Tens of thousands of militiamen and supporters of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr marched in Baghdad Thursday in a dramatic show of strength, saying to both the U.S. and Iraqi governments: If American troops stay past Dec. 31, there will be violence.We need to stay to protect Iraq's democracy from thugs exactly like these and to defend Iraq's territorial integrity from the protesters' patrons, the Iranians.
"I am asking for the withdrawal of the occupation. I am ready to fight from this moment. I am ready to sacrifice. I am ready for death," said one of the marchers, 42-year-old Hussein Abu Lika.
I say we stay. And if that marcher is ready for death when we do? Give him that death he is ready for. And the rest of his Sadrist scum can go with him.
