People Of Iraq: Who Is al-Sadr Loyal To?
How I wish I had a large audience of Iraqis, particularly Iraqi Shiites, to pose this question to: why, during a surge calculated to crack down on extremists who are destroying your country, is al-Sadr hiding out in Iran? Why did he desert you in your hour of need? And why Iran?
As with Hezbollah and Hamas, it is clear that al-Sadr is nothing more than a proxy for Iranian meddling. Wherever instability rears its ugly head in the Middle East, look closely, and you’ll see Tehran’s reflection…
Hmm…this has a familiar ring to it. Sounds a lot like someone is leveraging xenophobia. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Andy, I’m not being xenophobic. It’s a plain fact, and surely liberals and conservatives can agree on at least this much, that Iran is a destabilizing force in the Middle East, primarily through their proxies…
Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that.
The “xenophobe” strategy is primarily aimed at Iraqis, although I think this is clearly part of a wider effort to demonize Iran in the US.
This Sadr thing is very much in keeping with a PsyOps approach. It’s plowing under a lot of ambiguity and playing up certain angles to discredit Sadr.
While Sadr clearly has Iranian ties – specifically religious ties – a lot of his populist appeal has been a result of his Iraqi nationalism. Sadr’s base – the mass of poor, uneducated Shia – is somewhat sympathetic to Iran because of religion, but they’re also deeply suspicious of Iranian motives. These are, after all, the people who took the brunt of casualties during the Iran-Iraq war. Nationalism is also what enabled Sadr to make a bid for an alliance of convenience with the Sunni insurgents during the Fallujah flare up.
It’s not coincidental that the “fled to Iran” charge is exactly the same charge Sadr has been leveling at SCIRI’s Hakim faction, who fled to Iran under the Hussein era during the Iran-Iraq war and who has the closest ties to the Iranian power elite. It would also completely discredit Sadr (if he hasn’t been already) among Sunnis.
It all sounds a little too pat for me. My bet is that he’s in Najaaf. But the propaganda is quite clever because to defend himself, Sadr has to make an appearance – which would of course blow his cover.
Well, we’ll see, I guess…if he really is in Najaaf, he’ll have to make an appearance, because the story appears to be gaining momentum. If it’s PsyOps, it’s been pretty successful…
Another al Qaeda in Iraq Tale
The Counterterrorism Blog notes that we should wait until the US confirms this news given the spate of bum news from the Interior Ministry. I concur, though if it is confirmed it would be tremendous news to see the Iraqis being the ones taking down M…