A self-styled Shiite Muslim insurgent group made its public debut in a videotape aired by a Lebanese TV station, pledging to fight U.S., British and other coalition forces but to spare Iraqi civilians and soldiers.
They stated:
"We assure them (Iraqis) that operations against civilians are great transgressions. Members of the Iraqi army, police and Iraqi security agencies are our sons, brothers and beloved. They are our hope for the future to preserve the land of Iraq and its security. So are state employees," the statement said.
Two years ago, when Sadr and the Sunnis rose up, there was a chance of rallying all Iraqis against us in the hope that peace could be restored. The enemy lost that chance:
The Baathists screwed up big allying with the Islamists (as I noted in "Center of Gravity" in June 2004). They thought they could use the Islamists to spark a national revolt against American forces but instead the Islamists are giving all Iraqis a foreign enemy to rally against.
So it is too late for the enemy to try this strategy.
In addition, announcing the strategy in Lebanon and trying to be oh-so-purely "Iraqi" strikes me as a sign that this is an Iranian front group. When Sunni Baathists have no problem killing Iraqis, it seems like it must be a foreign group "astro-turfing" themselves to look local. I have little doubt that Sadr is involved somehow. Sadr was in Lebanon around the time of the Golden Mosque bombing, as I noted in this post, and perhaps this announcement is a result of that visit.
Purely speculating, to be sure, but I've long wondered whether we or Iran would strike first.
This could be a hot summer.
