The 'real' crime of it all is that the USA didn't speak the language and the Shi'ites were oppressed. When they found the will to publish a newspaper it was closed. What were their options in facing still more oppression in a so called 'liberated' Iraq? Mind you, there was blanket anarchy throughout Iraq and the militias were part of the local security to the extent they could arm themselves and stand their ground.
Bremer never used diplomacy to any degree within Iraq in the villages and hamlets of Iraq. He used force and oppressive control. That isn't what Iraq or the Shi'ites needed. And this particular incident was sparked when the Grand Ayatollah was wisked away to Britain for a heart procedure. It was a deliberate strategic act to separate the Grand Ayatollah from his people in order to victimize Sadr and attempt to kill him once forced to take refugee at his Mosque.
It's getting better in Iraq for the Shi'ites, but, it has been a long road of bloody civil war. I can understand the anger and frustration with Bush's appearance and in all honesty, the journalist wasn't seeking attention, he was expressing the views of his readers. At least, this time, there was no blood shed.
Inside Najaf's Imam Ali mosque (click title of entry - thank you)
"We will do anything to stop the Americans. They have sex and drinking and other things, and we don't want this."
By Rory McCarthy
...For seven days the militia of Muqtada al-Sadr, the rebel Iraqi Shiite cleric, had been fighting the Americans on the edge of the holy city of Najaf. Yesterday, on the eighth day, the Americans finally advanced toward the narrow streets of the old city. The push began before 7 a.m. with a wave of heavy bombing; then dozens of tanks and Humvees drove in, blocking roads and fighting off the ragtag militia....
ALI AL-BAYATI, SUPREME COUNCIL FOR THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION IN IRAQ (click here): First of all, we are very pleased that Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani has arrived in Najaf safely and he is going to announce his mission and his plan to come out of this crisis for this holy city.Basically, it's about a peaceful solution to the whole crisis.The Mehdi Army will have to leave the holy shrine of Imam Ali and then all the arms from the city has got to be collected and then everybody will have to go back home, and the multinational force, they have to cease fire, they have to stop flying the helicopter gunship and use heavy tanks and they will have to leave the city and we'll have to go and solve the whole crisis by peaceful and political means.And for Moqtada al-Sadr, he will have to go into the political process, everybody is opening his arms for him to go into that process, and we look forward to new Iraq, with the election coming in 2005....
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and the Democratization of Iraq in Post-Saddam (click here)
He did gave an interesting assessment of Afghanistan and lets hope the people of that country continue to move toward stability with the confrontation of terrorist networks in Pakistan.
