Greetings! Josh is still away and I’ll be back as your guest blogger this week.
This story about fighting between the US military and Muqtada al-Sadr’s forces is interesting. Such episodes seem to have been increasing in frequency and intensity over the past few weeks. But why? Over a year ago we made our peace with Sadr, he joined the political process, his party did well in the election, and its members are represented in the Maliki cabinet. Recently, however, words seems to have gone out that our troops should start targeting him again. But why?
And what kind of sense does it make to fight Mahdi Army militiamen on the one hand, and on the other hand have the leaders of the Sadr Movement sitting in parliament and in the cabinet?
