Gem wrote<<By the way, I provided a long description on the history and current status of Al-Sadr here in about 2003. Several people here poo-poo'd it, providing the typical obligatory hee haws, but then news came into the popular media that verified every thing I had said. No one offered a correction to their 'hee-haws' ... also typical. I can't remember if you were one of the donkeys or just one of their riders. Doesn't matter.
Best regards,
Gem>>
Gem on iHub i was alone also in trying to establish people to the name Al-Sadr.
i got a bit P/Oed because it seemed all yawned and saw it as "ha,ha" what's the big deal and also no one ever said when Sadr had become a household word did anyone say "hey you were right"---no justice in this world, say what?:)
a couple samples i now post:)(at the time if these posts my handle was GodfreyDaniel--so that is where the "gd" comes from and i now add otraque and max, i have had 7 different handles, but i have returned to my original handle of max90:)
<<Posted by: otraque
In reply to: mainehiker who wrote msg# 23045 Date:7/19/2003 4:08:31 PM
Post #of 234034
a little item in passing in the article i link to that is potentially of major import. As i have said, this fellow Sadr is a name i believe need be memorized.
One, he is young, two he is in the family tree of Mohammed(he wears the Black Turbin), three he wants to BALANCE theocracy and democracy, he wants a modified system, with checks and balances; and four, he wants absolutely NO american presence in a new Iraqi government, and wants the U.S. to go home.
And, five, most importantly, he has the potential to get a powerful following.
If Sistani were ever to accept this man and put his power behind him, you have Iraq's new leader; and all the hand-picked(we were in exile for years, but--yada, yada) will be cast aside.otraque/max/gd)
<In another expression of Iraqi anger, more than 10,000 Shi'ite Muslim protesters marched through the capital to demand an end to alleged U.S. harassment of Shi'ite leader Moqtada al- Sadr. Sadr on Friday denounced Iraq's new U.S.-backed Governing Council, saying it did not represent the country.>>
story.news.yahoo.com.
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Posted by: otraque
In reply to: Earnie Adams who wrote msg# 23487 Date:7/27/2003 9:25:31 AM
Post #of 234035
I am digging on this fellow, because despite one view that he is not significant i myself see him as "the guy" who isn't going away, like it or not.
I have read but "dismissal" remarks about him as this is the guy the established elements want to say "who is he? he's nothing".
I am the brutal realist and i refuse to dismiss Muqtada al SADR because it would be CONVENIENT to think he will have no historical importance in Iraq.
Here is an article that i think should be paid attention to.
<<Iraq's SADRist opposition
A Shia group that stands against the coalition and the council
THE Army of the Mahdi - the ninth-century imam whose return, say Iraqi Shias, will usher in the millennium - mustered on July 20th, on a sunbaked field outside the holy city of Najaf. Several thousand men in makeshift white capes beat drums, waved banners, and chanted slogans denouncing the Americans, imperialism, Saddam, and Satan. A picket of Shia clerics tried, without much success, to keep them from breaking ranks and treading on the crops. The object of this display, a handful of American marines manning a nearby checkpoint, milled about as their commander called through a loudspeaker on the crowd to disperse.
The "army" is the creation of Muqtada al-SADR, a radical Shia cleric who has emerged as the most prominent critic of the American-led coalition, and the appointed Iraqis in the Governing Council. Although young and low-ranking in the religious hierarchy, Mr SADR has considerable support thanks to his father, the late Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-SADR, who was murdered along with two of Muqtada's older brothers in 1999, almost certainly by order of the Saddam regime.
Dead men's shoes
The movement is, to a great extent, the personality cult of a dead man. Muqtada's picture rarely appears in SADRist offices or at rallies, and when it does he is almost always in the presence of his father. The movement's Najaf headquarters is the "Office of the Two Martyrs", named after Muhammad Sadiq and another member of the family, Muhammad Baqir al-SADR, who was executed by Saddam in 1981. As such, it has a powerful appeal to the millions of Shias who lost family to the Baathist terror. Mr SADR has strong support in north-east Baghdad's Shia slums, formerly known as Saddam City but which his followers have renamed al-SADR City.
Mr SADR has a reputation among other Shia factions as a troublemaker. His followers are widely blamed for the murder of a coalition-friendly cleric, Abdel Majid al-Khouei in Najaf in April, soon after his return from exile. Mr SADR's followers subsequently laid siege to the house of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a senior cleric regarded as a moderate. Unlike the other main Shia movements, the SADRists were excluded from the council,(edit-imo, this was a stupid decision that is the kind of decision that leads to problems rather solves them--otraque/max/gd) partly, it is said, because other Islamists would not sit with them.
In his turn, Mr SADR has little regard for the council. On July 18th, the first Friday after the council's inauguration, he delivered a sermon in Najaf's sister town, Kufa, declaring that the council was made up of "unbelievers" and that Shias should ignore its authority. He said that he would set up a "council of the righteous" as an alternative to this "council of wrongdoers".
His Army of the Mahdi would be an alternative to the soon-to-be reformed, coalition-sponsored, Iraqi army. There is some confusion among SADRist clerics on whether the army will actually be an armed militia, or just a new name for the volunteer cadres who have been carrying out social and religious work over the past three months (as well as, reportedly, smashing up shops selling alcohol and streetfighting with rival factions).
After Mr SADR's Friday sermon, SADRists announced that American forces had entered the centre of Najaf and surrounded the cleric's house. They called on the faithful to assemble at SADRist offices throughout the country, to be bused into Najaf to defend their leader, and demand the immediate withdrawal of American troops from the holy city. American officers admitted that they did step up their military presence in Najaf on July 19th, but only in order to protect a visiting defence official, Paul Wolfowitz.
Whether or not the misunderstanding was deliberate, Mr SADR is indulging in brinkmanship. He has steered away from anything that might sound like a call to violence. SADRist demonstrations, at least against the coalition, are generally peaceful. But the Americans have a low tolerance for alternative power structures.(edit: This is one reason i feel SADR is a tinderbox,U.S. decides, "crush this guy, he is not to our liking, and find out he has several millions" that would go to guerilla tactics if they either killed him or arrested him---america as a talent for making bad decisions like that--otraque/max/godfreydaniel) A number of Iraqis, including SADRists, have been detained for declaring themselves mayors or governors, and Mr SADR probably knows that he is courting arrest.
But so far he seems more an annoyance than a threat to the coalition. Crowd counts vary, but turnouts at SADRist demonstrations are probably under 10,000. Most devout Shias, in Najaf as well as elsewhere in the country, may venerate his father as a martyr, but will probably continue to look to the senior clergy for spiritual guidance.(edit: the preceding remark i rank as the typical complacency of people who really do not know the forces at work---i call it bureaucratic media-speak--gs) However, if Mr SADR gets himself arrested, he may be able to establish himself as a symbol of resistance to the new order, as his father was a symbol of resistance to the old.
The object of Mr SADR's ire, the Governing Council, was meeting this week to try to choose a president. Instead of a single figure, it is reported to have agreed on a triumvirate. This, it is said, will consist of Adnan Pachachi, a respected Sunni politician, and two Shia clerics: Muhammad Bahr al-Uloom, an independent, and Abdelaziz al-Hakim of SCIRI, the Iranian-backed party which opposes the occupation but also has no time for the SADRists.
Document EC00000020030725dz7q0001k>>
He played his video game night and day.
The MAZE of Death.
But that is the game we all are in, the trick, don't believe it.Get above it all and imagine nothing is what it seems.Kill the machine.otraque
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