A powerful statement of defiance from the (Shia) clergy in Iraq…
Iraqi clerics say coalition ‘must pay’ for crisis
As Iraq’s most powerful Shiite clerics warned the U.S.-led coalition that it “must pay” for the current crisis in the country, the head of U.S. Central Command asked the Pentagon for roughly 10,000 more soldiers. In a statement issued Monday after a meeting with radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the clerics and members of the country’s religious authority also cautioned the coalition against doing battle in the holy city of Najaf, and warned against any attempt to kill al-Sadr.
“The current crisis in Iraq has risen to a level that is beyond any political groups, including the Governing Council, and it is now an issue that is between the religious authority and the coalition forces,” the statement said. “Those who have brought on this crisis must pay for what they have done.” Participating in the meeting was Mullah Mohammed Redha Ali Al-Sistani, the son of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani; Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Ishaq al-Fayadh, Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Sayid al-Hakim, Grand Ayatollah Bashir Hussein al-Najafi, Mohammed Sayid Redha al-Sistani and Sayid Ali al-Sibzwari.
Left to the devices of most Guppies, NEVER would still exist.
And, we are apologizing. $87 Billion in apologies. The blood of our men to remove Saddams henchmen.
Ironically the Shia are living proof that NOTHING short of outside intervention would have removed Saddam, now they have no stomach for finishing what was left undone a year ago.
Re: Re: Iraqi clerics say coalition 'must pay' for crisis
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*Originally posted by storch: *
How'd they get so powerful in a year?
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The Shia clerics have always been been powerful, and their power does not derive from the Saddam's or the Bush's of this world. I know it must have come as a particular shock for the increasingly bitter American's that they do exercise such influnence amongst their people, who look to them as liberators, rather than some genocidal foreign invaders.