MUQTADA AL-SADR PLAYS RIGHT WING PRESS LIKE A FIDDLE

The rebel cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, is notorious for pulling a head fake and throwing the right wing media in the United States totally off guard when he claims he is going to disband his Mehdi Army or militia.

The right wing press falls for al-Sadr's disclosures every time and the cleric knows he has a ready and gullible right wing press in the United States eager to try and make it look like he is folding up his cards and going home.

Nothing could be further from the truth as Juan Cole, the excellent foreign correspondent, explains in this piece.

Hundreds Flee Baghdad Clashes
Ayatollahs Decline to Ban Militia
By Juan Cole

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19700.htm

08/04/08 "ICH" -- -- I am always astounded at the combination of unrealistic optimism and foolish gullibility that marks political discourse on the Right in Washington.

We were being told by Rich Lowry at the National Review that Sadr was on the ropes and on the verge of disbanding the Mahdi Army because the other political factions had turned on him, and that the others had had their militias join the regular security forces.

So let us get this straight. Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army fought off thousands of regular Iraqi army troops in Basra and Baghdad, and perhaps thousands of those troops deserted rather than fight. So the Mahdi Army won big and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki lost.

Also the US military trainers of the Iraqi troops lost face.So the next thing we hear is that al-Maliki is talking big and demanding that the Mahdi Army be dissolved. Usually you get to talk big if you win the military battle, not if you lose.The Sadrists have no intention of dissolving the Mahdi Army, according to this Arabic source, quoting Sadrist spokesman Salah al-Ubaidi. They point out, pace that great Iraq expert Lowry, that there are 28 militias in Iraq.

The Badr Corps of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) still exists as a stand alone organization. In fact it ran as a political party in the elections and holds both provincial and federal seats. It hasn't been complete merged into the state security forces as Lowry alleged. And anyway, painting a sign on a militia saying 'this one is legitimate because its party won the last election' is not going to convince any real Iraqis.As it happens, the parliamentary representatives of Mosul demanded Monday that the Kurdish Peshmerga be dissolved. (Hint: Hell will freeze over first).

Then the US press went wild for this supposed report that Muqtada al-Sadr said he would dissolve his militia if Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani ordered it. Folks, he always says that when there is a controversy. (He said the same thing in spring, 2004). He says it because he knows it makes him look reasonable to the Shiite public. He says it because he knows that the grand ayatollahs are not going to touch the matter with a ten foot pole. They are not so foolish as to take responsibility for dissolving a militia that they had nothing to do with creating.

And that is probably the real meaning of this CNN report that they 'refused' when asked. I doubt the grand ayatollahs in Najaf actively commanded Muqtada to keep his militia. They just declined to get drawn in.So the idea that, having lost militarily, al-Maliki and his political allies (who are a minority in parliament now) could just a couple of days later jawbone Muqtada into giving up his paramilitary was always absurd.