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Leading Shiite Cleric Denounces U.S. Presence in Iraq
By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, April 23, 2003; 5:36 PM

KARBALA, Iraq, April 23--At the close of commemorations that brought hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims to this holy city in a show of resurgent power, an influential Shiite leader denounced the U.S. occupation as unacceptable today and urged U.S. officials to turn over administration of Iraq to "a national and independent government."

The statements by Abdul Aziz Hakim, one of an array of clergy vying for power among Shiites in Iraq, was another sign of growing unease among Iraq's 60 percent Shiite majority over U.S. intentions. Expressions of hostility from Iraqi Shiites, which became more pronounced in Karbala today, have led some U.S. officials to voice worry that the Islamic government in neighboring Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, may be seeking to influence attitudes in Iraq's unsettled postwar landscape.

"The American presence is unacceptable and there's no justification for it staying in Iraq," said Hakim, the deputy leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and a brother of its Tehran-based leader, Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir Hakim.

Jay M. Garner, the retired general assigned by the Pentagon to oversee Iraq's reconstruction, "is not needed here," he said at a news conference in a converted hotel for pilgrims. "Iraqis have the ability to administer and run their own country."

You know, if I were to be feeling malicious, I'd ask the Bush administration why they don't respect the Iraqis' wishes and get the hell out. Hey, why not? This way it lets the coalition off the hook for spending money on rebuilding what they wrecked. $20-$30 billion a year over the next 5 years is a lot of simoleons, my friends. After all, the purpose of invading Iraq and laying waste to everything was to get rid of Saddam and those pesky WMDs, and not to make Iraq open to trade again and its oil industry safe for exploitation by US companies (*cough* Bechtel *cough*), right? Right? And if that was a mere happy side effect, surely profit should not take precedence over the democratic rights of a sovereign people, right? Right?

Like I said, if I were feeling malicious...