BAGHDAD — Wave after wave of Iraqi men stamped their feet and swung their hands high as they marched in time, dressed in the red, black and white of their nation’s flag. Each group of 100 goose-stepped, carrying a white placard that read “God is great” and gave their unit’s number.
It was the most organized and disciplined display of street power in the eight-year existence of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s grassroots movement, drawing by some estimates 100,000 people into Baghdad’s streets. Their message to their nation’s leaders: Stick to the plan and get American troops out of Iraq by year’s end.
Al-Sadr’s followers, many of whom had been members of his now-inactive Mahdi Army militia, came from Baghdad and cities across the south. They admitted proudly they had fought the U.S. military in the past and were awaiting the call from their leader to fight again.
Three years ago, al-Sadr’s militia was crushed by troops loyal to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Those troops slapped down the cleric’s movement when his followers had tried to virtually supplant the government in southern Iraq and Baghdad’s Sadr City.
