mussolini. And the East Germans waited after the fall of the Berlin Wall. And the Afghans are waiting after the Taliban, knowing that Karzai will lead them into their future of freedom and democracy. (Or is Karzai just another Quisling?) Yes, and the Americans waited after the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Democracy takes time. Military victory also takes time. The enemies of both are desperate. They know the stakes. Iran knows the stakes. The last thing it wants is an Iraq on its borders whose citizenry is becoming educated in freedom and to freedom. Tell John Kerry. But speak to him in both his ears as the one on the left rarely knows what the one on the right is hearing. And both of them are rarely in contact with his flippy-floppy mouth.

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (136888)	6/17/2004 4:21:53 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Have we arrested Sadr? No, the Shia clerics played good cop to the Marines' bad cop and let Sadr work a deal to disarm and enter the political system. Have we dismantled his militia? No, al Sadr just did that himself. He told his boys to go home, it's over. Do we hold the contested ground in the Shiite holy city? No, the Iraqi Police hold it, as they should, to the general relief of the population of Najaf. You're not keeping up with the news, Jacob. ______________________________ Rebel Cleric Signals End to Shiite Insurgency in Iraq By REUTERS Published: June 16, 2004 NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr sent his fighters home on Wednesday in what may mark the end of a 10-week revolt against U.S.-led forces that once engulfed southern Iraq and Shi'ite Islam's holiest shrines. With the formal end of U.S.-led occupation just two weeks away, Sadr issued a statement from his base in Najaf calling on his Mehdi Army militiamen to go home. ``Each of the individuals of the Mehdi Army, the loyalists who made sacrifices...should return to their governorates to do their duty,'' the statement said. That call came a day after President Bush said the United States would not oppose a political role for Sadr -- only weeks after branding him an anti-democratic thug. Dan Senor, spokesman for the U.S.-led administration in Iraq, suggested Sadr caved in to U.S. military pressure and moderate Shi'ite clerics who brokered a truce between his militia and American forces. ``He is seeking to save face. Iraqi political leaders are working out agreements with him. He has expressed his support for the interim government, which was unheard of many weeks ago,'' he told CNN. Sadr's ragtag fighters, mostly from the slums of Baghdad and impoverished southern villages, had launched an uprising on April 4, overrunning police stations and public buildings in several towns in a bold challenge to U.S.-led forces. This month the unpredictable young cleric agreed a truce with the U.S. military and Iraqi authorities after weeks of fighting in the Shi'ite shrine cities of Najaf and Kerbala. Sadr's office sent a letter to the Shi'ite religious establishment on Wednesday, saying Iraqi police would be welcome back in his stronghold of Kufa, near Najaf, where he has frequently delivered fiery anti-American sermons. Initially, Sadr took the U.S. military by surprise with the scale of his revolt, launched after occupation authorities closed the young preacher's newspaper, detained one of his top aides and announced that he was wanted for murder. The April uprising, which coincided with heavy fighting between U.S. Marines and Sunni Muslim insurgents in Falluja, west of Baghdad, pushed Iraq closer toward bloody chaos. But as the U.S. military fought back, the Mehdi Army's rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles proved no match for warplanes, tanks and helicopter gunships. Hundreds of Sadr's black-clad militiamen with green headbands were killed in battles that spread to a sprawling ancient cemetery on the edge of Najaf and damaged mosques and shrines sacred to millions of Shi'ites across the world. Apart from the huge casualty toll, Sadr was under pressure from moderate Shi'ite religious leaders opposed to his firebrand ways and appalled by fighting near holy shrines. As the truce calmed the streets of Najaf and Karbala, Sadr played a new card, declaring conditional support for Iraq's interim government and announcing plans to form a political party that could fight elections due to be held by January. Some U.S. officials insist Sadr must face Iraqi justice in connection with the killing of a moderate cleric hacked to death in a Najaf shrine soon after last year's U.S. invasion. But Sadr's unexpected flexibility seems to have opened political doors just before planned June 30 handover. Interim President Ghazi al-Yawar said Sadr's ``smart move'' could enable him to take part in mainstream politics. Under a deal announced by the interim government this month, private militias are to be disbanded and members of illegal militias banned from political office for three years. Despite Bush's olive branch for Sadr, some U.S. officials say Sadr should be barred from politics. ``There is an Iraqi arrest warrant issued against Moqtada al-Sadr that ties him to a brutal murder, and I don't see how he would be eligible for political office before that matter is resolved,'' U.S. spokesman Dan Senor said on Tuesday. National elections are due to be held by January 31 under a U.S.-backed plan for Iraq's political transition. As Iraqi leaders brace for the challenge of running a country suffering from violence and economic hardships, it seems Sadr may keep the interim government guessing. ``Sayyed Moqtada al-Sadr enters into political matters. But this does not mean he will enter elections,'' Sadr's spokesman Qais al-Khazali told Reuters on Wednesday. ``Our position is clear, Sadr's entry into politics will not be direct but we have ideas...There are no nominees or names suggested.'' nytimes.com

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (136888)	6/17/2004 6:28:15 PM
From: Andrew N. Cothran	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Quisling, Vidkun (1887-1945), Norwegian politician, whose collaboration with the Nazis...during World War II (1939-1945) made his name synonymous with traitor. In the 1930s he found the Nationa Union, a Fascist party that received subsidies from Germany. After the Nazi invasion of Norway in 1940 the National Union was declared the only legal party. The Germans installed Quisling as prime minister in 1942 and throughout the war he collaborated with the Nazis. Quisling was tried and executed after the war.