Sadr ups the ante
(Via Juan Cole, the original ain't in english.)
Think about that for a minute. The most powerful political figure in Iraq with millions of followers and an estimated armed force of around 100,000, on the start of Ramadan, is saying that the US has, in effect, organized a specific military effort to stop or kill their "second coming."
In that statement, Sadr has effectively cut all present and future ties to the US, and put the Maliki government in the spot of having to choose in front of Sadr's people. (Are you with us or are you with the guys who want to kill jesus?)
Wow. That's raising the stakes.
As Sadr has consitantly astute political actor in post-invasion Iraq, make note of anti-US shift. He knows his audience, and this plays.
(And just for a little context, Sadr is being seen as losing control of some of his followers on the right to more violent, more anti-American sub-leaders. That may be the genesis for this extreme message.)
In a worrisome sign that Muqtada al-Sadr has gone deep into an apocalyptic sense of the end of the world [Ar.], al-Zaman reports that the young nationalist Shiite cleric maintained that the US Department of Defense has compiled an enormous file on the hidden Twelfth Imam, that is virtually complete save that it lacks his photograph. .....
Al-Sadr said during his Friday prayer sermon in Kufa that "The United States has been preparing for ten years a rapid reaction force against the awaited Imam Mahdi and the US provoked the Gulf War so as to fill the region with military outposts for this purpose."
Think about that for a minute. The most powerful political figure in Iraq with millions of followers and an estimated armed force of around 100,000, on the start of Ramadan, is saying that the US has, in effect, organized a specific military effort to stop or kill their "second coming."
In that statement, Sadr has effectively cut all present and future ties to the US, and put the Maliki government in the spot of having to choose in front of Sadr's people. (Are you with us or are you with the guys who want to kill jesus?)
Wow. That's raising the stakes.
As Sadr has consitantly astute political actor in post-invasion Iraq, make note of anti-US shift. He knows his audience, and this plays.
(And just for a little context, Sadr is being seen as losing control of some of his followers on the right to more violent, more anti-American sub-leaders. That may be the genesis for this extreme message.)
posted by mikevotes at
3:37 PM
2 Comments:
Except in degree of apocalyptic revelation, how is Sadr's pitch on US intentions any different that BushCo's pronouncements of Iraqi WMD, mushroom clouds, and links to al Queda and 9/11?
Over and over we are confronted with examples of how Bush is little different in method and power-greed than our professed enemies. He has already rolled back the achievements of the Greatest Generation. How far will he be allowed to sail our country from the shores of it's founding principles before we as a people say "No more!"?
By
-epm, at 5:58 PM
I agree fully.
I wanted to stick a line in there, "I'll bet Bush is jealous that he can't say the democrats wanna kill jesus" or somesuch, but I couldn't make it fit in.
In his mind, it is a crusade. His "freedom" is really the American way of life/consuming that he sees so tied up with his religion.
And as for "no more...." I really have given up on that over the last day.
The president and his ruling party are going to pass a law condoning state sanctioned torture, and all the major figures, the media etc, don't really seem to care.
It's crushed me.
I see a real difference if torture is conducted "off the books" or is sanctioned by law. I understand this is largely semantic to those at the sharp end of the policy, but to me, it represented a faith in system.
I had always believed that the greater system would correct against something like this. I no longer believe in the system. In many senses, I no longer believe in America.
So, I'm not the one to ask about "no more."
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 6:20 PM
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