{"id":299,"date":"2007-05-29T09:48:11","date_gmt":"2007-05-29T14:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=299"},"modified":"2007-05-29T09:48:11","modified_gmt":"2007-05-29T14:48:11","slug":"kicking-the-british-poodle-in-basra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/?p=299","title":{"rendered":"Kicking the British Poodle in Basra"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta http-equiv=\"Content-Language\" content=\"en-us\" \/> <meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=windows-1252\" \/><title>Israeli strategic studies schola<\/title>Israeli strategic studies scholar <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biu.ac.il\/SOC\/besa\/amikam_nachmani.html\">Amikam Nachmani<\/a>  has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Great-Power-Discord-Palestine-Anglo-American\/dp\/0714632988\"> long argued<\/a> that the US consistently and forcefully&#8211;if quietly&#8211;undermined  and marginalized British imperial control around the world.<\/p>\n<p>Is this pattern also evident in Iraq today?\u00c2\u00a0 Is the US quietly working  to undermine the British political position in Iraq?<\/p>\n<p>Are the US and the UK on opposing sides in the relatively low-intensity &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cfr.org\/publication\/12692\/knights.html\">Shiite  civil war<\/a>&#8221; in Basra?<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alertnet.org\/thenews\/newsdesk\/COL547292.htm\"> Reuters<\/a>, British forces issued a press release on Friday, May 25, 2007  announcing that a Sadrist &#8220;militia leader&#8221; in Basra was killed in a &#8220;precision  strike&#8221; on his car.<\/p>\n<p>A later British report qualified the <a href=\"http:\/\/uk.reuters.com\/article\/topNews\/idUKCOL54729220070525\">official  story<\/a> of the event:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[British military spokesman] Major David Gell said Abu Qader [&#8220;the leader  \tof Shi&#8217;ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr&#8217;s Mehdi Army militia in the southern Iraqi  \tcity of Basra&#8221;] and at least one aide were shot shortly after leaving Sadr&#8217;s  \toffices in the centre of the city, the hub of Iraq&#8217;s main oilfields. He said  \tthe operation was authorised by the Iraqi government&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;During the arrest operation the targeted individual was killed &#8230; after  \the resisted arrest,&#8221; he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>According to the <em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/Iraq\/Story\/0,,2088624,00.html\">Guardian<\/a><\/em>,  the British were pretty unhappy with Abu Qader (also sometimes identified as Abu  Qadir or Wissam al-Waili):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The British army yesterday said Mr Qader was a &#8220;known key criminal leader  \twho was believed to have been involved in criminal activity such as weapons  \ttrafficking, theft and assassinations&#8221;. &#8220;He was also suspected of  \tintimidation against local security forces and local civilians in Basra and  \tplanning and participating in attacks against MNF [multinational forces].&#8221;  \tIt described him as a &#8220;prominent member of the militant arm of Jaish al-Mahdi  \tin the Basra area&#8221;. &#8220;The citizens of Basra are far safer now that the  \tcriminal leader is off the streets.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Nevertheless, Abu Qader also had some well-positioned defenders.\u00c2\u00a0 The <em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/Iraq\/Story\/0,,2088624,00.html\">Guardian<\/a><\/em>  reports:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>[T]he Iraqi military intelligence officer in Basra told the Guardian Mr  \tQader was known for instilling restraint in his men, and said his absence  \tcould unleash new violence on the city. &#8220;He was a very good person, serious  \tand was working very hard to stabilise Basra,&#8221; the officer said. &#8220;He used to  \trestrain his men from going into clashes against other militias. He was a  \tnationalist who had no connections to Iran. There will be repercussions as  \this men will accuse Fadhila [a rival Shia faction] and they will try to  \tavenge his death.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The &#8220;precision strike&#8221; against Abu Qader is best understood as part of a  larger effort by the British and the local Fadhila party (the so-called &#8220;Virtue  Party) to bolster their position ahead of a planned British withdrawal.<\/p>\n<p>In February 2007, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.alertnet.org\/thenews\/newsdesk\/KHA142013.htm\">Reuters<\/a>  reported:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In London, Blair told parliament Britain would reduce its troop levels by  \t1,600 over coming months, but said its soldiers would stay in Iraq into 2008  \tas long as they were wanted. Britain currently has 7,100 troops in Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>Since late last year British troops have been conducting a major security  \tsweep called Operation Sinbad aimed at purging the police of militia  \tinfiltration&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The Sadrists are believed to have infiltrated the security forces in the  \tcity and are often at odds with a <strong>pro-British governor from the rival  \tShi&#8217;ite Fadhila party<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>As part of Operation Sinbad, British forces cleared Basra&#8217;s serious crimes  \tunit on Dec. 25 and blew up the building with explosives after intelligence  \thad suggested &#8220;rogue&#8221; officers were about to execute prisoners. The governor  \tbacked the move but the police chief was outraged.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/Iraq\/Story\/0,,2083387,00.html\"><em> Guardian<\/em><\/a> also suggests that the British are closely aligned with the  Fadhila party and its governor, Mohammed al-Waeli:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Nasaif Jassem, a city councillor for the Fadhila party that controls the  \tgovernorship and the oil industry in Basra, was critical of Iranian  \tinterference. <strong>Fadhila, widely seen as backed by the British<\/strong>, split  \tfrom the main Shia alliance in Baghdad&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Meanwhile, <em>all of the key US-backed<\/em> Shiite political forces are united  in trying to oust the Fadhila-backed provincial governor of Basra.\u00c2\u00a0 The <em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iht.com\/articles\/ap\/2007\/04\/28\/africa\/ME-GEN-Iraq-Basra.php\"> Associated Press<\/a><\/em> reports:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Two-thirds of the members of the Basra provincial council signed a  \tstatement Saturday declaring they have no confidence in the governor of the  \toil-rich province and asked parliament to remove him, a local official  \tsaid&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Twenty-seven council members, or two-thirds, signed the statement and sent  \tit to the parliamentary committee on provincial affairs, the official  \tsaid&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The document was signed by the <strong>members of the Basra Islamic List<\/strong>, an  \talliance of Shiite parties opposed to Fadhila, and eight members of the  \tCenter Bloc.<\/p>\n<p>The Basra Islamic List <strong>includes the Sadrist Movement of anti-U.S. cleric  \tMuqtada al-Sadr, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the  \tBadr Organization, the Master of All Martyrs Movement and Hezbollah<\/strong>. The  \tList holds 19 of the 41 provincial council seats, while Fadhila has 12.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Doesn&#8217;t this suggest that the US and the UK are backing opposing sides in the  &#8220;Shiite civil war&#8221; for control of southern Iraq?<\/p>\n<p>And, insofar as British forces are widely viewed as being <em>chased<\/em> out  of Basra, is it too much to suggest that the US is &#8220;gently&#8221; showing the British  the door?<\/p>\n<blockquote><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Israeli strategic studies scholaIsraeli strategic studies scholar Amikam Nachmani has long argued that the US consistently and forcefully&#8211;if quietly&#8211;undermined and marginalized British imperial control around the world. Is this pattern also evident in Iraq today?\u00c2\u00a0 Is the US quietly working to undermine the British political position in Iraq? Are the US and the UK on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profcutler.com\/wordpress_blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}