Because Things Weren’t Complicated Enough
CNN reports: Al-Sadr bloc talks of alliance with Sunnis, Christians.
Something that people miss is that unlike other Shi’ia blocs, the group around Moqtada al Sadr wants a unified Iraq and opposes breaking up the country into three loosely federated states. Al Sadr has maintained contacts with Sunni and Kurdish groups hoping to form a unity government that would govern the entire nation.
It is indeed ironic that the Shrubbery and Moqtada al Sadr are probably the only people left on the planet who believe this is possible.
Update: Pat Lang muses on the motives behind this.
2 comments
Moqtada is the guy. He’s sufficiently the nationalist to blow the theorists out of the water about a post-withdrawal genocide or too close an alliance with Iran, or providing a haven for terrorists.
Bush keeps propping up the elected elites, but it’s this populist who can pull Iraq together. (Bushes hate populists). Not that al-Sadr’s an angel, nor is he likely to hold office himself. I’ve dubbed him Moqtada of Tammany Mosque, because he likes ruling from the backroom.
He is the one major player who didn’t leave and isn’t closely associated with any foreign power. His power is based on his family, which has multiple Saddam era martyrs and a connection to the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.
He his probably the only prominent Iraqi who actually has real connections to all of the ethnic groups.