Al-Sadr to negotiate?

[SirNitram]

No CNN Linky, as I only just saw this on Headline News, and haven't been able to find an article online.

Apparently, some spokesmen for the cleric are offering a truce: The US military ceases operations in Najaf, and the militants will disband. They also demand that the militants have a place in the Iraqi military when it's restored.

[Exmoor Cat]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3707185.stm

also Al jazeera - http://english.aljazeera.net is carrying stuff in regard to negotiations over Najaf.

[Durandal]

So we'll give people who want to kill us a place in the new government if they agree to stop trying to kill us? How about we just put a bullet through Al-Sadr's head?

[HemlockGrey]

And will the US ever agree to give the militiants a place in the regular military? Ever?

[CJvR]

Sure negotiation can work...

If Sadr come out of his hole with his hands up he might not get shot.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

And will the US ever agree to give the militiants a place in the regular military? Ever?

Seems only fair, lots of the regular army sure has gotten a great place with the militants.

[Aaron]

I don't see the purpose of negotiating with Al-Sadr. He made his bed, now he can die in it. If the US negotiate's with him it'll send the message to the rebels that they can do whatever the hell they want and can weasel out of the concequences later on. The coalition needs to go in and arrest him like they said they would. I'm sure the people of Najaf would be grateful that him and his militia are gone.

[Durandal]

Al-Sadr and his little militia qualify as terrorists, to me, and the US has a long-standing policy of not negotiating with terrorists.

[Darth Wong]

They should either negotiate with him right now, or they should blow the fucker up. Instead, they seem to be sitting in some fucked-up limbo between treating him as a terrorist and treating him as a head of state.

[Aaron]

They should either negotiate with him right now, or they should blow the fucker up. Instead, they seem to be sitting in some fucked-up limbo between treating him as a terrorist and treating him as a head of state.

I don't understand why they are according this Al-Sadr fellow so much respect. He's not an elected official and he doesn't seem to speak for the Iraqi populace save for his militia. They've already declared that they were going to arrest him, so stop acting like he's Yasser Arafat and get on with it. Right now it looks like the US leadership couldn't make a decison to save their lives.

[CJvR]

I don't understand why they are according this Al-Sadr fellow so much respect. He's not an elected official and he doesn't seem to speak for the Iraqi populace save for his militia. They've already declared that they were going to arrest him, so stop acting like he's Yasser Arafat and get on with it. Right now it looks like the US leadership couldn't make a decison to save their lives.

Well he is "hiding" in some very important buildings. If the US go in and level them or even take them in the old fasion way the reaction of the Shia population would be unpredictable. Better to convince him he's lost and get him to surrender, not that I think Sadr would be rational enough to realise when he has lost.

[Aaron]

Well he is "hiding" in some very important buildings. If the US go in and level them or even take them in the old fasion way the reaction of the Shia population would be unpredictable. Better to convince him he's lost and get him to surrender, not that I think Sadr would be rational enough to realise when he has lost.

Well it's too bad that he's hiding in these buildings, but the fact remains that he is a terrorist and a murderer. The buildings can always be rebuilt. I don't recall anyone caring in WWII when the Germans used churches for cover and to fight from, so whats the difference. Just because their Muslim buildings that removes them from being harmed?

[TheDarkling]

Well it's too bad that he's hiding in these buildings, but the fact remains that he is a terrorist and a murderer. The buildings can always be rebuilt. I don't recall anyone caring in WWII when the Germans used churches for cover and to fight from, so whats the difference. Just because their Muslim buildings that removes them from being harmed?

It isn't a case of treating Muslim buildings as special it is just that if we were to attack these buildings it could cause us even more problems with the populace.

[Vympel]

This just in, talks fell through.

[HemlockGrey]

This just in, talks fell through.

This also just in: The Earth appears to be orbiting the Sun.

[Vympel]

This also just in: The Earth appears to be orbiting the Sun.

Would you have that reaction if I said that the Fallujah talks didn't fall through?

[Durandal]

Well it's too bad that he's hiding in these buildings, but the fact remains that he is a terrorist and a murderer. The buildings can always be rebuilt. I don't recall anyone caring in WWII when the Germans used churches for cover and to fight from, so whats the difference. Just because their Muslim buildings that removes them from being harmed?

World War II was a vastly different situation. We used nuclear weapons against the Japanese in WWII; that doesn't mean that they're appropriate here.

[Vympel]

Actually, that he's a murderer isn't a fact, it's an allegation. Before Sadr became the latest personification of evil, it was Saddamist thugs who were accused of the murder Sadr is now accused of.