Next few weeks in Iraq will be bloody.
The Sadr militias, if the plan works, are going to be backed against the wall, and they're going to be coming out shooting. The Iraqi forces selected for this push are not going to be sympathetic, and Malaki has washed his hands of it. U.S. forces are going to be part of the holding operations, and in the thick of it.
This is the battle that should have been finished for good after the first Sadr uprisings. Just shows that hoping a threat will "go away" just leads to more fighting in the future.