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Article: In postwar Iraq, Shi'ites trying to assert some political power
- Article from:
- Jewish Telegraphic Agency
- Article date:
- April 29, 2003
- Author:
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Sedan, Gil
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
04-29-2003
JERUSALEM, April 28 (JTA) -- Twenty years ago in Lebanon, the Shi'ite
Muslims turned within a matter of weeks from a suppressed community into
the torchbearers of a national struggle.
Now it seems they may do the same in Iraq.
When Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982, the Shi'ites in the South
initially greeted the Israeli soldiers as liberators from PLO oppression.
However, once the Shi'ites realized that Israel planned to stay for a
while, they became the spearhead of Lebanese resistance, forming the
fundamentalist terrorist group Hezbollah as well as a secular militia,
Amal.
Iraq's Shi'ites have not even given America the benefit of doubt. Only a