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

To: geode00 who wrote (213957)	1/22/2007 1:18:04 PM
From: one_less	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Al-Sadr "People keep saying that there is no military solution, only a political solution.* Given that Al-Sadr has gone underground for fear of assassination, I'd say that's only partially correct."* The people who say there is only ... this or that are usually extremists with their own agenda. They are the same people who commonly start declarations with the real reason ... "You don't 'know' you only have an opinion. If you 'know' then cite your sources." In 2003 Moktada Al-Sadr was one of many leaders who saw an opportunity to remake Iraq in his own image. At that time he was declaring that the real reason the Americans invaded Iraq was that Americans know the Mahdi is preparing to reveal himself and they are planning to murder him. This, along with his vision of supporting the Madhi to create a world caliphate, was enough to recruit a small army (the Al-Mahdi Army) of people willing to go to their deaths for the cause. With his small band of insurgents he held up in the Mosque of Ali and defied the entire Coalition Army in a two week long battle. It began to draw international attention and was becoming somewhat of a rallying focus for extremist groups. Finally, Grand Mullah Sistani from Iran walked through the city with pomp and circumstance to meet with Al-Sadr privately and to try to convince him to agree to a resolution. He was the only insurgent leader ever to be allowed to just walk away freely from a battle. Al-Sadr laid down his arms but told his followers that they were part of the Mahdi Army which would never be disbanded until the final Day of Judgment. He directed them to go into recruitment mode and await the next phase of the Al-Mahdi Army’s development. During that period the media kept declaring him to have been neutralized. However, those who knew him described it differently. They described his style of gaining power as ‘quite’. He wasn’t given a high office in government or anything, even though he was the most recognized leader in the majority Shi’ite population. However, he developed an entire shadow government with judges, prisons and of course the Al-Mahdi army which would appear out of no where, with great weaponry and in increasing numbers whenever there was conflict in Southern Iraq. Reports of large shipments of arms (not going to the new Iraqi government) coming across the border from Iran began to leak into the media. His biggest enemy is Al-Quaida, the biggest barrier to him successfully conquering the world with the growing Al-Mahdi Army is America.