Reply #4: Reminds me of an old video game. [View All]

[Kagemusha]

This old game was a Civilization-type game called Colonization. You'd see an Indian raider icon approaching one of your towns when relations were poor. Just before combat begins, you get a text pop-up: "Raid by Indian tribe. Local chieftain denies involvement." <begin Indian war cries>

That's the role Sadr's in. He gets to deny involvement while the militia continues to do the damage. How much real control he has is irrelevant because he benefits more from appearing to be out of control than appearing to be in control in this instance. The occupation is far from over so, he can worry about disciplining the nuttier elements once the Sadr movement runs out of external enemies (not likely anytime soon at all). In fact, in a completely ironic way, the US is sort of doing his dirty work for him by culling the nuttier elements who would be hard for him to control on his own to begin with, being a religious leader and not a military strongman. Persuasion is more useful than force in his line of work.

(Note that the portrayal of Native Americans in that instance was one side of a more complex whole - while in that game, Indians could be very useful allies if properly befriended, that one part in particular stood out as playing to the "two-faced chieftain" stereotype which is HARDLY unique to the Americas, but rather, a phenomenon known well among local political leaders of nations far and wide, civilized or little more than a collection of huts. A vivid image gets the point across for me here, that's all.)