But… Didn’t Sadr Win The Battle of Basra?
Jul 31, 202086.4K Shares2M Views
Another Claire McCaskill banger. She asked Crocker straight up: didn’t Sadr come out of Basra more powerful than Maliki?
Crocker was all, no, no, no, nothing of the sort. But his tea was extremely weak: “What I’ve seen since the [violence] in Basra has been very broad-ranging political support for Maliki,” Crocker said. Something called the Political Council for National Security — consisting of the president, the two vice presidents, the speaker and deputy speaker of parliament, and another functionary whose title I missed — just came out with a strong statement of support! It expressed “support for the government’s fight against extremist militia groups; it called for the disbanding of all such groups; and a strong statement against outsiders who seek to interfere in Iraq’s affairs, a clear reference to Iran.”
Um. So it’s a positivesign that Maliki’s own governmentis backing him? Crocker couldn’t even attempt to pretend that, you know, 27 million Iraqi citizens cheered Maliki on.”It’s still a process of evolution,” he said. “It has definitely strengthened support for Maliki as he’s perceived to be prepared to go into action against extremist Shia as well as Al Qaeda.”
Paula M. Graham
Reviewer
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