It Is Starting To Look like A Religious War

by James Glaser
April 7, 2004

Look it up, Cleric means, "a member of the clergy." No, it isn't some member of a terrorist organization or some bitter Saddam loyalist, but a lowly Shia Muslim Minister named Muqtada al-Sadr, that the United States is now in a war with in Iraq.

This Cleric, al-Sadr is not the equivalent of one of our Bishops, he is more like a Parish Priest that was given the poorest of the poor Parishes. Muqtada al Sadr is the Minister for the Iraqi Shia people who live in the slum of Baghdad called Sadr City, named after his father. It is an area of the city with 80% unemployment. Al-Sadr is not even a full fledged Cleric yet and it might take years more of study for him to be one.

There are hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of Iraqis that respect and love this man, many enough to die for him. He has used his Mosque (Church) and its ministry to help the poor people he serves.

I don't think the man is a saint, but he has been a constant patriot of Iraq and he wants our troops to leave his country. The occupation, (That is us} wants to get rid of this Minister because he wants rid of us. Last week we shut down his weekly newspaper because we didn't like what he printed. Iraq does not have freedom of the press or 1st Amendment rights.

This week we are telling the world a Big Secret and that is that some nonexistent Iraqi court (remember Iraq is not a country yet) issued an arrest warrant months ago for al-Sadr, on a murder charge.

We are pushing this guy to violence and violence is what we have gotten. Some would call it the start of a civil war, others the start of a religious war. Either way Americans are getting killed in numbers not seen since we were fighting the Iraqi Army.

With that 80% unemployment in al-Sadr's following, there are tens of thousands of young men ready to do what ever he wants them to and now it looks like our "push" has caused him to "shove" back.

On Tuesday as I write this, three 1st Armored Division Soldiers were killed in the Kadhimyah district and four Marines were killed in Al Anbar province. Then there was the attack in Ramadi, where at least twelve Marines were killed and over twenty wounded.

It makes me sick to see young Americans getting killed or maimed for life, trying to win George Bush's War. Now we have sunk so low that we are making Ministers out as our enemy and that is not going to work.

Our military commanders have forgotten that these people know they will get a place in heaven if they die for their religion. So what do we do? We make this into some sort of a religious war. It is now the Christians against the Muslims in many Iraqi's eyes.

We have screwed this whole war up big time. From the reason we got into it, to the lack of an Exit Plan, this war has been a mistake.

If we keep this plan of attacking the religious community in Iraq we are bound to inflame the whole country and maybe the rest if Islam too. Of course that could be the Bush plan. Maybe this is what he wanted all along and if he can involve other Muslim Nations, he can kill lots people that don't have his religious beliefs.