I’ve been reading about the insurgency in Iraq with some interest. Despite the fact that I have a loved one there who I do not want to see harmed in any way, the rebel in me roots for the underdogs, these poor, proud third-worlders who lack kevlar and air support, fighting with Soviet era weaponry against the world’s most elite military. I don’t mean to minimize the significance of people dying, however in the abstract, from where I stand, there is something romantic and wild about it. It is the kind of thing that would make a good movie, and maybe in Iraq in ten years, there will be a movie about it.
I’ve been following the coverage closely, and I have been looking up a few things here and there wishing I could understand all languages, especially Arabic. One thing I was checking out, is the meaning of the word Mehdi, the name that Sadr’s Shiite militia goes by. Here is an excerpt of some interesting reading on the subject:
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The term “MEHDI” is a title meaning “Guided one”. The Mehdi is a normal man who is going to follow the true Islam. His name will be Muhammad and his father name will be Abdullah. He is a descendant from Ali and Fatima (daughter of the prophet Muhammad) so he will be descendant from al-Hasan or al-Hussain or both. The Mehdi will be very just and his capital will be Damascus. The Mehdi is NOT a prophet but he is the final Rightly Guided Khalifah. The Mehdi will lead Muslims to a great victory against the Sufyaani and the Romans. This great war or Armageddon. It will end up with a great victory to Muslims against Romans after six years. Muslims will take over their capital Rome (this can be any city). In the seventh year, the Dajjal (antichrist) will appear and a greater war will start between his followers and the believers for 40 days (longer that usual days) and will end when ‘Eessa (“Jesus”) will come, slay the Dajjal along with his followers. All remaining people will convert into Islam. Peace will pervade the whole world.
From that, it seems many Iraqis have a completely different view of the American occupation, and that if the US tries to overwhelm the insurgents and destroy them, they may end up undoing their coalition and contributing to more chaos.