Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Republicans don’t trust women.

How are Republicans going to find someone with more charisma and personal charm than Jim Jordan?

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Come on, man.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Military / Basra Jailbreak

Reader Interactions

18Comments

  2. 2.

    Lines

    I’d say that Juan Cole has a much better rundown of the events, without all the chest thumping and mouth breathing that the red-staters bring with them:

    Juan Cole

  3. 3.

    srv

    Well, except for what the Brits were doing in the first place.

    And that the Brits success in the past doesn’t impress RedState, because we really are smarter than them in the first place.

    Obviously, arresting al-Sadrs aides has been demonstrated not to go over very well in the past. But the Brits are much more likely to deal with the Iranian connections than we are. Best of luck to them.

  6. 6.

    Tim F

    The RedState diary makes it sound like events are about to land on the British like a binging opera star. If Juan Cole’s assesment is worse than that I don’t even want to read it.

  7. 7.

    Darrell

    Privately, British commanders were seething over the Marines’ monthlong siege of Fallujah—the doctrine of “kill, kill and kill again,” as a former British officer put it to NEWSWEEK.

    That was a good read John. I wasn’t tuned in previously to the level of British arrogance though.. that was a bit of an eye opener. Let’s hope the British can handle Sadr themselves without too much intervention from those trigger happy un-nuanced Americans

  8. 8.

    stickler

    As always, the careful reader should be very wary of anything that appears on RedState.

    Streiff’s jingoism nearly obscures the really crappy situation in Basra. We’re on the verge of civil war in Iraq, our troop strength is too low to match total chaos, and Streiff spends half that post airing his schadenfreude about those pompous Brits getting a comeuppance?

    Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. If we lose control of the Shia south (perhaps unlikely — something I learned from Juan Cole, not Streiff), how do we resupply Baghdad? How do we get our troops out?

    And what, seriously, does Streiff suggest we do about the obvious Iranian influence in the south? Invade Iran? Great strategery that would be.

  9. 9.

    Darrell

    Streiff’s jingoism nearly obscures the really crappy situation in Basra. We’re on the verge of civil war in Iraq, our troop strength is too low to match total chaos..

    We need hizzoner Mayor Nagin to go straighten things out down there in Basra

  11. 11.

    Com Con

    That was a good read John. I wasn’t tuned in previously to the level of British arrogance though

    Sometimes I wonder if we wouldn’t be better off without their “assistance”. It seems like they just screw up every city they go into.

  12. 12.

    Bob

    What about that story of fighters taking over neighborhoods in Baghdad in broad daylight? What about the billion bucks that were supposed to go to arming the Iraqis apparently swindled right out of the country?

    We had liars and crooks in the White House that got us into the war, were aided by Iraqi liars and crooks, and now we have a country falling apart.

    Forget Pottery Barn, let’s break for the door and hope no one tries to stop us on the way out.

  14. 14.

    p.lukasiak

    its difficult to not see this as a potential watershed event in Iraq (and I’m frankly appalled at the relative dearth of coverage by the US corporate media.)

    The critical point here is that British troops attacked an Iraqi police station in a manner that is going to have broad repercussions. One wonders what kind of information these British soldiers (actually spies with military cover) that the Brits were so afraid would be disclosed that they pulled this stupid stunt.

    A couple of points of note — the Iraqis clearly have excellent intelligence on what the British are planning on doing. The two spies were not in the jail, but had been removed and handed over to “militia elements” —a fact the Brits found out only after they’d attacked the jail.

    RedState doesn’t even bother to mention that the British attack on the jail lead to the reported escape of 150 people being held there. Whether these people were “common criminals” or “terrorists”, their release does not bode well for maintaining the security of Basra.

    RedState goes to great lengths to try and blame Sadr and the Mahdi Army—then to attempt to connect them to Iran. But the claims of Sadr responsibility are belied by the fact that “Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia joined in the fighting late in the day, witnesses said.” And Redstate offers nothing more than the usual right-wing paranoia to connect this incident to Iran.

    In other words, not only is the RedState piece not “everything you wanted to know“, it presents a wholly speculative interpretation of the events for which there is little or no factual basis. (Both SCIRI and DAWA are much more closely connected to Iran than is Sadr and his Mahdi army…..)

  15. 15.

    Vlad

    Myself, I’m still curious/concerned about these reports of the British soldiers/spies having a car full of explosives.

  16. 16.

    Darrell

    p.lukisiak: “RedState goes to great lengths to try and blame Sadr and the Mahdi Army—-then to attempt to connect them to Iran…And Redstate offers nothing more than the usual right-wing paranoia to connect this incident to Iran”

    Red State: Sadr’s ties to Iran are “hugely overblown”. It is Juan Cole (left wing paranoia?) who is claiming Sadr is in the pocket of Iran

    p.lukisiak: “But the claims of Sadr responsibility are belied by the fact that “Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia joined in the fighting late in the day, witnesses said.”

    Verbatim quote from Red State article: “Witnesses said they saw Basra police exchanging fire with British forces. Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia joined in the fighting late in the day, witnesses said.”

    p.lukisiak: “I’m frankly appalled at the relative dearth of coverage by the US corporate media.)”

    Red State: linked to headline articles in the Washington Post and UK Guardian. From the “Latest Headlines” section of Fox news website, “Britain: Iraqi Police Placed Commandos in Danger”. Lead Headline on CNN World: “Iraq’s national security adviser has raised sharp questions about the way British forces handled the rescue of two of its undercover troops in the southeastern city of Basra”.. No doubt similar “dearths of coverage” at other major news ‘corporate media’ sites.

    Thanks for the insightful, perceptive commentary lukisiak. Come again soon

  17. 17.

    Darrell

    Vlad Says:

    Myself, I’m still curious/concerned about these reports of the British soldiers/spies having a car full of explosives

    Why would you be concerned that British troops had explosives? That piece of information, in and of itself, even if true doesn’t mean a thing… that is, it doesn’t mean a thing unless you’re a drooling paranoid lunatic

  18. 18.

    Vlad

    “Why would you be concerned that British troops had explosives?”

    There are Chinese and Turkish wire reports saying that the British soldiers/spies in question were driving a civilian car full of explosives, and that the conflict escalated after they were caught planting a bomb.

    We’re talking about sketchy foreign-language press reports that’ve been translated at least once, but even so, it’s clearly something that should be looked into to make sure nothing hinky’s going on.

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