Al-Sadr has played a political role in Iraq for some time now. It is through Al-Sadr's support that the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki came to power. Al-Sadr controls the second-biggest armed force in Iraq, after the U.S. military, and 30 parliamentary seats -- enough power to influence political decision-making and dash U.S. hopes for stability. The cleric withdrew his six ministers from Iraq's cabinet last month, leaving the movement more free to challenge the government.
Al-Sadr is unhappy that Maliki has not asked the Bush Administration to withdraw US military forces that are occupying Iraq. Maliki probably will never ask U.S. forces to leave Iraq, because Maliki and his follower in the Shiite led government depend on the U.S. forces to remain in power. Without the protection of the U.S. military, the Maliki government would be vulnerable to topple. Most of my information is coming from the two below links: #----------------------------------- http://americanranger.blogspot.com/2007/05/muqtada-al-sadrs-new-strategy.html or http://tinyurl.com/3ycmn5 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/24/AR2007052402344.html?referrer=email or http://tinyurl.com/37nyu2 #-------------------------------------- Regards, LelandJ William Sanders / EFG wrote: > Leland - > OK - that must be really recent, like within the last 10 days. > al-Sadr , prior, had been labelled an extremist and HIS Army being > responsible for a lot of the 'road to civil war' in Iraq. He's not a > member of the Taliban, he hates Al-Qaeda with a passion you can't imagine, > and has been influential since before Saddam (remember him?) got deposed. > > But, now he's been labelled as a 'moderate cleric' ? Really ?!?!? > OMG. Mondo Switcheroo, imo.. > > Suffice it to say he finally raised enough money to hire a good > public-relations firm, and it's apparently working out very well. > > IF in fact things come about as you have quoted, I would be happy - as > nothing else has worked - it's time for a different plan. Iraqi home rule > has to work somehow, and if he's up to really not supporting a civil war > between all factions, he'll make sure his followers do not sustain one. > But - it might be a genocide too - hard to tell at this stage. Maybe > someone convinced him that 'control of the oil' is a good thing? I would > think so, since lots of oil gets smuggled out of Iraq, resold to fund > Al-Qaeda in Pakistan and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Again, he hates these > two groups. > > Pray, Leland, TELL ME what source you got this one from? (If I missed it, > my apologies, I had only read Bob Calco's Response to You). > > Mondo Road to Recovery! > [Bill] > PS - be nice, you know I don't swim in OT often. > _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
