footloose in najaf

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so, a new kid comes to town, a city kid, teaches everybody how to dance. gets in trouble with the locals, who challenge him to a lethal game of chicken played under the crude conditions of that place. GWB = kevin bacon, al-sadr is john lithgow obviously. lori singer is halliburton and big oil money. Let's hear it for the boy!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 21 August 2004 00:26 (twenty-one years ago)

These things always have happy endings.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 21 August 2004 00:35 (twenty-one years ago)

So is Allawi the Chris Penn character?

― spittle (spittle), Saturday, 21 August 2004 02:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Chris Penn was in Footloose????

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 21 August 2004 21:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I guess my real question is, why are the Americans, and Allawi, so all-fired hell-bent on backing Sadr into a corner? There seems little doubt that Sadr is a political force to be reckoned with, especially in the Sadr City quarter of Baghdad, where his militia not only harrasses people for living irreligiously, but organizes garbage collection and blood drives. (Sadr City reminds me of another movie, Gangs of New York, where the fire departments all competed with each other over territory).

Why is it so important for the US to confront him this way? What would be lost if the Marines and Army units just gave up their seige and were like, "dude, have your shrine, whatever, we don't care." It's not like the people of Najaf give two shits about him anyway, other than to make sure he gets the hell out of there eventually.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Sunday, 22 August 2004 13:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Thread hijack alert.

The reason the USA is attacking Sadr is simple enough. He commands an army that is not under the control of the putative Iraqi government or of the US occupation forces, which amounts to the same thing. It is an axiom of politics that, in order to be effective, the government must have a monopoly on force.

So long as Sadr is "off the reservation", as the soldiers so quaintly put it, he must be a target until he is safely co-opted into the ruling gang or his forces are reduced to a nullity. Present policy is to impress him with the idea that he can't win a straight contest of force, so he's better off playing along with the American hegemony than opposing it.

― Aimless The Unlogged, Sunday, 22 August 2004 14:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Sistani has a militia too, there's like twenty million militias in Iraq. Why isn't the US going after them? Are they not popular enough?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Sunday, 22 August 2004 14:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Sistani is not preaching jihad against the occupiers, so he is, at present, self-neutered and judged likely to stay that way. Most of the sizeable militias are safely co-opted for now. Little militias aren't much of a threat and can be mopped up later. Sadr's militia is the biggest one that is both firing guns at the US troops and the US army is able to locate.

Much of the other active, violent opposition (the car-bombings, guerilla raids against Iraqi police stations, assassinations, random RPG attacks against patrols) has the US occupation force totally baffled and blinded. They're reduced to torturing cabbies for scraps of info and making random house-by-house searches. IOW, they're clueless how to come to grips with their enemy. Sadr, a least, they can draw a bead on.

― Aimless The Unlogged, Sunday, 22 August 2004 15:15 (twenty-one years ago)

So what happens when they make a road trip to the country bar in the next county?

― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 22 August 2004 16:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Nothing wrong with a little jihad between friends.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 23 August 2004 00:13 (twenty-one years ago)

"Meanwhile, Mr. Sadr is still resisting the government's demand that he disband his militia, called the Mahdi Army, and join the political process." - NY Times

Which political process is that, again? Is the New York Times using a definition of politics that's somehow distinct from street demonstrations, shows of force, and negotiations? Is it the process that saw Allawi appointed? The process that proposed to represent Shiites unequally in the Governing Council? What possible reason does Sadr have to believe anything the US or Allawi says? Given that the US has already said it wants him dead or alive? And now Allawi's talking about "olive branches" and ballot boxes?

I'm still working out how these details map onto Footloose, which is U&K

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 23 August 2004 01:45 (twenty-one years ago)

five years pass...

this movie is hilarious

― Guru Meditation (Ste), Wednesday, 30 June 2010 20:13 (fifteen years ago)

seriously, this movie is fucking hilarious

― Guru Meditation (Ste), Sunday, 4 July 2010 23:41 (fifteen years ago)

five years pass...

Chris Penn is absolutely amazing in this.

― Whoremonger (jed_), Sunday, 10 January 2016 23:56 (ten years ago)

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