Yoshie>..The pact is not good enough -- emphasis on de-Ba'athification law severely limits the pact's relevance for Sunnis -- but if Sadr learns to overcome his sectarianism concerning Ba'athists (since many joined the party for jobs or under duress), he can get to play the role that Nasrallah does in Lebanon.
Pretty fucking unlikely. http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=article&DocID=2861 America's Unlikely Savior Recently, the U.S. was calling for Muqtada al-Sadr's head. Now, the fiery cleric may be the only man who can defuse Iraq's Sunni-Shiite conflict.
By Nir Rosen Fellow
Salon
February 3, 2006
>...Muqtada al-Sadr derives his power from his family connections. He
is the scion of the revolutionary Sadr family, one of the most
illustrious religious names in Iraq. His great-uncle, Muhammad Bakr
Sadr, was the most important Shiite theologian of the 20th century,
writing about economics, politics and philosophy as well. Bakr Sadr
led the Dawa Party, an underground movement whose members were
decimated by the Baath Party. In 1980, after Bakr Sadr declared Baath
Party membership forbidden, he was arrested with his sister, forced to
watch her raped and executed, and then executed himself by having
nails driven into his head. He became known as the First Martyr.
Nir Rosen, http://www.nirrosen.com/blog/ author of the book, "In the Belly of the Green Bird: , The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq" on the Iraqi insurgency, based on extensive on the ground reportage there.
-- Michael Pugliese