Posted on 04/26/2004 12:30:30 PM PDT by Pikamax
04.26.04
THE SELF-DESTRUCTION OF SADR: The last thing we want is for our troops to storm into the holiest city in Shia Islam. Pursuing Moqtada Al Sadr in Najaf runs the risk of irreperably breaching relations with the majority of Iraqis. But the more reporting that comes out of the city, the more it looks like we may not need to. Journalists in Najaf are opening a window on a city rapidly running out of patience with its self-proclaimed savior.
Saturday's New York Times explains how the city's clerical establishment is "seeking to pry Mr. Sadr loose through their powers of rhetoric." Though Sadr's black-clad Mehdi Army have invested the city, leading clerics are urging the militiamen, through flyers and speeches, to get out. One such imam, Sadr Al Din Al Kubanchi, preached on Friday to over 2,000 people even as Mehdi militiamen stood nearby:
It's not brave to take refuge in the house or the mosque or the markets and use women and children as human shields. They are people who are trying to cheat you, and they are people from the regime of Saddam Hussein, former intelligence officers. They want to drag you into battle to be destroyed. If that happens, the soldiers will attack Najaf, and our enemies will happily see our blood flow.
The comparison with Saddam appears to be quite apt. According to Colin Freeman in The Scotsman, Sadr is flooding the city with his portrait--on watches, key rings, medallions, and other assorted tchotchkes--much as the dictator did. "The only drawback to having one's face displayed everywhere," Freeman observes, "is that in Iraq it is generally no guarantee of affection." A taxi driver named Khalid Mishbeel drove out of town before feeling safe enough to describe the parallels between Sadr and the man who killed his father:
Nobody likes him here at all. ... I earn my living taking pilgrims into Najaf, but since all this trouble here there have been hardly any coming here. Most people have no problem with the coalition--if you don't hurt them, they don't hurt you. But I tell you, people here are afraid of him, because he has all the men and all the guns, just like Saddam. If you complain about him, you will get his men coming round to your house to question you. That is why everybody puts his picture in their shops.
Sadr has the guns in the town. But he's rapidly running out of legitimacy, which means his days are numbered. Unfortunately, it looks like the one thing that might confer undeserved legitimacy on Sadr is the sight of well-intentioned U.S. troops storming through the city streets. As Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani categorically stated, "The [holy] city of Al Najaf is off-limits." And,despite some mixed signals over the weekend, it looks like U.S. officials have taken Sistani's warning to heart. According to today's Washington Post:
Although U.S. soldiers have mobilized outside the holy city of Najaf, where Sadr and many of his militiamen have congregated, [Brigadier General Mark] Kimmitt said there were "no timelines" for the soldiers to enter the city.
U.S. officials continue to rely on Iraqi interlocutors to persuade Sadr to demobilize his illegal militia, whose members have repeatedly attacked U.S. forces and foreign troops stationed in central Iraq. "We would like to obtain a final agreement in Najaf," Kimmitt said.
Sadr has enemies everywhere in Najaf. We need to give them time to finish him off.
posted 10:35 a.m.
Najaf shopkeeper 2: "Worst I've ever seen, how about you Muhammed?"
Najaf shopkeeper 1:" I'm starving, nobody came for the holy days- nobody ever comes to najaf anymore."
Najaf shopkeeper 2: "I wish there was something somebody could do..."
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