I have increasingly less faith that the U.S. will take some sort of stance on Al-Sadr. I have even less faith that Maliki will. I don't know the political/strategic implications of "taking him on", so-to-speak or even establishing a stance against him or his army. I've seen the Mahdis in action and how quickly they can devastate an area and put fear into the people. Recently, I believe CF (mainly US) recently took out one of his top LTs, which of course caused a stir in the Shia community. We can never forget the "martyr factor"; knowing that anything offensive toward Sadr will just result in more support for him from the Shia followers. I don't think Iraq's government is willing or even capable of convincing many Shia that Sadr's actions are actually counterproductive to their daily existence. A Najaf-style fight in Sadr City I think is going to happen regardless. We just have to do it right and we HAVE to get the ISF involved, if not take the lead.