In Shift, Rebel Iraqi Cleric Backs New Government He Had Once Mocked

[Dover]

In Shift, Rebel Iraqi Cleric Backs New Government He Had Once Mocked

By EDWARD WONG

Published: June 12, 2004


AGHDAD, Iraq, June 11 - The anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr on Friday endorsed the new interim Iraqi government and appeared to urge his followers to honor a week-old cease-fire that has been frayed by continuing violence.

A senior aide to Mr. Sadr, Sheik Jabir al-Khafaji, used a sermon during Friday Prayers in the Sadr stronghold of Kufa, 120 miles south of here, to announce that Mr. Sadr now approved of the interim government he had previously mocked and that he wanted its leaders to set a timetable for the departure of occupation forces.

" 'From now on, I beg you to start afresh for Iraq for the sake of peace and safety,' " Sheik Khafaji quoted Mr. Sadr as saying. " 'We have to avoid pushing humiliation and aggression on others and go forward with the independence of Iraq and not respond to the occupiers.' "...cont'd

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/12/international/middleeast/12iraq.html?hp

[Teaser]

1. Not actually what he said (again)

He said that he would give it a chance to end the occupation. If they failed, they are illegitimate. If they succeeed, they are legitimate.

There is a pattern of wishful thinking with these interpretations.

[Teaser]

2. I quote Juan Cole

The wire services are misinterpreting this statement as an about-face on Muqtada's part. It is not. It is a piece of bargaining. He is saying that he will swing the Sadrist movement around to support the transitional government if it will commit to throwing the Americans out of Iraq on a strict timetable. That is what Muqtada has wanted since the fall of Saddam. He started calling for a US withdrawal in April, 2003. It seems probable that one reason the Americans came after Muqtada in early April, intending to kill him, was fear that he will become powerful enough after June 30 to lobby effectively for the expulsion of the Americans. (It has now come out that the US military actually printed up broadsheets announcing thet Muqtada had been killed resisting arrest, and that some GI's jumped the gun and actually put some of those out in early April even though in fact, Muqtada eluded his American would-be murderers.) Paul Bremer's recent attempt to ensure that the major Sadrist leaders are not allowed to run for parliament has the same goal. The civilians in the Department of Defense such as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz probably went to war against Iraq in part precisely to get bases there. The realization that they might be tossed out at the instance of a few million Shiite slum dwellers has so infuriated them that they attacked the movement without provocation, killed about a thousand of them, and are now trying to disenfranchise several million Iraqis by disallowing Sadrists from holding office.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Jeez--ya mean the Vulcans misunderstood

what a Muslim leader was trying to say? Will wonders never cease!!

Maybe they can find a non-gay Arabic speaker somewhere to explain these things to them.

[Teaser]

6. I fit that bill

Non gay.
Speak arabic.

Of course, I wouldn't work for these clowns and their pet "imperial America" project for any amount of money...

[supernova]

4. What made him change his mind?

:shrug: This about face is a bit disconcerting.

[Aidoneus]

5. it's not an "about face"

Sayyid Muqtada is saying that he'll drop his beef with the Vichyites if they bat for his team against the occupyers (ie, their bosses).

Leave it to these lazy eunuchs to get basic nuance so wildly wrong.