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| Iraq |
| Baghdad: Shiites Turn On Shiites |
| 2008-06-07 |
| Five years after a war allegedly launched to liberate IraqÂ’s Shiite majority, American forces have been bombing Shiite neighbourhoods in Basra and Baghdad while their snipers and tanks remain on the ground in places like Sadr City. Iraq seems to have emerged from the worst phase of its civil war, but the victorious Shiite factions have turned their arms on one another in a fight over the spoils, battling for political power in advance of the upcoming provincial elections. Locals want economic development. I guess they won't get it until the election squabbles are settled. But as the Americans attempt to secure an agreement with the government of Nouri al Maliki to legalise the long-term presence of troops in Iraq, Muqtada al Sadr and his followers remain a formidable obstacle. Whether or not Sadr has been weakened by the clashes in Basra and Sadr City, marginalising the Sadrists will be almost impossible, for they remain the only genuine mass movement in Iraq, with roots that long predate the fall of Saddam. Until 2007 SadrÂ’s militia, the Mahdi Army, co-operated with the Badr Organisation, the armed wing of the Iranian-created Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), to purge Sunnis from Baghdad and Iraq. They were very effective, and their success is the best explanation for the decrease in violence. There are fewer people dying today because there are fewer left to kill; Sunnis and Shiites now inhabit separate walled enclaves, run by warlords and militias who have consolidated their control after mixed neighbourhoods were cleansed along sectarian lines... Two Iraqi parliamentarians visited the US this week to denounce the SOFA deal on US bases. I am concerned that the Mahdists might call jihad against SOFA, and end the rough peace that has been achieved. Would the Mahdists sacrifice human life in order to effect a US election result? Maybe. Unless Iraqis are sick of endless killing, and they ignore jihad fatwas. |
| Posted by:McZoid |
| #3 Send more Shiites! |
| Posted by: doc 2008-06-07 20:42 |
| #2 There are fewer people dying today because there are fewer left to kill; It is written in a lesser volume: even a blind muzz finds the ripe onion and unto him are not denied them wymens. Allah AkaBar etc.! you can look it up. |
| Posted by: George Smiley 2008-06-07 18:15 |
| #1 Wassabi-jalapeno popcorn. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-06-07 16:37 |