Sadr considering cease fire

This is a major part of the Maliki plan iterated yesterday.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who heads a militia feared by Iraq's Sunnis, is considering a one-month unilateral cease-fire and may push his followers to rejoin the political process after a three-week boycott, officials close to him said.

Maliki's plan appears to be to get Sadr to go quiet until the US "surge" has begun. The idea seems to be to get the US pointed solely at the Sunnis, leaving a "quiet" Mahdi fully intact and available for future activities.

This ceasefire is in both Sadr and the broader Shia movement's interests as they're trying to cajole the US into doing their fighting in the civil war.

(If all the "surge" talk was just to generate this ceasefire, hats off, but I don't think that's the case.)

Also, the WaPo has an article on the Hakim/Sadr Shia split painting Hakim as a political creature, and Sadr drawing his support from the slums and streets. It also asks the question about the big gamble of the Hadley strategy.

They question whether Hakim can counter Sadr's growing street power without worsening the chaos. As President Bush ponders limited alternatives in forging a new approach in Iraq, some wonder whether the United States is overestimating Hakim's ability......

Hakim, he said, made a fatal mistake by meeting Bush. In today's Iraq, credibility and power are measured by opposition to the United States.