Abstract

LOOKOUT

The article discusses the conflict in Najaf, Iraq, between the United States armed forces and the Iraqi insurgency as of September 2004. Every day, U.S. bombs and tanks move closer to the sacred Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, reportedly damaging outer walls and sending shrapnel flying into the courtyard; every day, children are killed in their homes as U.S. soldiers inflict collective punishment on the holy city. When a foreign army invades a country about which it knows virtually nothing, there is plenty of deliberate brutality, but there is also the unintended barbarism of blind ignorance. It starts with cultural and religious slights: soldiers storming into a home without giving women a chance to cover their heads; army boots traipsing through mosques that have never been touched by the soles of shoes; a misunderstood hand signal at a checkpoint with deadly consequences. Najaf is not just another Iraqi city; it is the city of the dead, where the cemeteries go on forever, a place so sacred that every devout Shiite dreams of being buried there. And Muqtada al-Sadr and his followers are not just another group of generic terrorists out to kill Americans; their opposition to the occupation represents the overwhelmingly mainstream sentiment in Iraq. Before Sadr's supporters began their uprising, they made their demands for elections and an end to occupation through sermons, peaceful protests and newspaper articles. U.S. forces responded by shutting down their newspapers, firing on their demonstrations and bombing their neighborhoods.