Agreed. We really messed up not killing him when we had the chance in Najaf in May 2004. Instead we legitimized and empowered him.
That said, Sadr today is the hero of the Pepsi generation. Badr Corps is you dad's Coke. We had issues among our IA in both Tal Afar and Ramadi in 06-07 openly displaying Sadr photos and propaganda. We constantly were pulling the stuff down as not to inflame the locals.
Subjectively, I would say a large percentage of the junior IA soldiers (more than half) are Sadr sympathizers/followers.
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