US and Iraqi Troops Take Najaf in Fight with Medhi Army

Moqtada Sadr is yet another vicious little opportunist pretending that God has anointed him to save his people from evil. His Mehdi Army is holed up in the sacred Imam Ali Shrine, profaning it with weapons, and fighting a battle against reality. The Iraqi government, a band of thugs who at least don't insult religion while misruling the nation, has sent its security people, backed up by the US Marine Corps, to clean up the city of Najaf where Imam Ali lies buried. If the mullah is killed, many in the west worry that this will create a martyr for Shi'ite Iraqis. Their concern is misplaced -- like all religious fanatics, he's much more trouble alive.

The Mehdi Army is a militia not unlike others in the region, half-trained amateurs with weapons at the ready far too often. They buy a militant-brand of Shi'ite Islam that the Grand Ayatollah Sistani (the real leader of Shi'ite Iraqis) has tried to water down with doses of reality, but he has taken to London for medical work. The best he's been able to do is call for a cease-fire. He's ineffective from a hospital bed, though.

Other Shi'ite leaders have condemned the American intervention in Najaf, Lebanese cleric Mohammed Fadlallah for one, as well as the Iraqi interim government for letting it happen. The papers in Iran are convinced the whole thing is a conspiracy against their co-religionists in Iraq, and that the aim is to keep the 60% or so of the Iraqi population that is Shi'ite out of power.

However, students of religion and religious cults know the archetype Mr. Sadr is following. He's quite prepared to die in the Imam Ali Shrine for the greater glory of Allah -- sort of a David Koresh of Mesopotamia. And while he has said he will fight to the last drop of his blood (some of which may finally have been spilled, as his people claim he has been hit by shrapnel), he looks quite well-fed and his robes appear rather finely woven -- typical religious zealot sending others off to fight for his (rather than His) glory. The concern is that his death and the smashing of the Shrine that may have to precede it will set southern Iraq ablaze.

This is a bad position in which to find one's forces, but that is the result of bad policy which cannot be undone (but which should be remembered on election day). Instead, the Pentagon and its allies in Iraq must ask which is worse: southern Iraq in an uproar over a dead mullah, or southern Iraq led by a live mullah who has faced down the Baghdad government and the White House? Damned if they do, and damned if they don't, so dammit, they should make as many martyrs as necessary and do so quickly. Contrary to popular belief, martyrs don't do much for a cause because they are quickly forgotten. Proof: The English Civil War raged for years, toppled the monarchy and left thousands dead -- but few can name one martyr from each side.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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