View Single Post
Old 08-16-2004, 06:00 AM   #45 (permalink)
roachboy
 
roachboy's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: essex ma
i'm afraid that the linkage between the situation in najaf now and the justification for the war in general as a sub-topic was my fault--mea culpa---as i made an offhand characterization of the war (or two--or more...) in the course of talking about najaf and was called out on it..whence the veer. there would be an relation between how you understand the war in general and what you think should happen in najaf, i suppose--to me it seems a way to reduce complexity.

the fact of the matter, in general, have been laid out:
najaf is a significant shi'a holy site.
there is a significant shi'a opposition to the american-installed regime in iraq
this opposition has as much to do with the type of faction-manoevering that had characterized iraqi politics in general for some time as it does with the occupation itself, i think.
the question of whether there is at this point an explicitly shi'a political block in iraq, or if the shi'a population identifies itself as often in clan or other terms, i do not know.
but i assume it is in sadr's interest to try to create or expand a political block rooted in shi'a identity, and that the milita is a military instrument for doing that.
which makes the question of why sadr would be based in najaf interesting.
the worst thing the americans could do, it seems to me, is to attack/level najaf because not only would it further sadr's political interests but it would also become a lightening rod for sunni populations to mobilize as alongside the religious elements in the shi'a population on religious grounds--and this would transform iraq into a religious conflict in ways that it has not up to now been (in the real world----this has no contact with the right's seeming inability to distinguish a secular from nonsecular regime when it comes to the middle east)
__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite
roachboy is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360