Muqtada al-Sadr throws a fit

While hiding in Iran like a coward, Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the "Mehdi Army", ordered his six ministers to withdraw from the Iraqi government. BBC story here.


This is very good news, I think. What better way to remove this goon's influence from government than for him to do it voluntarily? It will end in similar fashion to the first rounds of voting in Iraq, when Sunni clerics advised their followers to boycott the vote. Of course, the Sunnis immediately complained that they weren't represented in the new government.

The lunatics are saving us the trouble of disenfranchising them -- they're actually willing to do it themselves.

Al-Sadr is no different than Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, another illegitimate Shia army trying to control a democratic government. Like Nasrallah, al-Sadr's strings are pulled by the nutjob Mullahs in Iran.

The best way to weaken al-Sadr (and Nasrallah), would be to conquer Iran. I'm all for that.

And, is it just me, or do I see a parallel to the early Roman Empire? Julius Caesar, the first dictator, seized control through arms, but also by taking away popular support for the senate. Senators in the Roman Republic were patrons of their districts -- they gave out bread to the poor and hosted sporting events, among other popular activities. We still use the phrase "bread and circuses" from that era. In exchange, the people voted for them.

Caesar didn't take Rome (the city) by force of arms, he did it by becoming a bigger patron than the senators. He gave away more bread.

Both al-Sadr and Nasrallah are losing control in the same way the old Roman senate lost control to Caesar (except that a democratically elected government is nothing like a dictorship). Both have armies at their disposal, but their "organizations" do much more than threaten with arms. They're patrons, providing assistance to the people via housing, schools, hospitals, etc. The patronage is the key to their power, and as a democratic government becomes the chief patron of the land, the people will shift their support.

Now al-Sadr has walked away from government. Remember what happened to senators who left the senate to oppose the new, centralized power in Rome.