November 18, 2003
WHO WON THE POST-WAR?
Key Shiites soften tone toward US: One of the harshest critics of the US is now willing to work with the Americans. (Howard LaFranchi, 11/19/03, CS Monitor)
At the gold-domed Kufa Mosque in this holy city south of Baghdad, the young firebrand imam, Moqtada al-Sadr, known for condemning the Americans as Iraq's enemies, has softened and redirected his words."We were the only enemy of Saddam Hussein, and now the Baathists who still support him are our only enemy," he tells rows of fellow Shiites baking in the hot sun at Friday prayers. "We must resist them and the terrorists."
The US soldiers who recently arrested members of Mr. Sadr's paramilitary army are still "occupiers," he says. But Iraqi supporters of the young sheikh - who rose to the world stage in July, calling for an Iranian-style theocracy - have taken note of his softer tone. The cleric who once called the Americans "infidels" says he is now ready to work with them, spelling hope for the US-led coalition as it looks to transition to Iraqi rule. Last Friday, Sadr praised the American about-face that now favors a faster turnover of authority to the Iraqi people.
"The Iraqi people only want what is good for the Americans, because they are not the enemy," he recently told the London-based Arabic newspaper, Al Zaman. He even said he hoped to be "attending [the Americans'] meetings soon" to further the common goal of a stable Iraq.
The evolution in Sadr's tone is emblematic of a wider rejection of violence and extremism among Iraq's faithful - and the importance of their role to a successful political transition. As the US shifts to the creation of a provisional government by next summer, more Iraqi leaders are saying such a government will have to be made up of representatives from a broader spectrum of Iraqi religious, political, and tribal groups than those now on the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. Sadr seems to be among the formerly left-out figures, saying, count me in.
Get ready for a bunch of soul-searching essays on the Left wondering how they got the quagmire so wrong. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 18, 2003 7:58 PM
Oh, that's easy. The Left didn't get it wrong. The Iraqis did.
Posted by: Peter B at November 18, 2003 8:18 PMThat must be sarcasm. Being a leftist means never, ever being wrong.
Posted by: Amos at November 18, 2003 8:22 PMOne cynical - by which I mean convincing - explaination I've read for recent events is that the Shiites have ceased their obstructionism because the US has conceded them control of the Iraqi constitutional convention.
This was probably inevitable, and may turn out just fine, but it makes me nervous; careless purging of the Sunni will destroy the economy, and I'd hate to see the Kurds stuck on the wrong side of history yet again.
Posted by: mike earl at November 18, 2003 9:12 PMIf it were up to me, I'd have the CIA search all those files in Saddam's offices for evidence that various Iraqi religious leaders got paid off by Saddam. If they can't find any, forge some. Then, show them to the troublesome clerics and ask for their cooperation....
Posted by: PapayaSF at November 18, 2003 11:01 PMDidn't healingIraq write that this guy speaks w/an Iranian accent???
Posted by: Sandy P. at November 19, 2003 12:04 AMCall me a crazy optimist, but if clerics such as the one in question understood that Americans generally desire a win-win solution, maybe there is a glimmer of hope for a peaceful transition to a self-governing Iraqi society.
Fred Jacobsen
San Francisco
Fred:
You're a crazy optimist.
Iraq may one day be a peaceful country, with the same borders, but not before the Shi'ites and Sunnis duke it out.
However, that doesn't have to have anything to do with US forces.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at November 19, 2003 4:47 AM