Here Comes That Old Thorn Muqtada Again

A while back I posted about Muqtada al-Sadr here, here, here and here. I've pointed out he had better not be ignored. And Bushco doesn't like him and won't deal with him. The truth is, Muqtada is much more likely to get his way than is Bushco.

If Muqtada gets his way, he will be in control of seven out of 32 posts in the Maliki government. His record at Health has been a bad one, and doctors complain of a lack of proper hospitals, shortage of equipment, low pay and a huge shortage in human resources. At Transportation, Muqtada's men have plastered pictures of Shi'ite clerics at train stations, bus stations and Baghdad airport, while they have prohibited the sale of alcohol at the duty-free shop there.

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If [Prime Minister-designate] Maliki says no to Muqtada, the rebel-cleric can and will work to eject him from office. He has the cards inside the UIA [United Iraqi Alliance], and also controls the minds and hearts of millions of Iraqi youth. He is also very influential in the slums of Baghdad, among the urban poor, and within the working middle-class Shi'ite community. All combined, their opposition can bring down Maliki.

And if Maliki says "yes" to Muqtada, this will bring him back to the same position that crippled his predecessor, Jaafari. A Maliki manipulated by Muqtada is a Maliki nobody in Iraq wants to deal with - neither the Americans, the Sunnis, the seculars or the Kurds.

A cabinet with seven of Muqtada's men in it is also a cabinet that nobody would want to join - certainly not the Sunnis, and certainly not Allawi, who had tried to eradicate Muqtada's movement when he was prime minister in 2004.

If Maliki lets Muqtada have his way, all of these players will refuse to cooperate in creating a government and Maliki will have to step down. With and without Muqtada, his job is impossible.

BTW, in that first earlier post I spoke of natural born leaders. Bush isn't one of those. He's a follower and that's why its necessary to impeach Cheney too because Cheney is the power behind the naked monarch. If only Bush were to be impeached, Cheney would still weild the power. If only Cheney were deposed, Bush would just follow some other neocon or Cheney anyway.