, Columnist
Sadr Couldn’t Master Iraq’s Democracy So Now He May Crush It
The Shiite leader ended the deadly rioting in the Green Zone, but his shortcomings as both a cleric and politician have culminated in disaster.
Political fury.
Photographer: Hussein Faleh/AFP/Getty Images
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After two nights of violence that left more than 20 dead in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, which houses most of Iraq’s government apparatus, the political system that emerged after the 2003 US invasion is on the edge of collapse.
It’s hardly the first crisis of this sort, but it is the most dangerous in many years: Iraq’s most potent political figure, the mercurial Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, finally appears willing to bring down a system he has failed to master.