It has the look of a double-whammy on two fronts (and maybe more):

(1) Nouri al-Maliki, intent on crushing his primary Shi'a adversary in Basra, declared war on militia "gangsters" and ordered them to lay down their arms, or else. He then proceeded to wage war only with the militia forces of Muqtada al-Sadr, ignoring the militia gangsters of his own party and of his number one ally in his battle to control the government. Even with US support, the Iraqi army was unable to dislodge al-Sadr from Basra, and the battle was actually starting to tip against him. Oops.

(2) The reason the battle started to tip against him, and the reason the Sadristas refused to lay down arms, is that 75% of the Iraqi population wants: (a) a strong central government (Maliki and his US promoters want a weak central government and strong regional governments); (b) public ownership of the oil fields and essential manufacturing and services (Maliki and his US promoters want privatization of oil ... especially ... and most other major industries); (c) an end to the American occupation of Iraq (Maliki and his US supporters, of course, do not want this).

(3)Muqtada al-Sadr is an Iraqi nationalist. He is not an Islamist theocrat, and though he looks more to Iran for support to his fellow Shi'as in the national government, he mistrusts Iranian intentions as much as he mistrusts American (and our allies, led by al-Maliki). Meanwhile, our champion, Nouri al-Maliki, is much more closely aligned to Iranian theocracy than Muqtada al-Sadr ever has been. Isn't it ironic?

(4) A cease-fire and a settlement to the stalemate in Basra was announced yesterday. Negotiations leading to the cease-fire were sponsored by an Iranian general, not American diplomats ... an Iranian general on our lists of terrorists and trouble-makers! Again, how ironic ... the same Iranians whom we claim have no interest in negotiated settlements and cannot be trusted to be invited to the table are the ones who negotiate this settlement. No one is naive enough to not think the Iranians got something in exchange ... but doesn't this also open your eyes to the continued deceits of our government?