[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Lessons of Najaf

[michael at intrafi.com]

The article below from NYTimes.com 
has been sent to you by michael at intrafi.com.



/--------- E-mail Sponsored by Fox Searchlight ------------\

 I HEART HUCKABEES - OPENING IN SELECT CITIES OCTOBER 1

 From David O. Russell, writer and director of THREE KINGS
 and FLIRTING WITH DISASTER comes an existential comedy
 starring Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Hupert, Jude Law, Jason
 Schwartzman, Lily Tomlin, Mark Wahlberg and Naomi Watts.
 Watch the trailer now at:

 http://www.foxsearchlight.com/huckabees/index_nyt.html

\----------------------------------------------------------/


Lessons of Najaf

August 28, 2004
 


 

Iraq's interim government did well to avoid a bloody fight
to the finish with Moktada al-Sadr over the Imam Ali
Mosque, the country's most sacred Shiite site. It could
have suffered incalculable political damage even if it had
won. Instead, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi accepted a
face-saving compromise worked out by the country's leading
Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, thus ending
a siege that had occupied center stage in the war in Iraq
for three weeks. 

The main winners are Ayatollah Sistani and Mr. Sadr, a
fiery but low-ranking cleric who is a hero to millions of
poor, young and unemployed Iraqi Shiites. Baghdad and
Washington, once eager to escalate this confrontation, exit
from it somewhat diminished. Najaf, meanwhile, lies
shattered, and hundreds of Iraqis, including many of Mr.
Sadr's armed followers, have been killed. 

Significantly, it was with Ayatollah Sistani, not Dr.
Allawi, whom Mr. Sadr worked out the withdrawal deal. The
battered remnants of his Mahdi Army were allowed to leave
the mosque without having to surrender or give up their
weapons. They are now supposed to stay out of Najaf and the
city of Kufa nearby, but similar agreements with the Mahdi
Army have broken down in the past. And with Mr. Sadr now
seen as a hero in the Shiite slums, he will have no trouble
replacing his fallen fighters and building an even more
powerful militia to advance his towering political
ambitions and militant religious agenda. 

The agreement also calls for all American and other foreign
military forces to be withdrawn from Najaf and Kufa, to be
replaced by Iraqi police, whose readiness and reliability
remain untested. 

Mr. Sadr is widely disliked - by the Allawi government, by
senior clerics and by the main Shiite religious parties.
His growing influence threatens orderly constitutional
development and secular rule. Yet again, he has
demonstrated that he excels at turning military
confrontations to his own advantage. In this he was
assisted by Mr. Allawi, who tough-talked himself into a
corner from which the more subtle Ayatollah Sistani
extracted him. Mr. Allawi needs to digest important lessons
about the limits of bluster and firepower in his volatile
country, and move quickly, with American help, to find jobs
for the angry unemployed men Mr. Sadr has been using as
cannon fodder. 

For its part, Washington now faces the prospect of seeing
American forces banned from the Shiite strongholds of Najaf
and Kufa, as well as the Sunni redoubt of Falluja. It
therefore needs to make major adjustments in military and
political strategy if it is to retain any hope of
rebuilding Iraq and preparing for credible elections in
five months. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/28/opinion/28sat2.html?ex=1094721212&ei=1&en=dc9584332ff2266c


---------------------------------

Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine
reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like!
Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy
now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here:

http://homedelivery.nytimes.com/HDS/SubscriptionT1.do?mode=SubscriptionT1&ExternalMediaCode=W24AF



HOW TO ADVERTISE
---------------------------------
For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters 
or other creative advertising opportunities with The 
New York Times on the Web, please contact
onlinesales at nytimes.com or visit our online media 
kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo

For general information about NYTimes.com, write to 
help at nytimes.com.  

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company