Mr. Judd;

No, I think that it's more people who want the West to fail. Believing that Islam is incompatible with democracy is simply the anti-Western flavor of the day.

David Warren, uniformed observer. Lee Harris, uninformed observer.

Paul:

Mr. Harris's major blindspot is religion.

The demonstration was put on by SCIRI, the other Iranian-created group. This isn't too surprising as SCIRI's center of strength in Najaf, which, BTW, SCIRI couldn't (or wouldn't) even hold when the Sadrists rose. You won't however, see these protests in Sadr's strongholds of Amarah and E. Baghdad, because SCIRI has no presence to speak of there.

This is a show for the cameras. Sadr's group was built up and organized under Saddam Hussein's nose. It's very unlikely that, no matter how many paramilitaries we kill (and you can bet the military is inflating those numbers, too), we will ever root out the tens of thousands of cadres and supporters. Even Bremer has begun to recognize this somewhat, since he's taken to respectfully referring to Sadr as "Sayyid Moqtada."

If the U.S. pushes ahead, it can no doubt retake Najaf, and maybe even painlessly, as guerrillas normally don't make a stand against stronger forces. But within weeks to a few months, we'll start seeing them come right back up like weeds. If the Shi'ite community is split like this, you can kiss whatever remaining hopes of democracy you had good-bye. Democracies only work when about 90-95% of the people agree to give up power if they lose the election. A civil war between the native Sadrists and the exiles from SCIRI will nix that.

Derek:

Studies show it requires 92.6%

Derek -

Now that Iraqis themselves have finally awakened themselves to the essential truth -- that along with freedom comes an obligation to take a stand on the future of their own country -- it is completely their issue. We don't have to root the scumbags out, the Iraqis do, and the good Iraqis know exactly who the bad ones are. Buh-bye!

Sadr doesn't have enough power to start a civil war, and even if he did, our troops aren't going anywhere for many years. He is a power-mad egomaniac loser, and the Iraqis know it.

Jeff, I really hope you're right, but I think you're letting your desires get the better of your analysis. I certainly haven't seen this realization you're talking about. It looks more like SCIRI is trying to egg us on into destroying their local enemies for them. At any rate, this problem won't go away so easily. Sadr's been organizing both under his father and alone for years in E. Baghdad and throughout the south.

>Believing that Islam is incompatible with
>democracy is simply the anti-Western flavor of
>the day.

A little parable, going back to the Cold War (with a tangent out to Babylon-5:

The Cold War was fought with political pressure, occasional proxy wars, and a lot of Hearts & Minds propaganda warfare.

The USSR concentrated on building up a Fifth Column inside the USA, focusing on those in position to influence others out of all proportion to their numbers -- Academia, Media, Celebrities. These could indoctrinate future generations in the Total Rottenness of America and the Moral and Intellectual Superiority of Marxism-Leninism, until the US population reached critical mass and willingly surrendered to the Much Superior Soviet Union.

And it worked -- sort of. By the time the USA neared critical mass (with all Academia, Media, and Celebrities on board and politicians coming up into power), the Second Russian Revolution went down. The Fifth Column reached the point where they were supposed to surrender to the Soviets (even with one of their own in the White House), only there was no longer any Soviet Union to surrender to.

In Babylon-5, there was this godlike alien race called The Shadows, who played manipulative power games covertly on the "younger races". After the Great War, they pulled up and left the galaxy; there are no more Shadows. However, their servant race the "Drakh" remained, playing the Shadows' power games against other races because it was all they knew how to do, like a lapdog doing tricks over the body of its dead master.

As the Drakh, the "Shadows of the Shadows", continued their destructive power games, so our real-life "Shadows of the Soviets" do the only thing they know how to do -- weaken and destroy the US for their Masters who no longer exist, a free-floating Fifth Column who'll glom onto any new Master that comes along who hates America as much as they've been conditioned to do -- "ALLAH-U AKBAR!"

Since this started, nearly 2 months ago now, we've often been told that Sadr is a no-count, ill-educated joke.

Well, maybe he was three months ago. But now he's on a par with the highest levels of Iraqi Shiaism.

How do we know? Because 500 top Shia parleyed with him -- so far without result, which is telling, too.

He's a real force now, which is what happens when you leave hostages to fortune.

He's Robin Hood.

Harry:

Robin Hood went back to his estate when the rightful king returned. Your analogy is apt.