Word: firebrands
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...Latin America's resurgent left has been a firebrand when it comes to battling poverty, promoting indigenous rights or bashing the U.S. But on one traditionally liberal cause - legalizing abortion - it has been remarkably meek...
...most troubling sign of gathering clouds was a statement from firebrand Shi'a leader Moqtada al-Sadr that was read at Kufa mosque south of Baghdad. Al-Sadr, still believed to be in Iran waiting out the troop surge, renewed his demand that the "occupier leave our land." He criticized "evil" President Bush for invading Iraq in the name of keeping America safe without thinking of the cost in Iraqi blood. Four years after the U.S. came to Iraq, he said, the country's leaders are "fighting over offices" while Iraq is "still without water, has no electricity, no fuel...
...President himself, despite being secularists’ bête noir, is not the firebrand he’s made out to be. Bush may talk to god, and use religiously-charged language in public speeches, but his presidency has been far from a “tide of religiosity engulfing a once secular republic,” as the late Arthur Schlesinger Jr. hysterically claimed. In fact, Bush has offered little more than rhetorical support to right-wing causes. Opening government funding to faith-based charities—probably Bush’s most dramatic pro-religion action?...
Where in the world is Moqtada al-Sadr? He hasn't been seen in public in several weeks, and he has not kept up his usual practice of leading Friday prayers at the Great Mosque in Kufa. Now U.S. officials are claiming the firebrand anti-American cleric fled to Iran two or three weeks ago, along with several commanders of his dreaded Mahdi Army militia. But senior Sadr officials in Baghdad have dismissed those claims as propaganda, and maintain he is still in his Najaf headquarters...
...party, national unity government, al-Maliki is a Shi'ite partisan, and he has pursued a blatantly sectarian course in the eight months since he was sworn in, antagonizing Sunnis and allowing Shi'ite militias to run amok. His main political backing comes from Moqtada al-Sadr, the firebrand leader of the most dangerous militia, the Mahdi Army. In his speeches, al-Maliki routinely promises to deal firmly with the militias, but in practice, he has always shielded them from American arms. When U.S. forces have tried to crack down on the Mahdi Army, they have been held back...