Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocked anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a coward on Sunday, hours after the radical leader threatened to declare war unless U.S. and Iraqi forces end a military crackdown on his followers. Rice, in the Iraqi capital to tout security gains and what she calls an emerging political consensus, said al-Sadr is content to issue threats and edicts from the safety of Iran, where he is studying. Al-Sadr heads an unruly militia that was the main target of an Iraqi government assault in the oil-rich city of Basra last month, and his future role as a spoiler is an open question.
"I know he’s sitting in Iran," Rice said dismissively, when asked about al-Sadr’s latest threat to lift a self-imposed cease-fire with government and U.S. forces. "I guess it’s all-out war for anybody but him," Rice said. "I guess that’s the message; his followers can go too their deaths and he’s in Iran." A full-blown uprising by al-Sadr, who led two rebellions against U.S.-led forces in 2004, could lead to a dramatic increase in violence in Iraq at a time when the Sunni extremist group Al Qaeda in Iraq appears poised for new attacks after suffering severe blows last year.
In a warning posted Saturday on his Web site, al-Sadr said he had tried to defuse tensions by declaring the truce last August, only to see the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki respond by closing his offices and "resorting to assassinations." He accused the government of selling out to the Americans and branding his followers as criminals…
In case you’ve lost the thread here, we Invaded Iraq [a Sunni minority country] five years ago to depose a Sunni Disctator [Saddam Hussein]. A Shiite leader was elected [Nouri al-Malaki] who is now fighting al Qaeda [Sunni]. insurgents [Sunni], and the Sadr-ists [Shiite] whose leader [Muqtada al-Sadr] is in Iran [Shiite]. Now, Shiite Muqtada al-Sadr is declaring war, and our Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, says the equivalent of "bring ’em on" – as other Administration official foment for war with Iran.
Does this hole have no bottom?
“I guess it’s all-out war for anybody but him”, Rice said. What is she joking. Her boss Bush said “Bring them on” and where was he sitting when he said that, while our soldiers were fighting in Iraq and he was sitting in the White House and Cheney was planning with the others what methods to use to torture those captured .
These mad people are irresponsible crackpots deluded by the abuse of power!