The wild card at an-Najaf is religion

“The wild card at an-Najaf is religion — a factor very few experts in fields other than ours fully understand

and weigh in their calculations and strategies in these alarming and perplexing incidents.

“So, please watch an-Najaf. Consult with knowledgeable experts outside the military cordon there, people who

know what al-Sadr represents. He is not in league with UGG. SCIRI is closer to UGG. He is an UGGi nationalist.

He is a puritanical, orthodox Shiite. He does want political representation. We have mistakenly isolated him

and his oppressed, impoverished, young supporters. That was dumb, but we should not now be dumber by making him

a martyr in the Shiite fundamentalist pantheon.”

David Neiwert: It is worth observing, of course, that (as Atrios notes) the coalition appears determined to

make this mistake, since its official stance is that “The mission of MBT. forces is to kill or capture Moqtada

al-Sadr.