There's really no rational way to discuss this as long as you consider anonymous rumors to be equivalent to every other news source. You don't normally get intense firefights from innocent civilians. Again, you are viewing this war through a soda straw. If you really want to know what's going on, instead of just trolling MSNBC to cherry-pick attack points, spread out a bit. And I'm not just talking DoD sources, either.

Taking out Sadr's goons is as essential as taking out al Qaeda and the Sunni insurgents, and all this is being done in parallel. Maliki has to complain--Sadr is still part of his power base--but the job still has to be done.

There has been progress in that area. Maybe it escaped you that the second bombing of that mosque did not restart the levels of sectarian violence the first bombing did. Did you wonder why?