Claudia Winkler writes about President Bush's commitments to Iraqi freedom. It looks to be a tricky thing to deliver when Mullahs and Ayatollahs can command fanatical crowds to rush our troops. They're counting on the p.r. value of video clips showing American soldiers firing on apparently unarmed crowds.

What worries me most is the attempts by Shi'ite clerics to seize political power. On one hand, Americans will be offended by such brazenness, but on the other, there will surely be arrests and more confrontations with such 'religious' leaders as we heard today. I'm sure that scenes of Americans taking on 'religious leaders' will sorely test our resolve, but I see no other choice if freedom is to emerge from this.


I've tried to bring the kind of warlord priest phenomenon in the Middle East into consonance with Islam as a religion of peace, but it's proving hard. It's interesting how Muslims will fight with other Muslims to the death, but when a non-Muslim third party is around, they all group together without seeming to have any regard for the difference between Sunni or Shi'ite.