US air-strikes in Sadr City, and the political context of the War on Sadr

From Missing Links

"......So the political logic seems to be going like this: Sadr = Iran, therefore IAF (Iraqi Accord Front) links arms with Maliki. This isn't just another random move in the GreenZone musical-chairs routine. Rather, it represents a hoped-for accomplishment in the months-long US efforts to try and create in the GreenZone a government that would have a broader base than just Maliki and the Kurds, because the "Iraqi government" is going to have to sign a long-term security agreement with the US, and if the "Iraqi government" doesn't even have any Sunni Arab representation (not to mention the other missing parts), then the credibility and legitimacy of anything they sign with the US would be all the more questionable.

(This US effort to broaden the GreenZone government, under the rubric of "reconciliation", has been going on since the reported Dead Sea meetings and even before, but US secrecy and a general misunderstanding of what was going on, have made the process particularly hard to follow. Supposedly this has been a process of secret talks with the resistance, but probably it has been more of a series of probes to see who can be lured into the American-sponsored political process. In any event, the painting of Sadr as a clear and present Iranian danger in Iraq has perhaps done more than all of those talks put together, in getting Sunni groups to link arms with GreenZone administration)."