I’m sick of hearing about this “holy city of Najaf” and its “sacred shrine.”

Why aren’t the world’s 60 million (?) Shi-ites in a state of fuming outrage

that this supposed holy of holies is occupied by a gang of armed thugs led

by a bogus un-credentialed pseudo-cleric with a political agenda? I know

how *I* would feel if Canterbury Cathedral were so occupied.

Why don’t a few ten thousand of the world’s pious Shi’ites march unarmed on

this “holy city” demanding that Muqtada al Sadr get the heck out of there?

Sure, they might get killed — but aren’t they supposed to embrace

martyrdom? What better death for a Shi’ite than while defending the holy

shrine?

The truth is, of course, that poking a finger in the infidel’s eye trumps

any amount of holiness in any number of shrines. Far from being outraged by

the spectacle of their holy places being desecrated by gangsters, the

world’s Shi’ites are chuckling with glee at the sight of one of their own,

however uncredentialed, making a monkey of Uncle Sam.