Because this is how holy men talk.
In the Shiite holy city of Karbala, a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani urged anyone who can carry a weapon to volunteer for the security forces and help “defend the country, the citizens and the holy sites.”
I’m sorry that my country’s former government is largely responsible for the chaotic violence in Iraq, but I have so little patience for this kind of sectarian fighting. I struggle to tolerate the religious ravings of so many of my own countrymen, but they aren’t trying to kill me because I think they’re lunatics. At worst, they’re trying, mostly without success, to impose their views on me through political means. I don’t like it, but I can tolerate it.
For a Grand Ayatollah to call people to arms rather than offer to mediate for peace is very frustrating. Perhaps things are just desperate enough for the Shi’ites in Iraq that this call had to be made. But it strikes me as completely absurd in a Vonnegutesque way.
