Shiite Clerics' Rivalry Deepens In Fragile Iraq

    Sudarsan Raghavan writes in The Washington Post:

“In the quest to create a new Iraq, two powerful clerics compete for domination, one from within the government, the other from its shadows.”

“Both wear the black turban signifying their descent from the
prophet Muhammad. They have fought each other since the days their
fathers vied to lead Iraq’s majority Shiites. They hold no official
positions, but their parties each control 30 seats in the parliament. And they both lead militias that are widely alleged to run death squads.”

“But in the view of the Bush administration, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim is a moderate and Moqtada al-Sadr is an extremist.“

The Bush administration’s  assessment of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim is
wrong. In my opinion , he is an unethical opportunist . He is only
using  Americans to carry out his hidden agenda.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim is is pushing for a separate Shiite region in the south.
Moqtada al-Sadr is the hurdle in his way . He is inciting Americans to
eliminate him and crush his militia, so he can achieve his gaol.
Despite all his frailties, Moqtada al-Sadr, is a nationalist. He wants
to keep the country unified.

It is interesting to note
that U.S. appointed him as President of Iraqi Governing Council in
December 2003. Despite his unforgivable of acts of treachery in the
Iraq war.

At a press conference back in March 2003, Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld dismissed Hakim’s Badr fighters as “unhelpful,” and declared
that the militiamen be “treated as combatants.”

It was Abdul Aziz al-Hakim,
who  unleashed death squads against former members of the Baath Party,
Sunni political opponents,scientists, academics, women’s rights
advocates and critical journalists using his influence on Shiite
dominated army. This campaign of terror has been carried with the tacit
approval of the US as one of the means for intimidating and silencing
opponents of the occupation.

It is sad to observe that Bush Administration did not try and glean crucial lessons from the three-plus
years
of the US experience in Iraq.  They  took wrong policital steps  in
2003-04, which provoked the Sunni insurgency.  These wrong  policies
helped fuel sectarian violence in 2005-06.

They will commit another blunder if they allow Abdul Aziz al-Hakim ti maneuver the polictical situations.

It should noted that Shiites see the Mahdi Army, not the Badr
Organization, as his main source of protection. Moqtada al-Sadr 
remained in Iraq during the repression. Sadr regularly rails against
the dangers of Iranian influence in Iraq. His crime is that demands for
U.S. troops to leave the country.

While Abdul Aziz al-Hakim spent years in exile in Iran.The Badr
Corps is trained, equipped and directed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary
Guard.He is  a political incendiary and a threat to Iraq.