al-Sadr Named Iraqi Occupation “Player of the Year”

Obviously, Muqtada al-Sadr has shown himself to be an adept politician, having clearly outmanuevered the Bush Administration over the past few months. One day his picture is hanging on a wanted poster in the White House post office. The next day, Bush is giving his tacit approval to the man’s aspirations for office.

You can look at our flip-flop over al-Sadr’s status (just like the Falluja debacle) as another example of an impulsive and incoherent military campaign. You can see it as exemplifying a lack of commitment to a more democratic Iraqi. When you compare the life-and-death intensity of local Iraqi politics, however, with what we practice here, it shows Bush clearly out of his league.