August 27, 2004, Salaam Alechim
A happy Friday (Islam's Holy Day of the week); relative calm now in Najaf, as, Allah be praised, Grand Aytollah Sistani has negotiated an end to a 22 fiasco that has cost hundreds of lives. The standoff revealed what people like, oh, m'self... were trying to tell the geniuses in the Pentagon well over a year ago: know who the players are. Grand Ayatollah Sistani is a super-heavy-weight champion. Moqtada al-Sadr is a bantam-weight stret thug, who we have elevated in class to the heavyweight ranks. Messrs. Allawi and Chalabi before him... hard to say.
Well, finally, in the battle of who could show power-- Sistani, our military, or the Iraqi governmental fraud, it seems that Sistani was the man. Fascinating. We have dissed him at every turn, ignoring his sage advice to hold early elections.
Next question: he's not in the greatest of health (joining the pope in that...) let's hope Sistani hangs around a while...