Meanwhile, Over There

"Troupers"? I thought he was talking about our crack battalion of tactical mimes, the Silent 29th.

Meanwhile, worse and worse:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/04/08/iraq.soldiers/index.html

 

Why, oh why did my CinC extend my tour of duty again?

 

Sound off, Silent 29th!

" "!

At ease!

 

if you have about an hour, go to PBS's website and watch the Frontline that was on last night. 'Bad Voodoo' something. Iraq told by soldiers on the ground. Really compelling stuff.

 

Damn straight.
PBS has been kicking ass on this story.

 

Sunnis do not consider Imam's holy men, rather they are considered scholars and jurists, selected by consensus, who may offer non-binding opinions. They do not operate under a priesthood or other hierarchal structure, so the Imam does not answer to anyone person, but is accountable to his supporters. All that is required to become a Sunni cleric is the completion of a course of religious study at an approved Islamic college. They can be hired and fired in an instant.

Take a back azimuth of that (do a 180) and you get the Shi'a faith.

They operate under a very strict and structured religious hierarchy. al-Sadr is very well connected, the grandson of one grand ayatollah and the son-in-law of another. He's at the opposite end of the spectrum. He has little or no religious education and is recognized by most Shi'a as little more than a Sunday School teacher calling for an illegal lesser jihad. He's not even a mujtahid, what's most commonly referred to as an Islamic cleric. He's a religious student who's well connected.

He's in Iran, getting an education. But he's not getting his money's worth. If he really wanted to get the bang for his buck, he'd be going to the Hawza in Najaf.

Those are my reasons for disagreeing with you. In our terms, he'd be the general's son who's a lieutenant. He's waaaaay low on the list.

 

... For those interested, check out that show ("Bad Voodoo's War") at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/
Outstanding work. It'll hit you pretty hard.

 

Sadr's family also has a long and rather brave history in the anti-Saddam underground, back when we were propping SH over there. You can quibble about what level of cleric he is -- and I think the fact that he offered to stand down if the clerics told him to do so, and then the clerics didn't, is an indication of his influence -- but the notion that he is some sort of second-level annoyance is dangerously wrong.