Quote Originally Posted by Granite_State View Post
Obviously Sadr is not a good guy, but from what I understand he is far more of an Iraqi nationalist than most of the Shiite parties, like SCIRI (forget their new name), which are closer to Iran.

Of course, if we had a real deal with Iran, that wouldn't be as big a plus. Surprised no one has mentioned Lind's talk of rapprochement, that seemed to me to be the boldest thing in the article.
Al-Sadr as an alternative? Really? Thats a new level of insanity I hadn't considered before. Al-Sadr is setting himself and the MM as the new Hizballah/Hamas of Iraq. He has spent the last year separating the MM from the government and playing tight with Iran. Iran is playing bth SCIRI and the MM but a well tuned and compliant proxy force in Iraq that ignores the central government and empowered with hard killing advanced weapons like EFPs is in their interest and has already yielded long term resuslts in Lebanon. Hala Jaber's Hezbollah-Born with a Vengence (1st Edition) really captures this strategy of enter, ignore, supply Charity, build trust then build an army.. the MM have it sort of backwards but they did stand up to the US army three years ago and that bought a measure of respect. Enough respect to be a deal-maker or breaker to PM Maliki. He is intending to go on his own with the IRGC supporting him, but will the Badr and SCIRI allow it ... MAS is not someone we should bank on.