Well, it seems Muqtada al-Sadr, head of the infamous Mahdi Army, is certainly acting like he wants to be the next Saddam:
BAGHDAD, Iraq — The Shiite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized total control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah on Friday in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by one of the country’s powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said.
The Mahdi Army fighters stormed three main police stations Friday morning, planting explosives that flattened the buildings, residents said.
About 800 black-clad militiamen with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers were patrolling city streets in commandeered police vehicles, eyewitnesses said. Other fighters had set up roadblocks on routes into the city and sound trucks circulated telling residents to stay indoors.
Fighting broke out in Amara on Thursday after the head of police intelligence in the surrounding province, a member of the rival Shiite Badr Brigade militia, was killed by a roadside bomb, prompting his family to kidnap the teenage brother of the local head of the a-Madhi Army.
So much for the vaunted power and authority of the Iraqi Government led by Prime Minister Maliki and supported (sort of) by President Bush. It seems Maliki’s authority terminates at the borders to the Green Zone. He can’t even stop what is essentially a fratricidal conflict between two Shi’ite political factions (and their well armed militias).
And I don’t have to remind anyone that al-Sadr has no love for America. Our troops have engaged his Mahdi Army on several occasions (remember Najaf?), and he has frequently called for an end to the American occupation of Iraq. Or that he has close ties with Iran, Target No. 2 in Bush’s Axis of Evil hit list. Or that he is likely the power behind many of the Shi’ite death squads roaming Iraq looking for Sunni victims to “cleanse” through the use of torture and murder.
Hey, but things were so much worse under Saddam, right? Right?