Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will consult senior religious leaders and disband his Mehdi Army militia if they instruct him to, a senior aide said on Monday.
The surprise announcement came on the day Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in a television interview, ordered the Mehdi Army to disband or Sadr's followers would be excluded from Iraqi political life.
It was the first time Sadr has offered to disband the Mehdi Army, whose black-masked fighters are principle actors in Iraq's five-year-old war and the main foes of U.S. and Iraqi forces in a recent upsurge in fighting.
Senior aide Hassan Zargani said Sadr would seek rulings from Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most senior Shi'ite cleric, as well as senior Shi'ite clergy based in Iran, on whether to dissolve the Mehdi Army, and would obey their orders.
I'm under no illusion that al-Sadr would actually do so, and even if he did, would it mean much. My gut feeling is that they won't order him to disband, so he can look like the "innocent" one in all of this.
When you have a militia going around and beheading and invoking fear into civilians, you aren't a "militia", you're a terrorist group.
And no one in the media is willing to call it like it is.
It's high time that the Iraqi government starts getting it's act together and getting rid of "armies" like this one. If they can't or won't, perhaps it's time for an Iraqi leader who can and will. Nothing is going to get resolved as long as you have people on the side of the street with RPG's standing around in a threatening manner. People need to feel safe to continue with their lives.
Travis
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