[Mike Darancette]

Last April, an Iranian cleric, Kadhem al-Husseini al-Haeri, issued a religious edict and distributed to Shiite mullahs in Iraq

I thought that Iran was Sunni Muslem.

[Criminal Number 18F]

I thought that Iran was Sunni Muslem.

Yikes! Mike, Iran is the foremost nation of the Shiite branch of the Islamic faith. What is interesting is that the Iranian (and Iraqi) Shiites are seen by the Wahhabi sect in particular and the Sunni branch in general as heretics.

It is possible that the Islamists of the Sunni Triangle, who are sponsored by the Saudi Wahhabis, will make common cause with the Shiites. Until the US is gone. They they will be at each other's throats.

Also, Iranians are Persians; they are not Arabs and the ethnic and racial difference will have an effect. Most Iraqis will not lightly accept a Persian yoke (mind you, if the Iranian ayatollahs hadn't purged the Shah's military they would have had to accept one in the 1980s). If it is made clear enough that certain clerics are working for Iran, not Iraq, it will undermine those clerics.

One thing to remember is that Muqtada al-Sadr is the representative (I was going to say buggeree-boy) of the Iranian Ayatollahs, but Muqty is NOT the major or most respected Shiite Ayatollah in Iraq. (That would be Sistani, whose position on all this unrest is not being reported).

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[F14 Pilot]

Iranians are not Arab and they are not Sunnis.

[dyed_in_the_wool]

Curiously enough, the majority of Muslims in Iraq are Shi'ite. Saddam was Sunni as is the core of heaviest resistance.

Remember, Iraq is not a pure, socialogical country. When the Brits divided up the Ottoman Empire after WWI (lookup Sykes-Picot) they were more interested in setting up weak proxy states.
Thus, there are Kurdish areas in Iraq, Iran and Turkey (the Brits who annexed Iraq, wanted those northern oil fields).
The French got Syria.
The rest got some form or another of self-rule.
Curiously enough, in establishing a Zionist homeland, the Brits took part of Jordan and allowed Jews to BUY the land from Palestinians. That's right, they PAID for their land.
The Palis never, ever, ever had a country.
Not once in history.
Crazy, huh?

[ought-six]

"I thought that Iran was Sunni Muslem."

No. Iran is overwhelmingly Shi'ite.