Dead or Alive

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.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

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

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

  3. Mithras says:

    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.

  4. James Joyner says:

    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.