Dead or Alive

April 12, 2004

Comments

I thought this was implied: U.S. Army Says It Intends to ‘Kill or Capture’ Sadr

The U.S. military intends to kill or capture rebel Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who launched an uprising this month with his militiamen clashing with coalition soldiers in several towns and cities.

“The mission of U.S. forces is to kill or capture Moqtada al-Sadr,” Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of ground forces in Iraq (news – web sites), said in a video conference from Baghdad with correspondents in the United States.

Apparently, there’s a war on.

4 responses to “Dead or Alive”

Laurence Simon

April 12, 2004 at 2:28 pm

And here I was thinking you’d add in “You spin me right round, baby, right round” somewhere in the post.
Christopher Cross

April 12, 2004 at 2:46 pm

Well, I guess we can now put to rest the rumor that the next major op will be “Sadr Ticklefest”
Mithras

April 12, 2004 at 3:13 pm

No, it was not implied. It’s not clear that capturing or killing Sadr will reduce the attacks on our troops. At best, it’s a threat to try to get Sadr to make concessions in negotiations. At worse, it’s an admission that things are out of control.
James Joyner

April 12, 2004 at 4:37 pm

Mithras: This guy is in charge of a private militia that’s killing Americans and undermining our reconstruction efforts. Of course we’re going to take him out, one way of the other. It’s not any more of an admission of trouble than arresting John Gotti was here.

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