The Meaning of al Sadr’s Retreat in Iraq

By Con George-Kotzabasis

The slightly “growing strength” of al- Sadr before the Surge Yes but after the Surge No! It was the military campaign and its political concatenations under Petraeus-Crocker that changed the political configuration of Iraq and weakened al-Sadr’s position, especially after the defeat of the extremist elements in Basra and Sadr City by the Iraqi-American forces. His call to his supporters to stop fighting emanated from his realization that his armed militia was threatened with decimation.

It is al-Sadr that has shifted towards the new political process, almost made in the image of American strategy, and not the other way around. It’s ironic that the neocon skeleton of democracy in Iraq may still be able to put some flesh on itself, while “burning” the flesh of all its liberal critics and traducers for their “sin” of political callowness and malevolence. And Iraq has a great potential to start the ball of democracy rolling to the rest of the Middle East and hence consummating Bush’s doctrine.