Word: fallujah
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...members are drawn from outside the city, and are not exactly well-loved within its native population or its clerical establishment - the result might be a long-term insurgency throughout the Shiite south and in the capital. Given the fact that Sunni insurgents are currently in effective control of Fallujah and are challenging for control of Ramadi, Samarra and even, somewhat audaciously, Mosul, a Shiite guerrilla campaign would severely stretch Coalition and Iraqi forces. And forcing the Allawi government to rely so heavily and directly on U.S. military power, as it has done at Najaf, undercuts its own prospects...
...That's not the only difference between Najaf and Fallujah. There, the U.S. forces had found themselves confronted by an insurgent force backed by the overwhelming majority of the civilian population, whereas Sadr's fighters are mostly outsiders to Najaf, whose presence has irritated the city's clerical leadership and much of the civilian population. But prospects for resolving the standoff within the Shiite community have receded, not only because the clashes that began last week saw both sides accuse the other of violating the June cease-fire that brought the previous battle in the city...
...presidents, Ibrahim Jaafari of the Shiite Dawa party, publicly called on Tuesday for U.S. forces to withdraw from the city, accusing the Americans of using disproportionate force. But if Jaafari's call echoed the response of some members of the now-defunct Iraqi Governing Council to the siege at Fallujah, this time it was their own government - rather than U.S. commanders - that initiated the showdown...
...This Is Not Fallujah...
...anything, the stakes riding on the showdown in Najaf may be even greater than they were in Fallujah. Although Sadr does not represent the majority of Iraqi Shiites, his support and sympathy in Iraq's largest community has grown substantially as a result of his clashes with the Americans. The majority of Shiites may not identify with Sadr's rabblerousing populism, but opinion surveys show they are considerably more resentful of the U.S. presence in their country regardless of the new government's dependence on American military support. That only adds to the difficulties facing U.S. forces now that they...