Al-Sadr wants more public support. By reeling in his fighters and setting their focus on goals that will accomplish his desires he wins. If they continue to run amuck killing indiscriminately he loses his chance at gaining legitimate support for a possible future political move. To the Iraqi's he will now appear to be a leader of freedom fighters rather than thugs. This is nothing more than a power play on his part. He wants to show the people that he still has control over the Mehdi Army. He probably has no problem with how they have been acting of late but he needs to show that he can control the violence on his part.

Al-Sadr works for the US. Does anyone honestly believe that if we didn't want him in charge and alive that we wouldn't have taken him out already in some covert assassination.

Well, that's it. We win. Hooray! Time to pack up and go home.

Bush is desperate now. He's getting ready to sell his soul to the Shiites. He's going to lose Iraq and strengthen Iran by a factor of perhaps 10.

It could actually work. A way to get out without saying we lost. Al Sadr would be a great next door neighbor to Iran. He could smooth over things and get the region back to some semblance.

Maliki really did fail because he wouldn't stop the Shiites (his bretheren) from doing the death squad dance. I still can't figure out why Bush didn't just annihilate the Shiite militia and bring them to heel. Kill Sadr and enough of the rest to break them.

Who cares what Maliki wanted? Who cares if he cried? His boys are a major stumbling block to peace.

Al Sadr says he can control them. If they go off the leash he would have to be advised we are not going to tolerate it and will consider them "illegal" enemy comnbatants.

And throw some money at him as well. The lush seperation as it were.

I say install Al-Sadr into power and it will appease Iran so they don't orchestrate genocide on the Sunni's.

Really who gives a shit which sect the ruler is from. Why can't it be Al Sadr?

Call his bluff. Let's see how he reacts. If the Sunni's start getting slaughtered well we sure would know who to talk to wouldn't we?

Think about it. He would now be handcuffed by his power. He'd have to treat them right.

And then stop calling muslims terrorists.

This is where Maliki failed he let the Shia go ape shit with revenge which was a huge mistake.

Then let the terrorists go back to doing their thing. Just keep the cockpit door locked.

Wow! This is good news, maybe we have a chance to quell the violence in Iraq after all...

In no way does the US want war with Iran.

They merely want Iran to feel the hot breath.

We don't have to go to war with Iran for any reason. The Shiite militia's in Iraq aren't populated by Iranians.

Everyone knows we could blow them to hell whenever we want. Your acting as if Iran didn't exist all the Iraqi's would suddenly welcome us with open arms. Not true. They share an ideology of course. And before you can speak with any authority whatsoever about Iraq you must understand that point.

It is for just this reason that Iran doesn't really have to do anything here. Between the Sunni's & the Shia & Al Queda there's all kinds of pissed off muslims for the embattled Americans to deal with.

They measure out tragedy and death to innocent Iraqi's and our fine young men & women as easily as one turns a faucet on & off.

Al-Sadr is simply trying to avoid any responsibility for all of those thousands of Sunni's he been slaughtering like a madman for these last 4 years. He's worse than Saddam ever was already. Someone was blogging on this thread how we don't know what he would do.

What planet. What planet.

Your overlooking what Clinton, Durbin, and a host of Democrats are saying ....THE SURGE IS WORKING...

If Al-Sadr can pull this off he's a miracle worker. Shiites must be devastated and disgusted to see this kind of violence occurring among members of their own faith and to have it happen at a religious event makes it even more repugnant.

This is going to paint in very stark terms who is behind the attacks on Iraqis and coalition troops. The Sunnis are trying to cast themselves as oppressors who only want reconciliation which the Shiites and Kurds have denied them. When it becomes obvious they are the ones behind 90 percent of all the violence we'll see if world opinion puts enough pressure on them to put down their weapons and accept Iraq is now a democracy.

You might not like Al-Maliki but he is the leader of a democracy. And you might find the religious fervor of Shiites unsettling and I for one don't want a theocracy which persecutes others, but isn't religious freedom, the right to believe or not to believe, a cornerstone of democracy?

He needs to take it a step further and have all those members of the Madhi Army declare loyalty to the Iraqi government.

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Where is Osama??!!

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translation:

1.al-Sadr's forces getting their asses kicked. Al-Sadr asking for a truce so they can re-arm and recruit.

2.Al Sadr needs to kill off rivals for power within his troops before he takes U.S. on again.

Interesting development. Why would al-Sadr do this?

The "fog of war" with lies spin and a corrupt mass media, will prevent us from knowing the truth for a while.

Several possibilities exist:

He has been bought off by the US so any future Shiite attacks can be blamed on Iran....so we can bomb Iran.

He has been promised a much bigger role in Iraq if he stays out of the pending war with Iran.

He is working against America by taking his forces out of battle.....he sets the stage for a bloody organized large scale return to fighting in a month or two.

He is working against America by laying low, re-grouping and waiting until the US/Israel attacks Iran....then he will put 100% of his force against US interests in Iraq.

Whether or not he is doing this to help Iran, the US or himself, the "Muqtada" factor will not be known for a few more months.

In the mean time we do know that Bushco has not taken its eyes off the oil prize.
We know Cheney still has a hard-on for war with Iran.
We know that the Democratic leadership will talk about ending the Iraq criminal occupation and do nothing.
We know the Bush and Cheney should be impeached.
We know that with each passing day more dead innocent Iraqi civilians, more future "terrorists" are created, and more US soldiers get injured killed or gain more nightmares to add to their looming battle with PTSD.

We know that more death and chaos will create more wild cards like Al-Sadr.....and we will be left to guess at their motives, methods and potential, while US soldiers settle the score by killing or dying.

Seems like a good time to leave.

A Friedman Unit.

Al-Sadr says he is suspending military activities of his militia for six months.

Why should anyone believe him?