The Sadrist movement in Iraq has once again shown that it places the interests of the people above all else.
First, it rushed to announce the integration of the members of its military wing, the "Peace Brigades," into government forces - a commendable initiative. Those who had heard Moqtada al-Sadr, the movement's leader, speak earlier of integrating the brigades' members into government forces were caught between belief and disbelief; they preferred to wait and see whether Sadr's promise would be kept.
Only a few days later, news agencies aired footage of his militants celebrating their integration. The scene was striking for two reasons: first, because no one had expected the day would come when we would watch such an integration unfold before our eyes; second, because the militants themselves showed no discontent. They were smiling, as the photos show, and then lowered the movement's flag from atop its command headquarters in Samarra.
Because good things are contagious, just as bad things and diseases are, the "Imam Ali Brigades" soon followed and announced they would take the same path.
Others have yet to take this path. It seems the groups that ought to have taken the initiative and followed the example set by the Sadrist movement and the Imam Ali Brigades are still hesitating. That is why Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi found no alternative but to set a deadline for disarmament: September 30. After that, they will have to face the consequences.
The Sadrist movement's other demonstration of patriotism was the number of its supporters demonstrating in Najaf in support of al-Zaidi and his courageous stand against corruption. The man introduced his term with an anti-corruption campaign unlike anything Iraq has seen - note that he dispatched a security sweep into Baghdad's Green Zone at dawn, and it returned with 47 people accused of corruption on a boundless scale.
Corruption has exhausted Iraq, and it has weighed on Iraqis for a long time.
We follow reports of corruption in Iraq, but we cannot fathom how corruption grew like this, nor how it flourished to this extent. I am not speaking of casual remarks about corruption, nor of the talk of ordinary people. I am citing what was said, for example, by Munir Haddad, legal adviser to the head of government in Baghdad. Haddad said that the sums looted from public funds in Iraq since 2003 - that is, since the Americans toppled Saddam Hussein's regime - exceed two trillion dollars. "How dreadful!" as Youssef Bey Wahbi used to exclaim on stage.
Two trillion dollars means 2,000 billion dollars. It means the number 2 followed by 12 zeros. It means an unfathomable sum. It also means that Iraq's thieves, when they stole, left ordinary people nothing to live on.
Haddad said the looted public money exceeds such-and-such an amount, meaning the figure he cited is only an approximation and that "the real number is something else," as our brothers in the Levant say. Otherwise, what are we to make of the report that 148 billion dollars were lost somewhere in government offices, with no one knowing where the money went?
Were we to allow ourselves to list the announced figures, we would not finish going through this forest of numbers with terrifying implications anytime soon.
The most important thing about the scene of Sadrist militants taking to the streets in support of al-Zaidi is that it gives him popular legitimacy to press on with his anti-corruption drive. A prime minister cannot confront corruption alone - least of all corruption on so mythical a scale as Iraq's.
The Sadrist movement took the initiative and offered two steps that prove its commitment, not one. In both, it placed Iraq - a homeland for all its people - above everything else. All that is asked of the remaining groups is to follow the Sadrist movement's example and walk in its footsteps, for that path will carry Iraqis to where they ought to stand among nations, and to where a land like theirs deserves to stand: a land that has everything and lacks only sincere intentions.
