He’s running for parliament in Iraq’s May 12 elections, but it was 10 years ago that Muntader al-Zaidi first entered public view with this spectacle:
Fortunately, former President George W. Bush’s ducking skills were up to the task. But while al-Zaidi was wrong to oppose Bush, whose courageous leadership in ordering the surge and associated policies gave Iraq a real chance for multisectarian political stability (until President Barack Obama of the U.S. and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq blew it), al-Zaidi isn’t so bad today.
That’s because al-Zaidi is running on Muqtada al-Sadr’s electoral list.
Yes, I recognize that some will see the name Muqtada al-Sadr and react with loathing or concern. After all, al-Sadr’s Mahdi militia fought repeated street battles with the U.S. military between 2003-2008, killing hundreds of U.S. service members.
But that was then. And today, though he’s no American friend, al-Sadr is a different entity to the Iranian puppet of old. In 2018, al-Sadr has successfully and somewhat credibly fashioned himself as an Iraqi Shia nationalist. His electoral coalition even includes support from secularists including the Iraq communist party!
Advancing a nationalist anti-corruption message, al-Sadr has drawn political support away from Iranian-directed groups like Haider al-Amiri‘s Fatah Alliance and heavily Iranian-influenced groups like that led by al-Maliki. And while al-Sadr’s bloc lacks the support to win dominant power, it is likely to win enough parliamentary seats to help a larger party (hopefully that of moderate Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi), win power.
If nothing else, al-Zaidi the shoe-thrower’s transformation to Sadrist politician, and Muqtada al-Sadr’s transformation from Iranian puppet to nationalist leader, shows that Iraq’s democracy is fragile, but alive and well.
Perhaps it’s just as unpredictable as our own.
