Muqtada re-emerges
The movement led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is poised to make a dramatic return to the forefront of Iraq’s Shi’ite politics, combining its success in recent elections with the anticipated elevation of its leader’s religious status.
The Sadrists are the main faction in the Iraqi National Alliance, which is projected to have won 68 seats in the new parliament. The bloc was the main challenger for the Shi’ite vote against Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who has been regarded with suspicion by the Sadrists since the Iraqi military led a crackdown on their militia in 2008.
Full results from the elections were due late Friday. After 95% of votes were counted…
If anyone has ever gone fishing and caught an eel then tried to take it off the hook, they will know why I think of this when I see Muqtada al Sadr and the 7-year US blunder in Iraq.
Timothy R. Anderson:
Eels indeed. Packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes, contestants in a suicidal race. ( Hat tip to Sting. )
I know I’m not alone in thinking that Biden and Obama would gain immense amounts of “street-cred. ” if they’d both go to Iraq, specifically the Sadr City section of Baghdad, stay there a mucho
long time, get a truer picture of the “scene” than the deliberately
ignorant Mainstream American Media provides . . . .
then hop back onto the fast-flying jet and zoooooom away from
it.
As USA Today newspaper, MSNBC, PBS, Fox News Channel, CBS, ABC
will not tell you, yesterday, today , and tomorrow . . . .
Dahr Jamail actually does the difficult work. Please support him.
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com
Timothy R. Anderson
29 March 2010, 11:16 am