We have a big week coming up in terms of our failing open-ended occupation of Iraq. Here are some dates:
- Tuesday April 8th deadline for Mahdi Army members to turn in all weapons to Iraqi government of be disarmed by force.
- Tuesday or Wednesday General Petraeus to testify before congress.
- Wednesday April 9th big Million person march of Shi'ia in Najaf making the fifth anniversary of the start of the occupation.
- Thursday April 10th Secretary Gates to testify before congress.
Regarding the Tuesday deadline Juan Cole reports this AM that
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki suddenly reversed himself on Friday, pledging a freeze on attacks on militias. Just a day before he had been saying that he would send the Iraqi military in after the Mahdi Army in Baghdad.
Cole's comment on this is that, given the poor showing of the Iraqi government sources against a relative week Mahdi Army presence in Bassara "Apparently someone with some sense got al-Maliki's ear."
Meanwhile regarding at march on the 9th McClatchy News says
Firebrand Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr on Thursday called for a massive demonstration against the "occupation" of Iraq on April 9, which would coincide with the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad and come just after U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker are to testify to Congress about progress in Iraq.
Reuters reports that we can expect the draw-down to end in July with a pause until we decide what to do. The bottom line
U.S. troop levels could, in fact, remain above 130,000 when a new president takes office in January 2009.
And
It could delay Pentagon efforts to get soldiers back to 12-month deployments, down from the 15-month tours they now serve in Iraq.
Meanwhile here (from Chris Weighant is a nice list of questions that our representatives ought to be asking Gates and Petraeus. There are some good ones there, but I wonder how many Democrats will have the nerve to ask such things.