Down in Sadr City

Extraordinary film on Newsnight (direct link to the film to come) about the Sadrist political movement. As far as I can tell it was made under pretty close supervision of Sadr's deputy (a woman convert from Sunni Islam, apparently), but even so, gives a flavour of the combination of social services and violent insanity that characterises successful politics of the (broadly defined) Islamist kind. There is nothing which isn't the Americans' fault, apparently, unless it's the Israelis'. But it's also clear that the Sadrists are providing the ordinary inhabitants of that ghetto with something that nobody else can get organised to do, and it is true that Sadr himself is not currently advocating violence. I couldn't help but notice the interview with the coffin maker half way through, where he estimates that demand is about ten times its pre-invasion level; obviously Sadr City is most likely more violent than Iraq on average, but the order of magnitude is consistent. They also estimate 4 million IDPs in Iraq which is a hell of a lot.