Sadr's gambit

By Michael J.W. Stickings

In Iraq, I can now say with confidence, peace is at hand. I didn't think it would come, ever, but I was wrong. The U.S.-led war and occupation seemed hopelessly incompetent, if not downright ignorant, but all is now well, or soon will be. The surge has worked, Petraeus is a god, Bush was right all along, all that was needed was time, patience, fortitude, all for the greater glory of the warmongering neocons.

What could possibly have driven me to this conclusion? Consider this:

Radical Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr says he is freezing the activities of his Mehdi Army militia for up to six months in order to re-organise it.

He has also called on all its offices to co-operate with the security forces and exercise "self-control".

Okay, there are still the Sunni insurgents, and al Qaeda, or what calls itself al Qaeda, and various other Shia militias, and much of the Iraqi security apparatus is pro-Sadr, pro-Shia, anti-American, and more than 50 people were killed in Karbala on Tuesday, and the killing continues, mass killing, day after bloody day, and the government in Baghdad is weak and ineffectual and very much in league with Sadr and the Shia militias, and the sectarian violence is civil war, more or less, and... well, there's also this:

Analysts see the move as an attempt by Moqtada Sadr to regain control over his increasingly divided militia.

So -- crap! -- can I take back that opening paragraph? For a moment there I caught a fleeting glimpse of what it must be like deep inside The Bush Bubble of Righteous Delusion.