Hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims have converged on the Iraqi holy city of Karbala. They’re demanding that U.S. troops get out of Iraq. The numbers could surpass 1 million this week as the pilgrimage reaches its climax. According to a front-page report in today’s Washington Post, Bush administration officials say they underestimated the organizational strength of the Shiites. They’re concerned they could establish a fundamentalist Islamic, anti-American government in Iraq, and are unprepared to prevent it. A meeting of generals and admirals at the Pentagon on Monday turned into a spontaneous teach-in on Iraq Shiites and the U.S. strategy for containing Islamic fundamentalism in Iraq. One of the main strategic goals of the U.S. since the Iranian Revolution in 1979 has been to contain radical Shiite fundamentalism. In the '80s, the U.S. backed Saddam Hussein as a bulwark against Iran, but now the U.S. has toppled Saddam's government. U.S. officials told The Washington Post that as the administration plotted to overthrow the Iraqi government, too little attention was paid to the dynamics of religion and the politics in the region.

This comes as U.S. officials told The New York Times that Iranian-trained agents have crossed into southern Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein and are working in the cities of Najaf, Karbala and Basra to promote friendly Shiite clerics and advance Iranian interests. Meanwhile, U.S. troops detained and later released a senior Shiite Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Modarresi, leader of an Iraqi exile group, after he crossed the border from Iran to attend the pilgrimage in Karbala.

And in Baghdad, hundreds of Shiites yesterday staged demonstrations outside the Palestine Hotel for the second straight day. They demanded the release of Baghdad’s leading Shiite cleric, Sheikh Mohammed al-Fartusi, who they said had been arrested by U.S. forces. One of al-Fartusi’s students who organized the protest told The Wall Street Journal, “Saddam was talking about freedom while killing us. The Americans are also talking about freedom, but they’re beginning to behave like Saddam.” Within hours, it was reported that the cleric had been released from custody, although U.S. officials never confirmed he was initially detained.