Just some analysis on my part, but yesterday's meeting with Bush that Maliki skipped and the leaked memo suggest that the battle for Baghdad might be about to begin.
It would seem that Bush is sending a message to Maliki: don't align yourself with Sadr because we're going to take him out. Maliki is thinking the Americans are about to pull out and looking at Sadr's 40,000 troops and thinking he better side with the big local boy on the block (never mind that Sadr is VERY friendly with Iran these days). Therefore I would say that we're seeing the political battle prior to the physical battle for Baghdad. So the US would seem to have 2 options: 1.) To fight Iran we engage in a battle to the death with Sadr and his 40k troops, or 2.) We commit to staying in Iraq for a long time and hope the other 20+ factions fighting don't overwhelm us. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:221467 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
