Iraq's Shiites turn against U.S.

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http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/special_packages/iraq/14521014.htm

AMERICAN MISSTEPS, PROPAGANDA, STRONG POLITICS BREED ANGER
By Borzou Daragahi
LOS ANGELES TIMES
KARBALA, Iraq - A visitor need not go far or search hard to hear and see the anti-American venom that bubbles through this ancient shrine city, which once welcomed U.S. forces as liberators.

"The American ambassador is the gate through which terrorism enters Iraq," says a banner hanging from the gate surrounding the tombs of Imam Hussein and Imam Abbas, the second and third saints in the Shiite faith.

A song screeches from a nearby CD shop: "If the occupiers come at us, we will plant a bomb underneath them."

For three years, Iraq's Shiites welcomed -- or at least tolerated -- the U.S. presence here. That allowed U.S. forces to concentrate on putting down the insurgency in western Iraq, which is led by Sunni Arabs. With the exception of an uprising in mid-2004 by followers of the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the south has been relatively quiet and peaceful under the sway of the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

But now the mood has shifted. Perceived American missteps, a torrent of anti-American propaganda and a recently emboldened Shiite sense of political prowess have coalesced to make the south fertile breeding ground for anti-U.S. sentiments.