I personally would be willing to commit our forces to honoring the result of a fair referendum. And Al Sadr would lose politically big time if he decided to welsh on a result he didn't like.

If they boot us out, we can leave with a clear conscience and no one can blame us. Besides, if the people don't want us there, we have no business being there. Anything else is imperialsim. But if do they vote for us to stay and finish the job, I'm ready to change my position on the war and stay the course. We will have legitimacy and the people will have indicated they want us to stay. It would be betrayal for us to leave. I realize that this is the sort of question that is normally negotiated with governments, not decided by referendum, but in this case, world, MidEast and American opinion demands something more.

I remember proposing a referendum myself just a few months ago, but dismissing it because I didn't think conditions on the ground would allow for an orderly election. Now that Petraeus and the surge have been somewhat successful (no, that was not sarcasm, conditions are certainly more stable now than during the first election). We would be fools not to take Al Sadr up on his offer. We would win either way it turned out: either we could leave with dignity, or we could stay with honor.