Up to his Old Tricks

The NY Times today reports that the stand off in Najaf is, in microcosm, an example of the clusterfuckery of the Bush Administration's occupation policy. And who should be at the head of the line in being too damned aggressive but John Negroponte.

Senior officers in Baghdad, as well White House officials who discussed the battle in Washington, say the latest fighting began when a Marine patrol drove directly past one of Mr. Sadr's houses in Najaf - violating an informal agreement that American units would stay away from Mr. Sadr's strongholds, treating them as part of an "exclusion zone" that was at the heart of the cease-fire in the city.

Two days later, on Aug. 5, fighters in Mr. Sadr's Mahdi Army staged a 2 a.m. attack on a police station in Najaf. Usually, the police are an easy mark, but this time, the White House official said, "they shot back" and called for American reinforcements. When the militiamen pushed forward a third time, about 7 a.m., American commanders in Baghdad said, the governor, Mr. Zurfi, called for American reinforcements.

American intelligence officials monitoring Mr. Sadr said he then summoned reinforcements from around the country, and Ambassador John D. Negroponte, the top American official in Iraq, "decided to pursue the case," one official said. One result was a domino effect, with the fighting in Najaf soon replicated in more than half a dozen cities and towns across southern Iraq that are Mahdi Army strongholds, including the Baghdad slum of Sadr City, Diwaniya, Kut, Al Hayy, Nasiriya, Amara and Basra.

The battle in Najaf quickly centered on a huge cemetery adjacent to the Imam Ali Shrine, which had been off limits to American troops as part of a truce worked out after earlier fighting in April. At its closest point, the L-shaped cemetery, more than five square miles of tombs and catafalques and crypts, is only a few hundred yards from the shrine. Marine commanders in Najaf acknowledge that they did little planning for the battle, but say they gambled that they could reach the walls of the Old City so fast that they would outrun the political firestorm sure to result.

I'm sure that when the assault was underway Negroponte managed to be busy concocting an alibi, like "Um, I was attending the 'Green Zone's Lazer Floyd Concert'. Yes, that's the ticket." (we've given the Iraqi's the gift of kitschy angst). But this action has his fingerprints on it -- and that naturally means it has Bush's palm print.

And here is a little section indicating JUST how NOT in control of Iraq we are. As the Times notes, the 1,800 Marines in Najaf requested reinforcements from the Army when the situation began to encounter greater than expected resistance.

By early evening on Aug. 5, the battalion had sent out an urgent request for reinforcements. Senior commanders sent the First Battalion of the Fifth Cavalry Regiment, a heavy Army unit, from Baghdad.

Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the First Cavalry Division commander overseeing American troops in Baghdad, said during a visit to an American base in Najaf on Sunday, Aug. 15, that the division did not know until the last minute that the 1,800 marines in Najaf might need reinforcements. The Fifth Cavalry Regiment's tanks and other armored vehicles were patrolling in Baghdad when the request for help arrived, he said. By then, American troops in the capital were under intense pressure themselves, fighting Sadr militiamen in Sadr City and in skirmishes in other Shiite districts.

Army units began to prepare to move immediately, but the 120-mile drive from Baghdad, through some of the most rebel-infested territory in Iraq, took two days, Colonel Miyamasu said, with the forces arriving in Najaf on Saturday. By then, many marines had been fighting for almost 48 hours straight, in temperatures that topped 120 degrees each day.

Two days to move soldiers 120 miles in a Country we occupy and ostensibly control?

OY!