MY PREVIOUS POST: THE OPPORTUNITY

Greetings Friends,

I wish to express appreciation for the great comments I get from you.

Nevertheless I think perhaps I have not succeeded to convey the sense of real urgency and opportunity in my last post. You see, the situation is such that a great development has taken place. What I am referring to is precisely where we are now vis-à-vis the so-called “Sadrist current” or the movement led by Muqtada Al-Sadr. Now my friends have to broaden their minds and try to understand a complex phenomenon, which if dealt with properly could be put to real use and may well be a powerful instrument of change to the better. The “Sadrist” movement is something quite different from the other “insurrectionst” groups, especially those in the so-called “triangle”. I think my brother “Ziad” of Healing Iraq, has analyzed the situation well in one of his posts about a month ago. What happened in Najaf, Karbala and Now in Sadr City ( Formerly Saddam City and before that Thowrah City), essentially is the failure of the disturbance in the face of determined action by the Government and MNF, to be sure, but not just that. The fact is that the “Sadrists” have failed to arouse the Masses of the Shiaa people despite all their miseries and the terrible hardships that they are enduring in their daily life. They lacked popular base and popular support, and after all the painful events that took place it seems that the leaders of this movement have come to realize this and have been forced to submit to the pulse of Shiaa street.

Now I wish to emphasize one word that seems to have gone unnoticed in my previous post. I said that the real “antidote” to the terrorists, Saddamists et al, are these very same poor Shiaa masses, even those who have raised arms in the face of the authorities in the latest confrontations. Now, for instance, Thowrah City has two million inhabitants who are entirely reclaimable and could be a formidable force confronting the terrorists if they can be rescued and reformed, and that can be done only through employment and active involvement and recruitment in a revitalized and politically targeted and focused economic campaign. I mean, if say 1 billion dollars of the many billions that have been spent in this war is immediately directed and focused to this area, and entrusted to honest hands, and if this sum is “deployed’ with urgency to engage all able bodied men in projects to clean up the area and restore basic services and support small business; I can guarantee that this will be more effective than much military activity in changing the strategic balance in Baghdad. The emboldening of the Saddamists and terrorists has much to do with the apathy and disgruntlement of this tough class of hardened plebeians, who should be the ones most to gain by the liberation and removal of the previous regime. Quite frankly, our middle class is much less qualified to confront the terrorists and murderers than these tough working classes. I know the government is thinking along the same lines, and that considerable sums have already been allocated, but I am writing these lines in the hope that our American friends on the ground should be aware of the importance of the matter and that they might oversee and watch the process carefully, which should be considered as part and parcel of the military campaign.

As I have said long ago, it should be realized, that Baghdad is the key to stability in the country which explains why most of the effort of the enemy is concentrated on this city. But Baghdad has an overwhelming majority (especially if you count Sadr City) who are intrinsically and fundamentally the real “enemies” of this enemy. Any opportunity to reclaim and mobilize this majority should be pounced upon, and that could be a decisive factor in this campaign. If this is clearly understood, great results can be achieved; and you must trust me on this, for we know the situation here on the ground better than anybody else.