Iraqi elections: Sadrists stand out

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Monday, March 15, 2010 - 11:12 AM Share

Reidar Vissar says the Sadrists did particularly well in Baghdad, and implies that they will be playing a big role in the king-making coalition.

Khaldoon Zubeir/Getty Images

EXPLORE:NORTH AFRICA, IRAQ

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RBB

6:14 PM ET

March 15, 2010

Not necessarily a bad thing

No one with any experience in Iraq could welcome a powerful role for Moqtada Sadr (or more accurately his "handlers"), but from a stability perspective, it is preferable that they pursue their agenda through the political process rather than street riots, assassinations, and death squads -- which have been their modus operandi since 2004.

WALKING WOUNDED

6:19 PM ET

March 15, 2010

Politically, shiism is sadrist in Iraq

Politically, shiism is all sadrist all the time in Iraq, no?

Fadila, Dawa, Hakims by whatever moniker all claim the mantel. But the saints of the trend are the martyred uncle and father. Handicapping the survivor Muqtada is as much about who is standing behind him at a given moment, as it is about who the folks claiming to speak or act for him support. Opaque and shifting alliances, until a winner emerges, is what they do best.

The quietist Sistani's sine qua non of majority (shiite) rule determining what is fair is pretty scary for other confessions and ethnics, given the intra-sadrist fight for domination of politics, and the revolutionary shiite model next door.

JWING

7:43 PM ET

March 15, 2010

Not Quite

The Sadrists and Fadhila are the only ones that talk about being the successors to the original Sadr these days. The Supreme Council was created by Iran because Dawa wouldn't take their orders.

WALKING WOUNDED

1:45 AM ET

March 16, 2010

Sadiq Sadr seems to be a Shiite Jefferson, the orig. democrat

Old Hakim and al Khoei were also Dawa plank-holders, but were both assassinated in the early days of US occupation.

You can't swing a cat without running into a Sadr in 20th century Arab Shiism, but Uncle Sadiq seems to be the genius who scaffolded Twelver Islam to democratic rule thru the umma (people). As opposed to a dictatorship of the ulema (clerical judges), as in Iran.

It's the difference between a permanently lethal Khomeinist party vanguard of 'guardians', and a halil theory of representative secular democracy.

The brutally martyred Sadiq's brother Baqir had ayatollah creds, and did much to keep the flame alive. Baqir directed the surviving Najaf seminarians to steer clear of Dawa's assassinations and bombings. Muqtada's daddy did push back hard enough to be assassinated in turn, in 1998.

But when Saddam was being taunted and hung, it was the Martyr Sadiq's name that was thrown in his face.

Here's an interesting factoid; modern Shiite suicide bombing seems to begin with a successful 1981 Dawa-claimed attack, flattening Saddam's Beruit embassy, back when he was our strong right arm against Khomeini's revolution. A string of western-targeted bombings in Kuwait led to arrest of the semi-famous 16 Dawa leaders, who figured into the Reagan 'arms for hostages' Iran-gate scandal.