Everyone knows about Ted Kennedy's despicable speech yesterday, in which he subverted the efforts of soldiers fighting for their lives (and ours) in Iraq by claiming that Iraq is President Bush's Vietnam.

Everyone, that is, including Muqtada al-Sadr, the insane mullah who has instigated attacks on American soldiers and others by his militia. Today al-Sadr responded to Kennedy's speech, releasing a statement which said in part:

I call upon the American people to stand beside their brethren, the Iraqi people, who are suffering an injustice by your rulers and the occupying army, to help them in the transfer of power to honest Iraqis. Otherwise, Iraq will be another Vietnam for America and the occupiers.

I'm sure Ted Kennedy will heed that call for solidarity--oops, sorry, he already has.

al-Sadr is wanted for the murder of another Iraqi cleric. Today John Kerry added his voice to the chorus of pro-mullah sentiment in the Democratic Party, saying that he thought it was a bad idea to arrest al-Sadr. Kerry first termed al-Sadr a "legitimate voice" of the Iraqi people, and then, realizing what a gaffe that was, caught himself and added:

Well, let me ... change the term 'legitimate.' It belongs to a voice — because he has clearly taken on a far more radical tone in recent days and aligned himself with both Hamas and Hezbollah, which is a sort of terrorist alignment.

If Kerry really believes that al-Sadr has only taken on a "radical tone" in "recent days," he is even less qualified to be President than I thought. But of course Kerry doesn't really believe anything he says; he just wants to win the election. He, Ted Kennedy and Muqtada al-Sadr are bound together by that common goal.

UPDATE: This is too easy to be much fun, but I spent two minutes on the internet, fact-checking Kerry's claim that al-Sadr was a "legitimate voice" until he took a "far more radical tone in recent days." Here is an example of what was known about al-Sadr during what Kerry considers his "legitimate" period:

August 21, 2003: The most visibly dangerous Shi'i political element at this time is the faction grouped around Muqtada al-Sadr, a radical but junior Shi'i cleric.... Muqtada has proposed alternatives to the Governing Council, [attempted to recruit] an "Islamic Army" and a militia to defend holy sites, and called for the withdrawal of occupation forces and an end to the CPA. His spiritual guide, Ayatollah Kadhim Husseini Haeri, is in Iran, where Muqtada has visited and reportedly made contact with Iranian officials, including Expediency Council chief Hashemi Rafsanjani and an official of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force. Muqtada has also contacted Sunni Islamist elements opposed to the coalition, and may be receiving monetary and other support from them.

There is a sense of latent violence attached to Muqtada and his faction. By all accounts his supporters were involved in the April 11, 2003, murder of Shaykh Abdel Majid al-Khoei, a moderate senior Shi'i cleric. His group is probably behind threats to Iraqis not observing Islamic law in Shi'i areas of Baghdad. Given the history of Shi'i resistance to authority in Iraq, it would be surprising if Muqtada is not preparing for clandestine armed resistance.

Posted by John at 02:40 PM  |    |  

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