It’s often lost on the extreme Left.  They’re dancing up and down because THE BUSH has apparently been upended by Muqtada al-Sadr, and more specifically, the Islamic Republic of Iran:

The backdrop to Sadr’s dramatic statement was a secret trip Friday by Iraqi lawmakers to Qom, Iran’s holy city and headquarters for the Iranian clergy who run the country.

There the Iraqi lawmakers held talks with Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Qods (Jerusalem) brigades of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and signed an agreement with Sadr, which formed the basis of his statement Sunday, members of parliament said.

Ali al Adeeb, a member of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s Dawa party, and Hadi al Ameri, the head of the Badr Organization, the military wing of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, had two aims, lawmakers said: to ask Sadr to stand down his militia and to ask Iranian officials to stop supplying weapons to Shiite militants in Iraq.

“The statement issued today by (Muqtada al Sadr) is a result of the meetings,” said Jalal al-Din al Saghir, a leading member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. “The government didn’t have any disagreement with the Sadrists when it went to the city of Basra. The Sadrist movement is the one that chose to face the government.”

I think there are two ways to spin this.  There’s nothing wrong, for example, with Iraqi officials attempting to foster a ceasefire with their immediate neighbors to the east.  They have to live there, and at face value the requests of both sides seem pretty reasonable. 

I’m more inclined, however, to look at Sadr’s statement as a declaration of prolonged warfare.  Call it the Nasrallah Model, or whatever you like.  This is Iran’s modus operandi, and we’ve seen it practiced and refined against Israel for decades.  Engage in conflict, make some demands, and then promise to stop fighting as long as your needs are met.  This isn’t peace, it’s extortion. 

Jules puts it more succinctly: “That makes Iraq, in the absence of American troops,  Iran’s bitch.”    

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