Al-Sadr controls five ministries and 30 members of parliament

Interestingly, this news came from the Wall Street Journal's Bartle Bull, who intended to write a column this morning about how the US has succeeded in bringing democracy to Iraq.  He cited the fact that Moqtada al-Sadr, instead of boycotting the government, is now working within the democratic system to gain power:

As for Mr. Sadr, I reported thefirst hints of his democratic conversion in 2004 when a member of histop political committee told me Mr. Sadr was going to start a politicalparty and contest the elections when they came. He still has not formedsuch a party, but as I saw up close when I later spent five weeks ofthe December 2005 election period embedded in Sadr City with his MahdiArmy, he embraced electoral politics with subtlety and enthusiasm.

Of course he did: He is the leaderof the country's biggest popular movement. Today, controlling fivemajor ministries and about 30 members of Parliament (one of the twolargest blocs in the government) he underwrites the pluralist projectin Iraq as he has done since late 2004.

But just because someone works within a democratic system doesn't make what they are doing more pure.  After all, it was Hitler that worked within the Weimar Republic to take power.  Once he got that power, he dissolved the democracy.  In other words, the Hitler example reminds us of how someone can use the democratic system with the intent of destroying it.

The columnist is missing the point if he thinks that al-Sadr has "converted" into a believer of democracy.  He only uses the existing system to gain power.  And what happens after that is anyone's guess.