Muqtada al Sadr doesn’t have wide spread support among the Shi’a. If the entire Shi’a population supported him the US and coalition forces we be in far more trouble.
What he has is core radical group, he gets money from Iran and his people have access to the many weapons caches in Iraq. Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and other Shi’a leaders have no love for Sadr. In fact here has been open conflict between the 2.
Sistani is a coward and instead of coming out against Sadr he holds back and will allow the US to deal with Sadr.
Sadr people and the Sunni's aren't "working" together. Sadr most likely used the situation in the Sunni triangle to "act up".
Why is Sadr acting up now? Because the closer Iraq moves towards self-government the quicker he will be pushed aside.
Hristo,
You make some of the most ridiculous assumptions.
to unite Shia and Sunni in fight against common enemy
Non-sense, provide your source? You just made that up didn’t you? Because if know anything about the differences between the Sunni and Shi’a you would know how asinine that assumption is.
Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, Muqtada al Sadr father, was assassinated along with two of his sons by agents of Saddam Hussein in Al-Najaf in 1999. The Sadiq al-Sadr killing intensified Shi’a anger at the ruling Sunni minority and led to more severe government repression of the Shi’a. The Shi'a resistance also took the form of bolder actions against the regime, including hand grenade and rocket attacks on security headquarters, Ba’ath Party offices, and presidential residences in Baghdad, as well as small arms attacks in many parts of the capital. This prior to the US invasion.
Muqtada al-Sadr and his young followers have sought to replace more traditional factions as the voice of Iraq's Shiite majority. The al-Sadr family portrays themselves as the ones doing the most to redress decades of suppression by Sunni Muslims under the Saddam's rule.
The al-Sadr group has drawn charges of involvement in attacks and intimidation in Al-Najaf that have highlighted political differences among Shi'a political organizations. The most notable of those attacks was a mob killing of a pro-US cleric, Abd al-Majid al-Khoi, shortly after his return from exile in London in early April. Al-Khoi was himself the son of another extremely powerful former grand ayatollah, Abolqassem al-Khoi. Al-Khoi was murdered as he emerged from the city's Imam Ali Mosque in a gesture of reconciliation with the mosque's custodian, who was popularly considered to have collaborated with Hussein's regime. The custodian was killed along with al-Khoi and it is unclear whether al-Khoi was an assassination target or was struck down because he tried to defend the other man.
Immediately after al-Khoi's murder, supporters of al-Sadr surrounded the house of another grand ayatollah in Al-Najaf, Ali Sistani, in what was taken to be a gesture of intimidation. Sistani -- who has said that Shi'a leaders should limit themselves to religious questions and stay out of politics -- went into hiding and only re-emerged after tribesmen loyal to him raced to Al-Najaf.
Sadr’s followers (Al-Mahdi Army) have had more recent clashes with Sistani followers as well.
You used phrase like "Iraq is like Vietnam". More non-sense. Do a little search on Vietnam and educate yourself.
The more you speak the more ignorant it appears you are.
