Moqtada Al-Sadr, the Iraqi cleric, and leader of the Mehdi Army resistance to U.S. occupation of Iraq today called for weekly demonstrations against the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The call for demonstrations comes just as U.S. and Iraqi leadership are holding negotiations regarding a long term security deal for U.S. troops to remain in Iraq on a long term basis. Al-Sadr believes that the Iraqi people should be given a tangible say in U.S. military presence.

The recent violence in Beirut erupted when U.S. backed government supporters clashed with Hezbollah as they continued a long term demonstration near Lebanese government headquarters.. Hassan Nasrallah was attempting to be heard through civil disobedience but instead had his resistance movement crippled by the Lebanese government declaring his telecommunications network illegal. This move rendered the Hezbollah resistance movement less able to defend itself against an Israeli military strike; therefore Nasrallah regarded the Lebanese governments move as an act of war and retaliated.

The protests in the Middle East differ largely from what is seen in the streets of the Western world. Peaceful protests are seen as a way to diversify the resistance to U.S. and U.S. backed forces. The messages of the protests are often lost in the Western press, largely because they take place in chaotic places at chaotic times, surrounded chronologically by bloodshed.

Palestinian civil disobedience in the West Bank in solidarity with the people in the Gaza Strip who lived through the recent bombing campaign carried out by Israeli forces in retaliation to rockets launched into Israel was obviously ignored, simply because it does not fit in with the narrative.

Well what is the problem with the rising tide of civil disobedience in the Middle East; quite simply it does not fit in with the American agenda of empire building and therefore will be crushed…stay tuned.

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