Where is SCIRI in all this? Surely they can’t be sitting passively by as SADR cozies with the Iranians, picks off the Shia minor leaguers like Al Fadhil, and threatens to unravel SCIRI positions built up over the last 4 years? Are we likely, for example, to see the Badr army, separately from Coalition and IA, attacking the Sadr army in the South? Might not Sadr embroilment in the South see SCIRI, the remaining Shia major player, benefit from the Baghdad Security Plan in central Iraq, and capitalize on the opportunities for coalition politics which arise with the Kurds and the emerging Sunni alliance? Decimating Mehdi troops in battles in the South, away from Sadr city, allowing for further consolidating Iraqi government gains in Baghdad and in the Sunni areas, may actually benefit the good guys, as well as fitting Iranian “kingmaker” goals in the South. SCIRI must be doing something, no?
