Much of what's going on in Iraq right now is driven by militias like Sadr's. Al Qaeda seems to be almost out of the picture now.

Sadr, who apparently gets about $80 million a month in funding from Iran, has been instructed to create maximum chaos in the Shiite community. He's doing a damn good job. Sadr's goons have also infiltrated the police forces.

John Podhoretz says, "Among the worst decisions in the course of the war in Iraq was allowing Moqtada al-Sadr to live." I have long agreed with this. The man should have been worm food after his first uprising, never mind the second a couple of years ago.

A lot more background on this here.

The several failures to deal with this man are a classic example of what happens when you try to fight half a war.