The last few weeks have been really tough for Muqtada Al Sadr.
.Despite media reports suggesting the Mahdi Army offensive was a success for Al Sadr, the facts don't support that view. The offensive sputtered after just a few days. Al Sadr lost hundreds of his militia fighters to death and desertion, and he had to beg for a ceasefire to avoid being routed by US and Iraqi forces. Austin Bay says the offensive was a deterioration for Al Sadr. Jenda at Pros & Cons says most of elements in Iraq - Sunni Arab, secular, Kurdish and even Shiite fundamentlist parties - are fed up with Al Sadr.
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The winner in the standoff was Al Maliki. By sending the Iraqi army to fight the Iranian-backed militia, Al Maliki showed the world his Shiite-dominated government is the government of the whole country. Can you say "political progress"?
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After gaining a ceasefire, Al Sadr retreated to Najaf and licked his wounds.
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Signalling he couldn't trust his militia to get the job done, Al-Sadr decided to try the "people power" approach. Last week he announced plans for a big anti-US rally.
.The western media took this as another sign of trouble for Al Maliki. McClatchy's Leila Fadel breathlessly announced Al Sadr's call for a massive demonstration to include as many as one million protesters:
Firebrand Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al Sadr on Thursday called for a massive demonstration against the "occupation" of Iraq on April 9, which would coincide with the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad and come just after U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker are to testify to Congress about progress in Iraq.
As Sadr called for a million people to converge on the Shiite holy city of Najaf in southern Iraq, he also warned the government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki to purge the security forces of members of the Badr Organization, the military wing of the rival Shiite Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, and of Sunni Baathists.
Leila Fadel, like much of the western media, writes about Al Sadr as if he is some major figure to be reckoned with.
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Well, the big rally won't be happening after all, because Al Sadr called it off.
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Al Sadr must be the most over-estimated man in the entire middle east..
(photo credit: abc.net.au.)
