Sadr and the Surge

I’m in a conspiracy mood and if you haven’t notice I really really hate Sadr so here is the latest on Brave Muqtada. Did Muqtada al Sadr Personally Hang Saddam?

When Saddam was executed on December 30th, were the onlookers cheering “Muqtada, Muqtada” because of their allegence to Muqtada al Sadr or were they cheering because one of the hangmen actually was Muqtada al Sadr?

Who really cares? Those were his men regardless and I do blame that square on Maliki. Things are changing in Iraq politically however and it looks like Muqtada will be marginalized even further. From Omar at Iraq the Model:

A new political bloc has emerged. It’s not a fourth bloc as Mohammed anticipated some time ago; it’s a union of, so far, two existing blocs. The core of the new movement is pretty much the same as what Mohammed expected, though. The Accord Front has announced it has joined the bloc led by former PM Ayad Allawi, forming what they refer to now as the “Iraqi National Front”. This new alliance has 69 seats in parliament and is likely to gain an additional 11 seats if the Dialogue Front of the nationalist Salih al-Mutlaq decides to join in, which is not unlikely.

The second development, which is far more significant than the first, just took place in the corridors of the United Iraqi Alliance, the main Shia bloc. This morning, in a frank challenge to ayatollah Sistani’s earlier call for preserving the UIA’s unity, the head of al-Fadheela party -which controls 15 of its 130 seats- declared independence from the Shia bloc and said his team now would act as an independent bloc within parliament.

Speaking of the reshuffle, it looks like about 10 ministers will be changed -mostly of civil services ministries- of which six are run by ministers from the Sadr movement.

Looks like the Surge has resulted in a bit of a Purge. Hoo Rah! The Democrats have been harping on the mantra that what we need in Iraq are political solutions not military solutions. Get a clue Pelosi, they go hand in hand. We’ve done much more than added a few thousand troops, hell I don’t think they’ve all arrived yet, but we have changed our approach as pertains to Mookie and Iran and that is going to make all the difference. It already has.