Some wacky stuff is going on in Najaf though, and this whole 'pork' thing sounds like face saving to me.
First off, Ali Sistani (the moderate shiite cleric that holds a whole bunch of sway with the general population of iraq and who could trigger a massive and countrywide revolt overnight if so motivated) told the yanks to back off with the 'dead or alive' talk about al-Sadr and find a peaceful solution, or he'd start beating the war drums.
al-Sadr, who's also a cleric and gives sermons regularly decides NOT to do so on friday, which is really unusual for someone who's moral authority stems from being a 'pious individual', especially unusual considering there's supposed to be a cease-fire now in place.
Then, after going to Najaf to try to quell some of the violence there saturday, all 100 Iraqi police book it as fast as they came.
Now here's the wacky bit... The NYT has an article about a bunch of flyers that were printed up talking about how the iraqi police "tried to arrest al-Sadr, but because he and his followers resisted it drove the iraqi police to defend themselves."
I guess whoever printed up the flyers didn't get the memo that al-Sadr was still alive, and those cops bailed. Seems to me that the pork thing was just an excuse to get out of being the fall guys for a poorly arranged execution-by-proxy. Sadr probably got wind of it somehow and that's why he didn't show up on friday, and why the 'cease fire' has fallen through... the exploding cigar, it seems, has once again failed to get to castro.
The question is: was this just another example of bungling by the US who has, once again, failed to keep their puppets in line? Or was this a scheme cooked up by sistani to either a) eliminate al-Sadr, a fiery radical with a growing support base among the more militant shiites, or b) marginalize the US even more by tooling 'em into doing his dirty work and then looking like idiots when they ultimately fail?
Or is it really all just about the 'other white meat'? ;)
Link to NYT Article Here