Into Iraq’s uncertain political landscape

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U.S. troops in Shiite areas operate in uneasy proximity with supporters of the radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose cease-fire is credited with helping to stem violence in recent months but whose advisers have urged him to lift the ban. Most of Sadr's supporters are not directly involved in militia activities, commanders says, but tensions remain.


Into Iraq’s uncertain political landscape
By Michael Gisick, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, February 10, 2008

ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq — The first thing that catches Staff Sgt. Richard Hollingsworth’s eye as he walks into a living room along this sectarian fault line south of Baghdad is the face of Muqtada al-Sadr, bearded and black turbaned, staring out of a poster on the wall.

“That man and coalition forces do not get along,” the 29-year-old from Rome, Ga., tells the occupants, a shrouded, effusive middle-aged woman and a teenage girl remarkable, the soldiers agree, for her sass.

“He’s a bad person,” Hollingsworth concludes.

The girl laughs derisively at the suggestion that she, too, might be a bad person.

“It’s a poster,” she shrugs, dripping attitude as she ignores her mother’s orders to be quiet. Soon, whether she understands the words or not, several of the soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter will start calling her “a bitch.” And the face of Muqtada al-Sadr will not survive the encounter intact.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52342