The shocker in Iraq
Submitted by gjohnsit on Tue, 05/15/2018 - 11:18am
This election result wasn't what Washington was hoping for.
And they reveal a shock win for firebrand Iraqi cleric Moqtada al Sadr, who wasn't even running for prime minister, along with his coalition allies, the Iraqi Communist Party.
He was followed by Iran-backed Shia militia leader Hadi Al Amiri, while incumbent Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi, initially predicted to win re-election, trailed in third.
Sadr’s Sairoon bloc was in the lead in 16 out of Iraq’s 18 provinces. I'm tickled by how Sadr's coalition partner are the communists.
It could have been worse. Amiri winning would have been the worst-case scenario for Washington, but this was pretty bad nonetheless.
Sadr has spearheaded a number of political movements in Iraq, gaining infamy for directing attacks on U.S. troops in the wake of the 2003 Iraq invasion. His charismatic sermons have drawn hundreds of thousands into the streets over a range of causes. More recently, he's led campaigns and protests against corruption within the Shia-led government as well as against Iranian influence, and pledged to overcome sectarianism by leading a secular coalition that includes Iraq's communists.
Sadr in 2003 created the Mahdi Army, which executed the first major armed confrontation against U.S. forces in Iraq led by the Shia community — and it posed such a threat that U.S. forces were instructed to kill or capture him. The group, which numbered up to 10,000, was also accused of carrying out atrocities against Iraq's Sunnis. It was disbanded in 2008, but re-mobilized in 2014 to fight ISIS.
Sadr got famous for his men killing American soldiers, so the days of American influence in Iraq are over.
OTOH, Sadr is independent of Iran as well. So it's hard to say where this will lead.
Comments
The Reject Republican Terrorist Movement will overthrow him.
Or at least try to. And the Communists will be stomped down by 'Murica and their ISIS allies.
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
It wouldn't be the first time
GOS link
We've engineered anti-communist coups in Iraq before.
Bolsheviks in Iraq ?
Who could have predicted that ?
Surely, this was not what PNAC had in mind.
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
Says to me that the Shieks realized...
that they could take the DOD money, then turn around and use it to buy themselves votes. Damn, now I want to open up my own local cheese shop, just to see how fast the CIA starts paying me money to NOT do anything.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Sure sucks...
when Democracy doesn't go the way we want it to. I guess we'll just have to engineer a coup like we did in Egypt. And Palestine. And Honduras. And Brazil. And...........
And people wonder why there are refugees...
Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.
Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.
Geeze, looks like we’ve lost our ‘influence’
in Iraq.
In this case I’d probably change the it to
“The best laid schemes of rat bastards and maniacs...”
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Unfortunate
Beau Geste