CNN REPORTS: AL-SADR FORMS NEW FORCE TO FIGHT U.S. TROOPS IN IRAQ: IRAQI GOVERNMENT SAYS IT IT WILL DICTATE WHERE U.S. TROOPS CAN GO IN IRAQ

This has now reached beyond the point of being absurd in Iraq. Not only has Moqtada al-Sadr emerged from his self-imposed exile, but he is organizing a massive force of Mahdi Army troops with the sole intention of killing as many American troops as possible in Iraq.

Hello, Sen. John McCain. What say you about these developments?

Then to add insult to injury the Iraqi government has decided they are going to TELL the United States military where they can go and not go in Iraq.

Yes, you heard me right. Just read the rest of the CNN story. The Iraqi government, such as it is, says they will be issuing a statement to General Petraeus telling him where the United States Army and Marines are allowed to go in Iraq.

No wonder one out of every three returning troops from Iraq suffers from PTSD. When the leaders of your own Army or Marine Corps are being pushed around by puppet government set up by the Bush Administration it is time to tell Iraq they can have their country back and we are going to pack up and ship out.

If McCain and the Republicans are all for staying in Iraq "FOREVER," then let every Republican who supports this illegal occupation of a sovereign nation make sure their military age children and grandchildren sign up RIGHT NOW for the United States Army or the United States Marine Corps.

COMMENTARY BY BILL CORCORAN, EDITOR OF CORKSPHERE

Al-Sadr: New force to fight U.S. in Iraq

Story Highlights
Sources: Muqtada Al-Sadr apparently embracing what U.S. calls rogue militants
Shiite cleric's Mehdi Army has operated under cease-fire since last summer
Al-Sadr says there'll be no stop to resistance in Iraq "until liberation or martyrdom"

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/13/iraq.alsadr/index.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is establishing a new fighting force to battle U.S.-led troops in Iraq, he said in a letter read in Iraqi mosques Friday.

Al-Sadr's letter said that "the resistance will be exclusively conducted by only one group. This new group will be defined soon by me."

Al-Sadr's militia, the Mehdi Army, has a strong and ubiquitous presence in Shiite cities, towns and neighborhoods.

Sources familiar with al-Sadr said they believe he's trying to embrace what the U.S. calls "Special Groups" -- Iran-backed Shiite militants, including rogue Mehdi Army members, who have been fighting U.S.-led troops despite a cease-fire that the cleric declared in August.
The mainstream Mehdi Army has operated under the cease-fire, which dramatically reduced violence in Iraq. During that time, however, there has been fighting between U.S. and Iraqi troops and members of the Mehdi Army, with many of the battles this spring in the southern city of Basra and Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood.

In the latest fighting overnight, American-led coalition forces killed five and arrested two Special Groups members near Hilla, south of Baghdad, the U.S. military said.
In the letter, al-Sadr said, "The weapons will be held exclusively by this new group, and they should be pointed exclusively at the occupier," adding that he will forbid the group "to target anyone else."

The letter added, "We will not stop resisting the occupation until liberation or martyrdom."
Al-Sadr is transitioning much of the rest of the Mehdi Army into a civilian movement dealing with "religious, social and cultural affairs," according to the letter.

That part of the Mehdi Army will not be involved in militancy but will "fight the Western ideology and liberate the minds from domination and globalization."

The letter said al-Sadr would disown anyone in the Mehdi Army who disobeys his new command. It was read at mosques affiliated with the cleric's movement.

Iraqi and Western intelligence sources have said that Iran, over the last few months, has pressured al-Sadr to promote its interests, which include getting the United States out of Iraq.
Al-Sadr's letter didn't explain why he decided to issue his command.

Meanwhile, Iraqi officials, frustrated by the lack of success in negotiations with the United States over a long-term security agreement, are contemplating a new tack -- pulling out of security talks and developing their own legislation that would dictate the shape of the American military presence in Iraq.