Word: sadr
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...plainly hedging his bets, acceding to U.S. demands but at the same time cushioning Shi'ite militias from Coalition attack; he has even reportedly gone so far as to purge Iraqi military officers for being too aggressive in pursuing the Mahdi Army of his key ally, Moqtada al-Sadr...
...deals. Nor does there appear to be any plausible scenario for replacing al-Maliki. The days when a strongman regime might be able to contain Shi'ite aspirations are long gone: today's Iraqi army is predominantly Shi'ite, after all, and the Shi'ite street - answering to Sadr and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani - could make Iraq ungovernable by any regime that lacks their consent...
...victory will become prohibitive to Washington, as it already seems to have for the majority of the American public. But postponing that moment as long as possible has its advantages, allowing the Iraqi factions to build their own strength while trying to direct U.S. firepower against their foes. Even Sadr, keeping one foot in the government of Shi'ite power and the other on the streets denouncing the Americans, is demanding a timetable...
...regime, and that the manner in which the former dictator was executed last December was a deliberate provocation of the Sunnis. They say that al-Maliki has done little to dismantle Shi'ite militias such as the Mahdi Army, and suspect that he arranged for its leader, Moqtada Al-Sadr, to take refuge in Iran to escape arrest. Arab officials see the recent dismissal of some officers from the Iraqi armed forces as a purge orchestrated by al-Maliki because they were too aggressive in fighting the Mahdi Army...
...Sadr pointed out, barriers can be used against Shi'ite neighborhoods as easily as Sunni ones. The Americans have persistently, if sometimes obliquely, laid the blame for sectarian violence at Sadr's doorstep. If the Americans begin unilaterally throwing up walls across Baghdad, Sadr will have to fear that sooner or later those walls will start closing in on him and his militia...