Saturday, March 29, 2008

Did you see Muqtada As-Sadr on AlJazeera after two years of absence from the media? He is very changed, in appearance and in personality. As if he underwent a PR course. He never used to smile in interviews: in fact, he used to scold and sneer at journalists. In today's interview: he did not stop smiling, and he seemed so far more articulate. He used to insert the expression "if the expression is correct" (Idha Sahha At-Ta`bir) in every sentence, and he rarely used it today. He also said that he loves Sunnis: you would believe him if his sectarian militia has not been killing Sunnis. He is at once critical of Iran, and supportive of Iran: but he criticizes Iran more than say, the Sadr militia and the Da`wah militias in power. Yet, only As-Sadr is described as "pro-Iranian" in the US media but not the sectarian militias of Badr and Da`warh. Also, what happened to Da`wah's past experience of car bombing? Are they still using that method against their enemies in Iraq? But I must confess that I was surprised to see how much he has worked on himself, or how much somebody has been working on him--at least in matters of PR and public speaking. The man was pretty lousy. He predicted that Iraqi municipal puppet elections will not take place. And do you notice that Iraqi puppet elections are always planned very close to US elections? Was that timing intended as a boost of McCain to show the easily impressionable US public (on matters of foreign affairs) that there is a political process in Iraq, and that democracy is flourishing?