I've been reading a lot of stories about how the US is about to possibly roll into a firefight in Fallujah.
Here's one:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/25/in...rint&position=
and an excerpt:
Quote:
Facing one of the grimmest choices of the Iraq war, President Bush and his senior national security and military advisers are expected to decide this weekend whether to order an invasion of Falluja, even if a battle there runs the risk of uprisings in the city and perhaps elsewhere around Iraq.
After declaring on Friday evening in Florida that "America will never be run out of Iraq by a bunch of thugs and killers," Mr. Bush flew to Camp David for the weekend, where administration officials said he planned consultations in a videoconference with the military commanders who are keeping the city under siege.
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It seems to me that the USA might be doing exactly what Al Sadr wants. Here's the situation:
- Al Sadr wants support against his more conservative leaders
- Fallujah is one of the most holy sites in Iraq, invading it is sure to set off a storm of outrage in the arab world if there is a lot of collateral damage
- Al Sadr's men are hiding in mosques and in plainclothes, so collateral damage to civilians and mosques seems inevitable
- Al Sadr himself has an office directly across from the Imam Ali shrine, the most holy site in Fallujah. If the shrine itself was damaged it would be some seriously bad PR.
Here's a site I found googling around that talks about the importance of the shrine:
http://www.victorynewsmagazine.com/H...mAliANajaf.htm
So, the question is: does Al Sadr know exactly what he is doing and is he baiting the USA into a PR nightmare?