'A Shi'ite warning to America'

two particularly interesting segments in this, if a bit off the main point of how the piece starts:--

THE ROVING EYE - EXCLUSIVE
A Shi'ite warning to America
By Pepe Escobar

--snip--

At least for the moment, the chief US administrator in Iraq, L Paul Bremer, the Iraqi Governing Council and the marjaaiyya in Najaf are all adopting a "wait and see" attitude toward Muqtada. They know they cannot neutralize him at the moment because he is capable of putting a million very angry people on to the streets of Baghdad: nobody else can. The Shi'ite middle class also knows very well that although Muqtada is intolerable, he cannot be easily dismissed. It's even possible that the controversial Turkish decision to send troops to Iraq - as the Americans badly wanted - might be the opening Muqtada and his backers in Iran were waiting for. Sunni Sheikh Abdel Sattar Jabar, a member of the Governing Council, went straight to the point: "Turkey, a Sunni country, is called for a military intervention in a Sunni area. So the Shi'ites also may have the right to demand Shi'ite troops deployed in their area." Which means troops from Shi'ite Iran.

All Iraqis know that if Turkey sends troops to Iraq, this will mean the dreaded opening of a Pandora's box. Shi'ites may have been very patient so far, but not a single one of them has forgotten that the Turks are descendants of the hated Ottoman colonial power.

--snip--

Sheikh Saleh stresses that the occupation is fought "by our brains and by our religion ... There is no difference between Sunnis and Shi'ites. What the media say is not real. We do have many objections regarding this Governing Council, established under ethnic lines. Most Iraqis suffered from the previous regime; now there's a relaxed period, as if they were released from hospital after surgery. But we are daily watching events, and it's getting worse. Prices have doubled. The occupation is printing a new kind of money, selling industries and commercial establishments. Iraq is a very rich country, but the population is one of the poorest anywhere. The previous regime lost a lot of money. It's not wise to get Iraq straight back into the world system."

Bremer, in line with Pentagon thought, has repeatedly said that Iraqis are disqualified from managing themselves. Sheikh Saleh says, "Iraqis have been qualified to do it since the first month of the occupation, has brought all sorts of problems to the Iraqis and also to the Americans." The sheikh insists that "we still don't know the political and economic reasons for the occupation. They have used us as a training field, in the beginning of a big strategy."

But will Shi'ite patience run out? The sheikh answers with a beatific smile, "The English left Iraq after the revolution in the 1920s. It started with only five words, here in Najaf."

--snip--

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EJ11Ak01.html

hmmm

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

:D