al-Sadr reacts to Rumsfeld's recent statement

Reacting the Donald Rumsfeld's statement that if civil war breaks out in Iraq, the U.S. troops will not intervene, instead leaving it to the Iraqis to protect themselves, Muktada al-Sadr had this to say:

' "May God damn you," Sadr said of Rumsfeld. "You said in the past that civil war would break out if you were to withdraw, and now you say that in case of civil war you won't interfere." '

So Juan Cole makes the following point:

Cole: I have to admit, it is hard to see what use it is to have US soldiers in Iraq if they won't be deployed in a genuine national emergency.

Good question. Along with that, the British have just announced that they are removing 10% of the forces they have in Iraq.

(Juan Cole provides a great deal of illuminating information in his blog today.)

It looks to me like the "Coalition of the Willing" will be out of Iraq by early 2007. The civil war in Iraq will then either take on the appearance of Lebanon in the 80's before Syria went in to stop it, or the Iranians will conduct a Syrian-style move to quash the civil war.