Shhhhh, readers, I want to hear this:
"Iraqi cleric delivers support for government he fought; Sadr signals he is embracing political course" by Anthony Shadid, New York Times / January 9, 2011
NAJAF, Iraq — To a rapturous welcome that conflated the religious and political, the populist Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr delivered his support yesterday for an Iraqi government that he had once derided as a traitorous tool of the United States and that his followers had battled in the streets of Iraq’s most important cities only a few years before.
The speech to thousands of followers was his first since returning last week after more than three years of voluntary exile in Iran, and it was watched across the country for signs of a movement that portrays itself today as a far more disciplined, mature heir to the group that rapidly emerged after the US invasion in 2003.
Related: Occupation Iraq: Sadr Surfaces
Also see: Occupation Iraq: Iran's Agent
The earlier incarnation, backed by its Mahdi Army militia, raucously articulated the voice of the urban poor, fighting the US military and then engaging in some of the worst sectarian carnage of the civil war.
Sadr’s challenge now is to reshape a powerful street movement into a political one and to reconcile its self-image as the permanent face of opposition even as its ministers and deputies fill the ranks of the government.
In his 28-minute address, delivered in a warren of streets near his home in this sacred city, Sadr again sought to have it both ways, calling for the expulsion of US troops but allowing time for a withdrawal and offering support for a new government conditional on its effectiveness.
At that point I cheer!
“We are with it, not against it,’’ he said, speaking forcefully and deliberately, with a confidence he once lacked. “The government is new, and we have to open the way for it to prove it will serve Iraq’s people.’’
The crowd, rowdy and at times ecstatic, answered Sadr with chants of fealty. Some cried uncontrollably....
Sadr is the scion of one of Iraq’s most prominent religious families and inherited a grass-roots movement founded by his revered father in the 1990s. Now grayer, Sadr is perhaps the sole national figure who can compete with the prominence of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
And he is a NATIONALIST!
So far, their relationship has proved tumultuous, from allies to enemies to allies again, and Sadr’s speech outlined the pivots on which their relationship might turn.
He insisted that no US troops could remain in Iraq after 2011, a condition the United States has agreed to, and urged his followers to continue to resist the troops presence by any means.
I'm wondering what the globe-kickers have up their sleeves to justify staying.
More cautiously, he suggested that he could withdraw support for Maliki if the government failed to address the most basic complaints of daily life here, particularly for the disenfranchised he claims to represent — shoddy roads, dirty water, leaking sewage, and that persistent motif of post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, electrical blackouts.
Meet AmeriKan liberation.
But Sadr urged patience from his followers, and at the very least, his words seemed to mean that Maliki’s new government would have a grace period to act....
The occasion itself was street theater, with an audience stretching down the street to the turquoise-domed mosque of Kamil bin Zayid.
On stage was the essence of a movement many believe could transform Iraqi politics, blending the centuries-old symbolism of Shi’ite sacrifice and martyrdom with a martial culture fostered by the US invasion and occupation....
During the speech yesterday, the movement sought to convey a certain respectability, from sharply dressed security guards in gray suits to the punctuality of Sadr himself, who began talking precisely at 10 a.m., as scheduled....
He may want to start showing up and leaving early if he wants to avoid assassination.
--more--"
Wow, that sure is a LOT of PEOPLE!!
And then he and my Boston Globe went silent.
