David E. Powell wrote:
They really should have gone after this guy about 2 years back when he
started the problems. Southern Iraq had been pretty quiet, and now this

right near the Iranian border. The General they have on CNN is right.
The Iraq gov't has made exuses for this guy and not gone after him. I
fthey're not willing to do something about an entire city on fire, it
will be a bad move on their part. This is going to be a big test for
the new gov't there.


The generals are politically inept as always. It would not have been
possible to go after him then, just like it's not possible now. He
always had a huge constituency among the Shiite masses, including in
2003 when he was powerful enough to openly challenge the then existing
religious hierarchy.

Right now, Al-Sadr is the best bet - probably the only one too - that
Iraqi Shiites have to form a viable state. Rather than the usual
wishful thinking maybe the same generals should start examining the
Iraqi internal situation in terms of balance of power; there are two
extremes operating over there, maybe they could cancel each other out.
A neutered Iraq would still be a strategic success.