The Shia

As someone who has vivid memories of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, led by Shia clerics and students, I have found it difficult to forget the Hostage Crisis, Desert One, Khomeini and the theocracy that followed.

But I have watched the Shia of southern Iraq throughout the period from March '03 to today with great admiration. These people, who were brutally oppressed by the Baathists and who were abandoned (against our wishes, but abandoned nevertheless) in 1991 by the U.S. have stood firm and seen the wisdom of patience and faith.

Their leader, Ayatollah al-Sistani, has counseled these virtues and without his steadying presence, today's elections might have been a failed experiment. Worse, we could be in the middle of a bloody civil war in Iraq, with US troops even more in harm's way and our outstretched hand being chewed off by a violent mob. I predict here and now, that the Ayatollah will go down in both Iraqi and US history as the unsung savior of Iraq, with all due respect to the voices of moderation within Iraq, the champions of democracy and progress within the Bush administration and our knights-errant on the ground.

And so this unlikely salute to the Shia - with most, if not all, the 444 days forgiven.