So guys, in case you didn't know we are apparently occupying some sort of foreign country, in the Middle East or thereabouts. Today a story popped up on al-Jazeera that I couldn't make any sense of. So, if you helped vote in the Congress that continued this occupation, join me in figuring out what exactly is going on?
- Who is Muqtada al-Sadr?
- Who is Abdul Aziz al-Hakim?
- What did Sadr and Hakim disagree about today?
- Who took which position?
- By the way, what have Sadr and Hakim's buddies been doing recently?
- What sort of national government does the Iraq constitution call for?
- What sort of national government did the U.S. Congress recently call for?
- Who sponsored the U.S. Congress bill?
- What did Maliki think of the U.S. Congress bill?
- How long have the people of Iraq wanted U.S. forces to leave?
BONUS: If you wanted to know what happened in Iraq today, which American newspapers could you read?
- A prominent Shi'ite cleric who cut ties from the Shi'ite United Iraqi Alliance in September.
- The leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, a major Shi'ite political party and part of the United Iraqi Alliance.
- Whether Iraq should be broken up into independently operating Shi'ite, Sunni, and Kurd territories ("federalism").
- Hakim made the suggestion. Sadr rejected the suggestion. (source)
- They have been killing each other with insurgent militias (the Mahdi Army and Badr Organization). A Ramadan peace treaty was signed last week.
- Federalism.
- Federalism.
- Biden.
- He dismissed it, because Iraq is a sovereign nation and the United States has no authority over how it is governed. In summary: Sadr and Maliki anti-federalism, U.S. Congress, Crocker, and Hakim pro-federalism.
- Since at least 2004. (source)
BONUS
The AP and AFP dutifully wrote in wire reports about this story, but CNN, FOX News, and the NY Times all ignored it.
So, your options are: the LA Times and the Fort Worth Star Telegram.