Sadr Pledges To Help UN In Iraq

By Cernig

Hey, I thought Mookie was meant to be in Iran, according to the US military's "assessments". Well, the UK's Independent newspaper found him in his HQ in the Iraqi town of Kufa. He told them he will ""support the UN if it comes and replaces the American and British occupiers."

"If the UN comes here to truly help the Iraqi people, they will receive our help in their work. I would ask my followers to support the UN as long as it is here to help us rebuild our country.

"They must not just be another face of the American occupation."

Sadr also said that he saw the British withdrawal from Basra as a defeat for the occupiers and denied he was accepting arms from Iran. Then he had this to say about his fellow Shiite, prime minister Nour al-Maliki:

"Al-Maliki's government will not survive because he has proven that he will not work with important elements of the Iraqi people ... The prime minister is a tool for the Americans and people see that clearly."

"It will probably be the Americans who decide to change him when they realise he has failed. We don't have a democracy here, we have a foreign occupation."

The political situation in Iraq is more rife with factionalism than ever, with the British loss of control in Basra as soon as the various opposing Shiite factions there saw good reasons to fight each other instead of play possum just being one of many examples. But the broad lines of the various battles are settling into a new pattern where anti-occupation/nationalist vs pro-occupation/separatist feuds are nearly as important to the overall picture as sectarian feuds. I have to say I think most U.S. observers are missing the first in their calculations - especially the Bush administration and the military. In Anbar, in particular, I've a feeling that will become an unpleasant surprise to them soon.

(H/T Kirkrrt)