Contradiction in Iraq's Time of Revolutionary Change

As Josh pointed out in the last entry, there seems to be a monumental accomplishment in Iraq's forming of a government with of all things, a Shiite as Prime Minister and a Kurd as President. Both these groups are minorities within the larger Arab/Muslim world and have been treated with intense persecution and oppression, especially under the former regime of Saddam Hussein. To have these groups come to power in the center of the Middle East as a result of a democratic vote is both a revolutionary accomplishment and an affront to certain old attitudes.

It is under these circumstances therefore that it would seem to be puzzling to hear the news today that tens of thousands of people rallied in the Baghdad capital demonstrating against the US occupation and Saddam Hussein. These were not just any people mind you but rather Shiite followers of the Shiite cleric Muktada al-Sadr. Considering the fact that Saddam Hussein was toppled as a result of the US invasion, and a Sunni-Baathist-Jihadist insurgency seems to be roiling the country by targeting innocent Shiites, it would seem strange that this Shiite group was pushing for a demonstration against the US occupation at this time and not against the sunni insurgency that has collaborated with the Sunni salifists of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who claims that Shiites are not real Muslims and in fact infidels who can be killed as justifiably as any Jew or Christian. Even stranger is that they coordinated their rally with another Sunni anti-US rally in the streets of Ramadi

There are a few important points to note about this rally:

1) Shiite Cleric Sadr predicted 1 million people at this rally and the result was far short of that goal with only tens of thousands of Iraq's millions of Shiites attending. This is and of itself is a commentary on the stength of the likes of Sadr among Shiites

2) Even with all these logical contradictions one can not discount the effects of massive amounts of anti-US propaganda and conspiracy theories so prevalent in the Middle East throughout the years of Baath party rule and even today. Actually the first Sadr uprising began when a newspaper that had claimed that a insurgent bomber targeting a Shiite mosque was actually a US missile. The continuation of False reporting can leave its mark on the attitudes of certain people.

3) Probably the most significant and outstanding points of the rally was the fact that "No major violence was reported during Saturday's demonstration, which the Iraqi Interior Ministry agreed to protect. U.S. Soldiers kept watch from behind concrete-and-barbed wire barriers, while gunmen manned surrounding rooftops". The fact that the new Iraqi government who has a policy of cooperation with America agreed to protect this violence-free rally while US forces kept watch from behind barriers shows the extent of Iraq's change! A peaceful rally held against the very people who made this sort of rally possible points to the fact the extent of change and sea of change can not be stopped at this point.

That seems to be the underlying effect of all these points. Iraq and as a result the larger Middle East, has changed unreversably.


Effigies of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, left, Saddam Hussein, and U.S. President George W. Bush at a rally in Baghdad on Saturday. At left, a sculpture symbolizing freedom.