WP: Battling With Sadr for Iraqi Soldiers' Hearts

[kskiska]

Saturday, January 13, 2007; A01

BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi soldiers broke into chants to commemorate the 86th anniversary of the creation of their army.

"Muhammad, Haider, Fatima, Hasan and Husayn!" shouted a group of dancing soldiers, bellowing the names of the prophet and other long-dead Islamic icons revered by Shiite Muslims.

A second later, the name of a living Shiite figure came out of the din. "Moqtada! Moqtada!" one soldier exclaimed, invoking the name of Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric and leader of the Mahdi Army militia that American officials blame for many of the worst acts of violence in Baghdad.

(snip)

U.S. military officers say the Iraqi police force is deeply infiltrated by militiamen and predict that the army will be quicker to operate independently. But a four-day visit to the base known as Old MOD, for the former Ministry of Defense complex, showed that the army is not immune to the militias' influence. According to the Americans, most of the Iraqi soldiers are Shiites, and some come from Sadr City, a sprawling Baghdad slum that is a Mahdi Army stronghold. Some carry pictures of Sadr.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011202217.html

[jody]

1. Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr is a direct descendent of the prophet Mohammad.

See Muqtada al-Sadr.

An equivalent conflict would be a leader of a nation fighting a religious army commanded by a direct descendent of Jesus Christ.

How would the Christian community react to such a battle?

[Rose Siding]

2. "The U.S. military would not let a reporter interview the Iraqi soldiers."

but there are some INFORMED (and poignant) quotes at the end of the piece from US soldiers-

snip>
As the war approaches its fifth year and the death toll mounts, some of the troops said they wonder whether it was a good idea for the United States to overthrow Iraq's government.

"I don't really know all the thought processes behind invading the country," said Capt. Sean Powell, 30, of Fort Carson. "I knew it was going to be longer than what they said, though. I knew it was going to take long because you don't topple a government and the country rebounds within two weeks."

Sgt. 1st class Matt MacClellan, 37, a father of two who trains another division of Iraqis but lives on Old MOD, said he is not in Iraq to fight the war on terrorism. If anything, he said, the United States spread terrorism by invading Iraq. "Now that we are here, though, it definitely has morphed into the war on terror," he said. "We took over a country that had structure and took that structure away."

The soldiers say they want to leave a stable country but also want to get out alive. "I don't think you can use the word 'winnable,' " MacClellan said. "Really, I've scrubbed that from the vocabulary of my thinking. 'Subdued' would be about the best."