rice had better have an ace in the hole

by Carl Fitch

Published: April 22, 2008

On Sunday, Condoleezza Rice took an unprecedented shot at the leader of the Mahdi Army, Muqtada Sadr, with the following line:

“He is still living in Iran,” she said. “I guess it’s all-out war for anybody but him.”

And then of course there was this doozie:

“His followers can go to their death and he will still be in Iran.”

Considering the fact that neither she nor President Bush are patrolling the streets of Baghdad or scaling the mountains of Afghanistan, these accusations make little sense. Unless, of course, she knows something we don’t. But given this Administrations’ history with predictions (please see WMD’s in Iraq and “the end of major military operations”), I wouldn’t bet on it.

But just for the sake of argument, let’s assume that the intelligence points to the fact that the Mahdi Army is defeated and that normalcy will soon return to the capital. Condoleezza has still “called her shot” in a fashion that would make General Patten proud.

Since the return of relative calm to the streets of Baghdad, nearly every published news report credits both the troop surge and Sadr’s corresponding cease fire for the change in conditions. The two events have worked hand-in-hand to reduce deaths by 50% and allow for some breathing room for the fledgling democracy. However, with the onset in late March of President Al-Maliki’s program to rid Baghdad of rouge elements of the Mahdi Army, the city has seen a corresponding spike in violence.

While most of the world is cringing and wishing Al-Maliki had never decided to take on Sadr, the Bush administration decided to send Rice, a woman no less, to level charges of cowardice at Sadr.

All I can say, Ms. Rice, is that if your bluff gets called, and Southern Baghdad explodes in violence, history will never stop writing about your and your boss’ stupidity. For your sake, for the soldiers’ sake and for our country’s sake, I hope that your poker face is the result of a very good, major-military-operations-ending hand.

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One Response to “rice had better have an ace in the hole”

Tracy says:
April 24th, 2008 at 1:19 am
Wrong. Sadr is a thug and it’s about time somebody took him on. The sooner the Mahdi Army is crushed the better.