An antithesis is not an alternative

/iraq / dillemas / false /

Azmi Bishara's interesting take on recent developments in Iraq... Is Moqtada Al-Sadr the alternative to the American occupation of Iraq personified? No more than Kerry is to Bush, he writes... Excerpt:

"Would you want to live under a government ruled by Moqtada Al-Sadr? This question has been posed to baffle and embarrass democratically minded persons opposed to the US occupation of Iraq and the American project of global hegemony. Well, firstly, the answer is an unambiguous no. But, secondly, the question is not only rhetorical, it is also unambiguously demagogic. What is important about the Al-Sadr movement at present is that it casts into relief the nature of Iraqi social forces, especially among the Shia poor, as shaped by the occupation and its alliances in Iraqi society. In many senses, Moqtada Al-Sadr is a tragic inverse image of Iyad Allawi; he is the antithesis not the alternative."

And from the same issue of Al Ahram: In Najaf Nermeen Al-Mufti provides an eyewitness account of a holy city under siege...