Unfortunately, some wars are won by the side that is the most fanatical in the religious sense. The victorious leaders harness the holy energy of collective insanity.We are familiar with the Shi'a on Sunni civil war and we have known that even among the Shi'a Sadr and Sistani are not on the same page. Part of the problem in Iraq from the beginning has been that the neocons and the Bush administration didn't have a clue as to what made Iraq click. Sadr represents the Arab Shi'a faction which is for the most part hostile towards Iran where as Sistani represents the pro Iranian faction. And yes, it gets even more complicated. The Sadrists are not unified either and the group (cult) that was attacked by the Iraqi Military on Sunday were a well organized Sadrist splinter group. Juan Cole explains.
The Mahdawiya is a splinter group of the Sadr movement, which broke away in the late 1990s, and was led by Ahmad al-Hassaani al-Yamani of Diwaniya. He styled himself styled himself Ali b. Ali. b. Abi Talib, that is, he was claiming to be the return of an (otherwise unknown) son of Ali (d. 661), whom Shiites believe was the true successor to the Prophet Muhammad.On top of it being Shi'a on Shi'a violence The Times reports that the Iraqi army was nearly defeated and had to call for American help.
The lesson here is that the neocons and the Bush administration have a very black VS white, good VS evil view of the region and are unwilling and/or incapable of seeing the complexity. They threaten Iran and at the same time threaten Sadr, one of the most anti Iranian individuals in Iraq. The administration went into Iraq clueless and remains just as clueless today. The Bush administration doesn't have a strategy for Iraq because they never did understand the country or it's people. Iraq is what happens when arrogant - ignorant - incompetent people are in charge.
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