David Enders (Mother Jones): Drawing lines (And Crossing Them) in Iraq

[Jack Rabbit]

From Mother Jones
Dated Wednesday February 16

Drawing lines (And Crossing Them)
Sunnis and the Shiite followers of Moqtada al-Sadr make common cause against the US occupation.
By David Enders

Sitting outside Umm Al-Qura (Mother of All Battles) Mosque on the far northwest end of Baghdad, my translator, Hiba, and I began to let our hopes get the better of us. The Association of Muslim Scholars, the group of Sunni clerics that have been at the fore of boycotting the electoral process and have been targeted for encouraging resistance to the occupation and attacks against the new government, had called a press conference for 11 a.m. to make their first official statement since the election. It was nearly three in the afternoon, and frustrated journalists were still sitting outside, smoking cigarettes and bullshitting with the guards. But they were willing to wait, expecting a pivotal moment. Amongst the press corps, the consensus was that the Muslim Scholars were going to declare resistance futile and admit defeat in the face of a 60 percent voter turnout and the might of the US military machine, that they might finally be pragmatic and end the fighting that has exacted a far, far heavier toll upon Iraqis than the US military.

"They're going to give up," Hiba said. "They have to give up. They're just discussing the best way to say it."

Salam, a friend of mine who had come with us, pointed to the ornate and quite large houses built for the sheikhs on the grounds of the mosque, which is an impressive piece of architecture, its minarets constructed to resemble SCUD missiles and Kalashnikovs and its purple dome glistening in the harsh afternoon light.

"You see?" Salam said. "You will never find a Shiite imam living like this."

Read more.

Does anybody still think Bush has a lot to cheer about over the Iraqi election?

[teryang]

1. Salam wasn't impressed

So what?

It seems that what happened at the press conference is completely the opposite of what American sources are reporting about the political climate in Iraq.

There is a desperate need to paint a picture of resolution, so that the next war may be initiated.

But the situation in Iraq won't be resolved, it will be manipulated in any way that will serve the conquest of the next oil rich nation. Thus, the strategy of tension will proceed on behalf of the rickety political alliance of currency manipulators, energy corporations, defense contractors and the ill informed.