This is a subtle game of theocratic chess. Here are some questions I have:

Did Sistani really leave Iraq because he had heart trouble or was he drawing al Sadr into a trap?

Did al Sadr really have the Iman Ali Mosque rigged with explosives? Was blowing up the mosque to trigger a Shiite uprising, the key point of the Sadr / Iranian master strategy?

Now that Sadr has clearly failed his Iranian masters, what is their next step?

Will Allawi or Sistani attempt some sort of payback against al Sadr or will they simply treat him as a spent force?

Sadr called his band of criminals the "al Mahdi army". The word "Mahdi" roughly translates into "Messiah". Shia mythology has a tradition that a 12th Iman will appear as a Mahdi who will lead Shiism into being the world dominant religion. The Ayatolla Khomeni played upon that same myth when he overthrew the Shah of Iran. I suspect Sadr was also pushing this same button (yeah, these people are that gullible). Sadr's failure before Sistani and the American infidels may have punctured that particular balloon. I suspect that al Sadr left alive as a failed messiah causes more harm to his cause than him dead as a martyr.

Gary