Ugh, Poole ... how would he know? IMHO his books are horrible. Just personal political screeds with no basis of knowledge in real enemy TTPs (hate the art work too!). There has been a group calling itself Hezbollah Iraq since late 2003. I have one of their first poster calling people to join seen on a street in Karbala near the Shrine. Hezbollah Lebanon in 1983 was modeled on the Iranian group with the same name (Hizballah) - they create political and charitable support structures and then buff up into a covert paramilitary force. I believe that the Mahdi Militia is angling to remake itself into the Iraqi version of Hezbollah, a separate military and political entity versus the central government, and a cooperative effort with its senior Lebanese brothers is not unbelievable. Thats all we would need a new Jihad thats is professionalizing the terrible skills of the MM.
There is presently no way that the US Army can take on the Mahdi Militia and the Sunni insurgency again ... it will be March 2004 all over again and the local politicians would stop he fighting if it entered Najaf and Karbala again ... the Mahdi has to be defeated by the Iraqi Army and the (Badr Brigade run) Police. This is coming down to a Sistani versus al-Sadr-war-for-the-future and the Iranians appear to have selected Al-Sadr.
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