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Editorial Commentary
Scott Sullivan:
Bush should apologize to Sadr
Unless Muqtada al-Sadr has evidence of US involvement in the assassination of his senior aide in Najaf, Sadr should apologize to the US and withdraw the allegations. The truth is that Iran is probably responsible for the assassination. If Iran is responsible, Sadr would look as if he were protecting Iran by falsely accusing the US.
The best policy for Sadr is to expose the full scope of Iranian-US-Kurdish military collaboration in Iraq, beginning in 2004. First, Sadr should document all the meetings between the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and high ranking Kurdish military officials, who presumably informed General Petraeus of these meetings and obtained his permission to cooperate with the IRGC.
The IRGC requested high level meetings with the Kurds in 2004 because it wanted a signed agreement with president Barzani that the IRGC could use Kurdish territory as a staging area for IRGC terrorism against the Sunnis, the pro-Sadr Shia, and US forces. Barzani subsequently agreed to open Kurdish territory to the IRGC.
With Iranian access via Kurdish territory to western/Arab Iraq, as well as Iranian access to southern/Shia Iraq and Basra, Iranian IRGC personnel – with the knowledge of Kurdish and presumably US military officials -- were able to assassinate hundreds of pro-Sadr Shia clergy and hundreds of US military personnel.
Moreover, the IRGC used Kurdish territory to move al-Qaeda terrorists and large quantities of munitions into Mosul and Anbar province. Finally, Iran used Kurdish territory to conduct joint operations and training with al-Qaeda. Iran could not use its own territory for training and supplying al-Qaeda due to Iranian political sensitivities.
Again, Muqtada al-Sadr should disclose the documentation on Iranian-Kurdish-US military cooperation in the Kurdish areas in beginning in 2004. The second area for Sadr’s attention is US-Iranian cooperation in the recent fighting in Basra. According to the Israeli website Debka.com, Iranian military and paramilitary forces, not US forces, supplied most of the logistics for Maliki’s offensive against Sadr. If this is true, the US-Iran military cooperation has now come into the open.
In short, President Bush may talk a good game of confronting Iran in Iraq. The truth, however, is that the fighting in Basra represented a US and Iranian assault on Iraq and on Muqtada al-Sadr. For this violation of international law, President Bush owes Sadr an apology.
Scott Sullivan is a former Washington government employee. Petroleumworld not necessarily share these views.
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Petroleumworld News 04/14/08
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