I agree he doesn’t want a “fight to the death”, but he doesn’t have the control over the Sadr movement that his father did, and it’s hard to tell how much what he says is what he believes, and how much is what he has to say to remain as the head of the movement. There are a lot of Twelver True Believers in the Sadr movement, obviously concentrated in the Mahdi Army, and they are no more rational than the End of Time Evangelicals, so it is a delicate balance to keep them from exploding. Having the US Secretary of State call them cowards was definitely not a good move.
At this point I would assume the important talks are going through the Quds between Hakim and Sadr, to find a balance between the Badr Corps and the Mahdi Army. I seriously doubt Iran wants this to explode on their door step, and the Quds would have the best idea of the relative strength of the two forces.
The US is just standing in the middle, and if Sadr loses control, we are in deep yogurt.
]]>In short, it is in his best interests to tip-toe around the U.S. military right now, and by and large he is doing so. That is why the Mahdi Army seems to just melt away whenever the U.S. comes to the aid of an Iraqi “Army” unit that’s in trouble in a fight with the Mahdi Army — Sadr’s fight is with the Badr Brigades and the other factions within Iraq, not the United States.
But if the U.S. *forces* a fight by threatening his power… well, he will do what he has to do. You know it. I know it. Our generals know it, I hope (hard to tell, since most of the intelligent ones got purged for ideological reasons by the Busheviks). The Busheviks, of course, don’t know it. All they know is their precious ideology, which says “Sadr evil. Ugh. U.S. fight Sadr. Ugh.” Like I said, the Busheviks are perfect proof that perfect stupidity and perfect evil can exist in the same group of people…
]]>A city is no place to maneuver if you don’t know the terrain instinctively, and we don’t.
]]>In other words, Condiliar “Mushroom Cloud” Rice proves either that she will stop at no opportunity to lie, or she proves that blond is an attitude, not a hair color (i.e., is willfully stupid and incompetent). Or both. The Busheviks have certainly proven that evil and stupidity are not an “either/or” thing…
– Badtux the Snarky Penguin
]]>