Word: sadr
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Among the many questions that remain unanswered is whether the horror in Fallujah represented an isolated spasm of mob violence or a more corrosive, widespread streak of anti-American hatred. On Saturday, Shi'ite followers of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr marched and burned American flags, promising if asked to be the hand of Hamas and Hizballah in Iraq. But galling as the images in Fallujah were, U.S. commanders say the city and the surrounding area remain a uniquely difficult problem, with little bearing on what's happening in the rest of the country. The military continues to believe that...
...only the scale of resistance in Fallujah that has shocked U.S. officials in Iraq. The Shiite insurrection launched by the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr has proven surprisingly tenacious, and U.S. military actions against Sadr supporters in the Shiite slums of Baghdad have also provoked widespread outrage in Iraq's majority ethnic community. The two-front insurrection and the tough response by the U.S. has even had an ironic nation-building effect, as the plight of the besieged city has become an anti-American rallying point across Iraq's traditional Sunni-Shiite divide. Thousands of impoverished Shiites in Baghdad's Sadr...
...Alawi, another long-time U.S. ally in the rotating presidency of the IGC resigned at the weekend, as did the IGC's human rights minister, and others warned that they may follow suit. The Council was not consulted about the U.S. plans in Fallujah and to go after the Sadr movement. Instead, Council members found themselves having to defend themselves in the face of a furious public reaction, and they've done so mostly by distancing themselves from the Americans. Even more worrying for the U.S. is the fact that many of the Iraqi security forces that Washington had hoped...
...open to suggestions" on ways of reducing violence in Iraq. Iraqis on the Governing Council appear to have stepped forward with solutions of their own, negotiating cease-fires both in Fallujah and also with the Sadrists in the South. Seven members of the IGC reportedly met Moqtada Sadr in Najaf at the weekend and secured an agreement under which his forces would withdraw from police stations and government buildings they'd occupied, in exchange for undertakings to address his political demands and, according to some reports, to shelve a warrant for his arrest...
...Sadrists adopted against the advice of its allies in the IGC may paint the U.S. into a tactical corner. It will be hard-pushed, for example, to ease the siege of Fallujah while leaving the insurgent structure there intact, or to back off its vow to "destroy" Sadr's militia. And yet in both cases sticking to those goals are alienating growing sections of Iraqi society. It's not that they necessarily support Sadr or the insurgency, but they're increasingly outraged by the U.S. response and the mounting toll of Iraqi casualties...