The Iraqi nightmare Bush dreads most

Asia Times Online ^ | Apr 17, 2007 | Dilip Hiro

[sukhoi-30mki]

The nightmare Bush dreads most By Dilip Hiro

Public opinion polls are valuable chips to play for those engaged in a debate of national or international consequence. In the end, however, they are abstract numbers. It is popular demonstrations which give them substance, color, and - above all - wide media exposure, and make them truly meaningful. This is particularly true when such marches are peaceful and disciplined in a war-ravaged country like Iraq.

This indeed was the case with the demonstration on April 9 in Najaf. Over a million Iraqis, holding aloft thousands of national flags, marched, chanting, "Yes, yes, Iraq/No, no, America" and "No, no, American/Leave, leave occupier."

The demonstrators arrived from all over the country in response to a call by Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shi'ite cleric, to demand an end to foreign occupation on the fourth anniversary of the end of Ba'athist rule in Baghdad.

Both the size of the demonstration and its composition were unprecedented. "There are people here from all different parties and sects," Hadhim al-Araji, Muqtada's representative in Baghdad's Kadhimiya district, told reporters. "We are all carrying the national flag, a symbol of unity. And we are all united in calling for the withdrawal of the Americans."

The presence of many senior Sunni clerics at the head of the march, which started from Muqtada's mosque in Kufa, a nearby town, and the absence of any sectarian flags or images in the parade, underlined the ecumenical nature of the protest.

[reagan_fanatic]

Does the million man number seem accurate from what you know or are we looking at more creative math here?

[A. Pole]

Sadr is a coward— out of the country— and everyone knows it

Ayatollah Khomeini left his country for 25 years, yet he returned to rule it.

[glorgau]

A million Iraqis in the same place? At a “political” rally? The death toll would be in the 10s of thousands.