Sticking your head in the sand

Telegraph reported I no longer have power to save Iraq from civil war, warns Shia leader. By Gethin Chamberlain and Aqeel Hussein in Baghdad

Hmmm, wasn't it Chamberlain that led Britain into appeasing Hitler to the point that he almost took over Europe?

The most influential moderate Shia leader in Iraq has abandoned attempts to restrain his followers, admitting that there is nothing he can do to prevent the country sliding towards civil war.

But there is something he can do. Call Muktada Al Sader in to see him, and slit his throat, then behead him and display his head on a pike outside your mosque.

Aides say Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is angry and disappointed that Shias are ignoring his calls for calm and are switching their allegiance in their thousands to more militant groups which promise protection from Sunni violence and revenge for attacks.

Well I see from this that a coalition of 300 Iraqi tribal leaders on Saturday demanded the release of Saddam Hussein so he could reclaim the presidency. And the Democrats are screaming at Bush to withdraw our forces. How would Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani like it if we freed Saddam, and pulled our forces out. Would he hope that Muktada Al Sader's Iranian supported forces prevailed, turning the country over to Iran, or would he prefer that Saddam prevailed, and turned the Shia back into second class citizens. I wonder if he would wish that he had pressed a little harder for an Iraq in which the Shia were free to practice their religion, but not as it was interpreted in Iran.