al-Sadr will live on.
And so the threat lives on.
At the point that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani crossed into Najaf and the forces of Free Iraq and the U.S. began to pull away from their battle to take the city back from Muqtada al-Sadr, this blog ceased to cover the issue. Primarily this was because it signified an unthinkable act to me.
By permitting Muqtada al-Sadr to remain a free man, as well as those who fought for him, the government of Free Iraq has made a serious mistake. My hope is that the U.S. in counseling Prime Minister Allawi, has advised him that he is at war with al-Sadr, and that the primary tactic of Sadrist in this war, terrorism, will not be deterred or removed from the list of options during the coming months of reorganization and political difference. Iraq needed to send a message to Islamist of all forms, Shi'a and Sunni, that such acts in defiance of the Liberty of Iraqi's would not be tolerated.
They have failed to send that message. I believe it will come back to haunt them, and my concern is that the American forces in Iraq will again be forced to advance on al-Sadr's forces and again we will lose men. Those we've already lost should have been respected more, and the way to do that would have been to remove al-Sadr and his forces from Najaf, Baghdad and elsewhere. Dead or alive.
Again, my hope is that I am wrong in my assessment of this threat.
