The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    jollyroger's picture

    Ya Moqtada! A young gun comes of age.

    By jollyroger on Mon, 06/25/2018 - 12:01am |

    Among the several crimes against intelligence that adorn the record of the post invasion imperium in Iraq, the attempt to prosecute frame the son of an Ayatollah (himself martyred by Saddam) for the murder of a collaborating Mullah stands out...

    Moqtada al-Sadr was not only an aspiring Ayatollah in his own right, he was also commander of one of the two or three most powerful militias in Baghdad--they call part of Baghdad Sadr City.

    Paul Bremer was the genius who tried to arrest Moktada, and the Sadr Militia fought the US Army to a standstill and a stand down of the arrest plans.

    Unsurprisingly, the Sadr troops were crucial to driving ISIL out of western Iraq.

    Sadr was always a king maker, but he has grown in stature.  Bremer has left  Moqtada remains. and the US delivered revenge for Saddam's murder of his father.

    Today Moktada is the co-premier of Iraq..

    So, I guess from his point of view, that being the long term, we turned out to be liberators and not occupiers after all..

    Comments

    Yeah, this is interesting.

    The only constant is change.

    Having had decades to watch some true charismatic leaders, though, I noticed that if they don't temper with age, and try to work coalitions, it doesn't end pretty. Because: things change. Compare like: Chavez.

    But then many young people in Iraq probably think Moqtada a boring old fart who doesn't get it.


    by artappraiser on Mon, 06/25/2018 - 11:43am

    "

    Ya Muqtada!

     

    I don't know for sure that this is his work, but I sure hope so...

     

    "This is the first time the U.S. Embassy compound has been hit directly in years."

    https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rockets-hit-us-embassy-compound-baghdad-...

    7&cid=social_twitter_abcn

    by jollyroger on Mon, 01/27/2020 - 3:46am

    Not so parenthetically, a week ago or so, he pulled his militia out of the streets where they wee protecting the post Suleimani anti-Iran demonstrators, which quickly brought out the local auxiliary quds forces...

     

    Iraq Police Crack Down on Protests as Influential Cleric Withdraws Support

    Security forces took back bridges and squares in Baghdad and Basra after the prominent Shiite cleric, Moktada al-Sadr, said he would no longer intervene on protesters’ behalf.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/25/world/middleeast/iraq-protests-Sadr.html

     

    It is hard to overstate how Trump has bought himself a total clusterfuck for no good reason.  Muqtada has been working towards an Iraq uninfested with Americans for almost 20 years.

     


    by jollyroger on Mon, 01/27/2020 - 3:53am