The Christian Science Monitor reports that the U.S. is “closing in on a deal” with Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the insurrection in at least three towns in southern Iraq. The coalition’s previous position has been that it wants to kill or capture Sadr. But now, according to the report, the plan is to co-opt him, by engaging him politically and perhaps even integrating his militia into the Iraqi national security forces.
Our sense has been that the correct approach to Sadr is to crush him militarily. Doing so would both send the correct signal and eliminate a force with huge potential to disrupt Iraq in the future. However, we understand both the need for flexible solutions based on the “facts on the ground” and our own lack of knowledge of these facts. One can imagine a set of facts under which it might make sense to attempt to co-opt Sadr. I just hope that our government, looking for a quick fix (at best) as the June 30 “handover” date approaches, is not imagining that set of facts.
-
-
Most Read on Power Line
Donate to PL
-
Our Favorites
- American Greatness
- American Mind
- American Story
- American Thinker
- Aspen beat
- Babylon Bee
- Belmont Club
- Churchill Project
- Claremont Institute
- Daily Torch
- Federalist
- Gatestone Institute
- Hollywood in Toto
- Hoover Institution
- Hot Air
- Hugh Hewitt
- InstaPundit
- Jewish World Review
- Law & Liberty
- Legal Insurrection
- Liberty Daily
- Lileks
- Lucianne
- Michael Ramirez Cartoons
- Michelle Malkin
- Pipeline
- RealClearPolitics
- Ricochet
- Steyn Online
- Tim Blair
Media
Subscribe to Power Line by Email
Temporarily disabled
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.