I believe that ol-bean teeth was delt with correctly. He was allowed to live. He was allowed to make noise. He was allowed to keep some of his dignity. And by doing so he avoided having his followers slaughtered by the US.

We got what we wanted – Mahdi army disbanded. The Iraqi government got what they wanted – to show the population that they were in control. Looks like a win/win to me.

In a way the US needed ol-bean teeth. We could frame him in Iraqi eyes as a bad guy and we could squash him at our leisure if things got out of hand. Sadr was a “useful fool” that we leveraged to help reign in some of the wild-eyed clerics.