Since the attempted murder of 'al Sadr' he and The Grand Ayatollah al Sistani have gone on to lead the Shi'ites of Iraq to a majority vote on January 30, 2005.
The tone of this exchange on NewsNight between the war mongering Right Wing paper The Christian Science Monitor and Aaron Brown clearly states the 'propaganda' being created regarding the so called insurgency.
It never really was an insurgency so much as an uprising of the innocent to take control over what they preceive as a 'dictatorial regime in the USA lead coalition.' The Shi'ites of Iraq were/are very correct in that estimation.
I also believe The Grand Ayatollah Sistani is one of the most peace seeking men on Earth. That is what makes these 'scenarios' mapped out by The Christian Science Monitor (a Neoncon newpaper interested in promoting war) so ridiculous in nature. At the point where this entry takes place I knew the USA military would slaughter all those in Najaf to get to the one man they desired dead more than any other and that was the young cleric 'al Sadr.' I speak a little more about 'al Sadr' in a minute.
But to come to understand the beauty of worship with the Shi'ites of Iraq and the Grand Ayatollah al Sistani one has to realize he had come from Iran to lead his flock in Iraq who was always the focus of Saddam Hussein's genocidal tendancies into a 'corner of safety' through his benevolent leadership. Quite frankly, what 'al Sistani' has done all these years is to create a worship of Allah that was minimally offensive to Hussein bringing the Shi'ites out of view emotionally. In other words if the Shi'ites were not obviously offensive to Hussein they would be allowed to live. The Grand Ayatollah literally 'managed' his flock all his life in protected worship so they could survive. Not very different from the Jews in Nazi Germany until their precense ment having wealth to feed the treasury of the regime.
Al Sadr is a cleric with a heritage to the Iraqi Shi'ites. As his father before him and his grandfather before him he wanted more for the Iraqi Shi'ites. He wanted as his heritage did freedom from oppression. Under Hussein the Iraqi Shi'ites could not openly practice their faith. The beautiful part of this is that the cleric 'al Sadr' is the true inheritance to the Iraqi Shi'ites. He is born and bred Iraqi and will become the first Iraqi leader over time and when The Grand Ayatollah sees him ready to actually lead. In other words, for the first time Iraqi Shi'ites will be lead by an Iraqi religious leader. It is the fate of his heritage for him to lead to greater justice for them. He had to live to realize that destiny.
At the time all this was taking place the USA Coalition had plotted against Cleric al Sadr and removed The Grand Ayatollah to a London Hospital for heart surgery. No sooner was The Grand Ayatollah out of the country that the USA lead coalition began their advance on Najaf with the intent (and this was a direct statement of a USA military general "To capture or kill al Sadr.") of destroying whatever they had to and kill al Sadr.
I begged for the return of The Grand Ayatollah to return on the eve of the military advance that would have assuredly killed Cleric al Sadr and destroy the Mosque. He came. He left his surgical bed in London and returned by plane to Kuwait where he immediately ordered a march from Kufa to Najaf of all the devout. People died from sniper fire along that march but they did not stop. Thousands upon thousands of people went to Najaf. It was a pilgrimage of mercy that followed the traditional path of Iman Alli's body when he died in Kufa and was laid to rest in Najaf under what is not The Iman Alli Mosque.
The mass movement of people stopped the advance of The USA lead coalition. The Grand Ayatollah upon returning spoke with Mr. Allawi and within five days of that return all the concessions demanded by Cleric al Sadr were met and there has been peace for the Shi'ites ever since.
This entry clearly states the ludicrous propaganda of the time that served Bush's political agenda in the USA:
I WON'T APOLOGIZE for the descriptive language of any of the western press or Sharon 'the religious bigot' von Zwieten as I had lost respect for them along the way. Beside this clearly illustrates when compared and contrasted to where the Shi'ites are now as opposed to then the bigoted 'angle' used in the media to promote war and hatred. I am right/correct on all counts here.
The Greatness of The Neocon NewsNight Infidelity Queen, who can work miracles in converting masses of Jews into Jesus Freaks! Right, Aaron?
BROWN: We rarely seem to be reporting on the area around Fallujah but that's the area where most of those casualties continue to come from.
Returning now to Iraq and the situation in Najaf, we've heard Muqtada al-Sadr called lots of things by lots of people. No one is calling him stupid. He clearly wants something for himself and his followers and he is playing hardball or chicken, if you will, to get it.
(CHICKEN OR HARDBALL. WELL. THOSE ARE WORDS OF DIPLOMATIC MAGNITUDE I’VE NOT WITNESSED AT NEWSNIGHT BEFORE. SUCH DIGNITY. SUCH ESTEEM. SUCH?????)
What that is and how far he'll push to get it make this the story of the moment, as do the larger stakes involved and so does the texture of the scene itself in the holy city.
Scott Baldauf recently returned from Najaf. He files for the "Christian Science Monitor."
(THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR. THE NEWSPRINT DEDICATED TO KEEPING HARM AS FAR AWAY FROM CHRISTIAN SCIENTIST AS POSSIBLE BECAUSE THEY DON’T HEAL WELL AFTER A BOMB BLAST.) He joins us from Baghdad, good to see you.
We tend to see this story from here as two-sided. There are the forces of al-Sadr and there are the Americans but there's actually a third side which are the people of Najaf and where are they in all of this? Have they taken sides?
NOW READ THIS CLOSELY. WHAT YOU WILL FIND IS A ‘WAR MONGER MORON’ WHO INITIALLY MAKES NAJAF SOUND AS THOUGH PEOPLE ARE TRAPPED AGAINST THEIR WILL SCOTT BALDAUF, "CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR":
I don't think you can afford to take sides in Najaf. The battle lines shift over you and back again constantly. When you have to talk with both sides, deal with both sides and appear to be sympathetic with both sides, you really have to keep all of your own opinions interior.
BROWN: You went through a day of firefights, of shelling, of gunfire, of death in the home of an Najafi. Did you get a sense for sort of deep down what they thought of the Americans, what they thought of al-Sadr?
BALDAUF: Well, the opinion about the Americans is very complex. They look at the Americans and say, "Well, thank God for getting rid of Saddam Hussein but on the other hand what have you been doing for the last 18 months or so?"
There hasn't been any improvement in their lives, if anything it's worse in terms of gunfire just outside their home. They see the Americans as a big disappointment.
For the Mehdi Army they see them as very brave but very foolish, not very well trained. They criticize the Mehdi Army for just firing foolishly into civilian areas not really aiming very well and not really caring where the shells landed and, as a result they aren't that fond of the Mehdi Army as well. So, it's a very complex picture on both sides. I don't think they see anybody out there that represents them.
BROWN: People adapt in the most difficult of circumstances. Certainly, Najaf right now is the most difficult of circumstances. To what extent have people simply adapted to life there?
BALDAUF: Well, it's amazing how you can adapt to life. You know, you just sort of move on and pretend that it's not going on but, of course, you're restricted to your home. You can't -- every once in a while you can go out shopping to the market to buy some food to get you by but you have a very narrow window of time before the fighting erupts again and you can be caught outside as we were when we arrived in the old city of Najaf.
BROWN: Tell me how many -- have reporters by and large heeded the order to get out of the city?
BALDAUF: Not really. There are -- we visited a hotel that was chock full of reporters, particularly the freelancers and a lot of the TV networks are moving in, especially Al Arabiya, Al-Jazeera and the local reporters are there in droves.The problem, of course, is that you're taking security into your own hands as a result and we were put into a position which was very uncomfortable. We were stuck for about 22 hours. If we had a security company looking after us they would not be pleased.
BROWN: Scott, I said this before we went on the air, the piece on that day and your experience, an extraordinary piece of reporting and writing. Good luck to you. Stay safe. Thanks for joining us.
BALDAUF: Thank you.
BROWN: You can read Scott's work in the "Christian Science Monitor."
THIS CLEARLY illustrates the bigotry of The Christian Science Monitor whom misdirected passions for war of the Neocons into propaganda advocating it and away from a clear understanding of the Shi'ites and their values. What is also clear to me in retrospect to all this is that the Western Press clearly does not understand the values that are Islam. They like to take pictures of the masses of people in pilgrimage during Hajj and they will even report deaths that occur due to mass movements and people trapped within that movement but one never reads an 'in depth' article regarding the faith and what all these ceremonies mean to Islam. That is also true of Judaism and it's relationship with Christians in the USA. The christians in the West grossly misunderstand the faith of the Jews. I sometimes think that is seen as benevolent to the Hebrew faith to increase tolerance between the two faiths of which Christianity is a schism.
