(Updated: Originally published November 13, 2006)
Strange piece by Sabrina. Not the usual hatchet job.
"Influence Rises but Base Frays for Iraqi Cleric" by SABRINA TAVERNISE
BAGHDAD, Nov. 12 — Few have ever described Moktada al-Sadr, the mercurial leader of Iraq’s mightiest Shiite militia, as a statesman.
Certainly not the Times, which has insulted the man over the last three years.
Yet there he was last month sitting on a pristine couch with the prime minister (no longer cross-legged on the floor), making public calls as well as sending private text messages to aides discouraging sectarianism, and paying visits to the home of Iraq’s most senior Shiite cleric.
For years an angry outsider, (that's more like it, Times) Mr. Sadr, 33, has moved deep into the inner sanctum of the Iraqi government largely because his followers make up the biggest and most volatile Shiite militia. Now, after more than a year in power, he and his top lieutenants are firmly part of the establishment, a position that has brought new comfort and wealth. That change has shifted the threat for the American military, which no longer faces mass uprisings by Mr. Sadr’s fighters when it enters their turf.
But the taming of Mr. Sadr has produced a paradox: the more settled he becomes in the establishment, the looser his grip is over his fighters on the streets and those increasingly infiltrating the security forces.
Well, I don't buy into the internecine death squad stuff; however, the tenor of the piece is as if the U.S. is easing up on the boy.
Making excuses for him now, like he doesn't control his militias? Strange!
As always with the elusive Mr. Sadr, (maybe because people were trying to kill him, like they killed his father and brothers) who has rarely granted interviews to foreign journalists, it is not clear whether his public pronouncements and efforts at reform are sincere, or how long they will last. But in Iraq, power flows from the barrel of a gun, and he, better than anyone, knows that.
Would Sabrina ever raise the issue of whether "efforts at reform are sincere, or how long they will last" about our shithole president?
I thought not! As for understanding that power comes from a gun, no one knows that more than the guy residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Hell, the guy has staked his presidency and THIS WORLD on the claim.
Mr. Sadr is often described as fickle, image-obsessed and having a short attention span. (More slander, or he's got ADD) Lately, he has cut a more sophisticated image. He rented and refurbished a large house near his own for guests in Najaf, after returning from a monthlong trip early this year. It was his second visit abroad, and he met with princes and kings of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Iran, according to a Shiite politician close to him.
Perhaps most significant, Mr. Sadr has been paying visits to the son of Iraq’s most senior Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and apparently learning the arts of negotiation and compromise.
Sure sounds like a statesmen to me!
Sounds like Muqtada has visited more heads-of-state than George.
How 'bout that, huh?
Red flag! Red flag! Propaganda alert!
A coalition intelligence official said in September... One new commander is a fishmonger who goes by the name Abu Dera, meaning “man of the shield.” According to legend, an American tank fired directly on him and missed.
Although his supporters deny it, Sunnis say Abu Dera is one of the city’s biggest killers, responsible for thousands of murders of Sunnis whose bodies are surfacing daily in a giant garbage dump less than a mile from his block. He is often referred to as “the Zarqawi of the Shiites,” a reference to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia who was killed by American forces last June.
Ah, yes, the "Zarqawi of the Shiites!" Another mythical, CIA/Pentagon creation.
The fracturing of Mr. Sadr’s militia traces the arc of Iraq’s history since the American invasion. In 2004, the American military was the common enemy, and Mr. Sadr’s followers even joined Sunnis to fight in Falluja. But as vicious attacks by Sunni militias intensified, perception of the enemy shifted, and Iraq’s two main sects began fighting each other.
Wait a minute! Shiites joined Sunnis to fight in Fallujah?
Yet now, the inter-married, live-side-by-side, fight against us Muslims are slaughtering each other?
I'm NOT BUYING IT!
Indeed, the challenge Mr. Sadr presented to the American military in 2004, when his followers fought tanks in flip-flops, seems to have melted away.
Minimizing Sadr's threat again here, and I simply LUV our "enemy."
I mean, really, fighting tanks in flip-flops?
Fight was in the graveyard of Najaf.
Mahdis believed Allah would guide the bullets.
US desecrated the place in its operation.
SACRILEGE!
More from the unbelievable file:
Mr. Sadr is standing by a newly declared truce with the Americans
Sami al-Askiri, a Shiite lawmaker: “We find his arguments very true. We agree with him.”
It's democracy, yet the raids continue.
Why?
