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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (144286)	8/28/2004 9:24:04 AM
From: GST	Respond to of 281500

Insurgent: Rising in revolt against established authority, especially a government. The difficulty with this term comes back to the issue of the legitimacy of the "interim government" and the process that follows. Sadr's immediate political goals seem closely related to denying the "interim government's" capacity to establish its legitimacy. The second goal seems to be to extend Sadr's base of support among Iraqis. Using the shrine was a bold and effective move on several counts -- what could be worse than an armed seige by US soldiers of one of the most sacred sites in Islam? Talk about stupidity! By getting the US to turn Najaf into a pile of twisted rubble, with the bodies of Iraqis littering the streets, Sadr deeply hurt the legitimacy of the "interim government" and once again put himself on record as the only "Iraqi" leader with the balls to stand up to the military occupation and the agents of the occupiers -- and as icing on the cake he gets Sistani involved to lend the whole affair an air of respectability that is potentially his weak suit. He gets amnesty, walks away and gets ready for his next move. What are Sadr's chances of getting anywhere in this mess? They are as good as anybody else -- better than ours at the moment. Which is not to deny that it is a mess and likely to stay that way. But for those who think this was some sort of bold move by the USor that we "won" something here -- that kind of appalling ignorance is the reason we have done so badly frm the day our troops entered Iraq.