"The cease-fire is over; we have been told to fight the Americans," said one Mahdi Army militiaman, who was reached by telephone in Sadr City. This same man, when interviewed in January, had stated that he was abiding by the cease-fire and that he was keeping busy running his cellular phone store.
The 7-month ceasefire with al-Sadr and his army is over. Will the American public be able to stomach another Fallujah?
This of course was always the problem with dumping guns into Iraq and cutting deals with people like Al-Sadr. At some point they were going to turn their attention back on the 140,000 American troops who are occupying their home land. This time they would be flush with cash and weapons that the American government has provided.
Violence always upticks in Iraq in the summer. Hold on tight.
Spencer Ackerman and Juan Cole have more and Yglesias makes a very salient point,
...a United States that wasn't determined to maintain a permanent presence in Iraq would have nothing in particular to fear from a populist nationalist like Sadr.
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