Today, I read some disheartening news. In that, "Cleric Sadr threatens 'open war' on Iraq government." I would like to address why I tend to support Sadr over Maliki in many of my posts. I've read numerous articles and reports, in both the foreign and American press, over the past five years we've been mired in Iraq. I'm often disappointed with the lack of true reporting from the American media, I'm always left with the distinct impression that they merely regurgitate the propaganda issued by Betrayus and Baghdad Bergner and their predecessors. Generally, the foreign press does a far better job of ferreting out the truth and talking to actual Iraqis to get the true consensus of what is occurring on the ground. It is out of that critical analysis of what is reported, I've leaned towards Sadr's side rather than our puppet Government established under Maliki.

First, I don't consider Sadr a saint by any stretch of the imagination, but, as I allude to in my title, I consider him to be the lesser of two evils...

Sadr's movement accuses other Shi'ite parties of getting their militias into the Iraqi security forces, especially in southern Shi'ite Iraq where various factions are competing for influence in a region home to most of Iraq's oil output.

Sadr launched two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004.

His movement then entered politics and backed Maliki's rise to power in 2006. But the youthful Sadr split with Maliki, a fellow Shi'ite, a year ago when the prime minister refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

"Do you want a third uprising?" Sadr said, adding that he wanted Iraq's Shi'ite clerical establishment to set a date for the departure of American troops.

Why is he concerned about the installation of SCIRI or Dawa militias in the Iraqi Army...ME Online

It is widely believed in Iraq that parties who call for unity are using the issue to get public support against federalism, seen to be supported by the US and Iranian backed parties such as the SIIC and Maliki's Dawa Party. Many in Iraq see federalism as the break-up of the country.

Division has broken out also within tribes; many have now come to back Sadr, not because they like him, but because they hate the Badr militia of Hakeem's SIIC and Maliki's Dawa party.

"Our problem in the southern parts of Iraq and other Shia dominated areas is that all options are bad," the chief of a major tribe in Basra who fled for Baghdad, told IPS on condition of anonymity. "Iranian controlled militias killed so many chiefs of tribes because they refused to support these division projects concealed under the flag of federalism."

Basically, Maliki is seen as a puppet of the Americans and his Badr Brigades have terrorized many Shi'a and Sunni communities in Basra and north to Baghdad.

Many Iraqis have come to believe that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is just as much a dictator as Saddam Hussein was.

"Al-Maliki is a dictator who must be removed by all means," 35-year-old Abdul-Riza Hussein, a Mehdi Army member from Sadr City in Baghdad told IPS. "He is a worse dictator than Saddam; he has killed in less than two years more than Saddam killed in 10 years."

Following the failed attempt by the US-backed al-Maliki to crack down on the Mehdi Army militia of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the situation in Iraq has become much worse. Iraq appears to be splintering more widely under this rule than under Saddam's.

Juan Cole presents a compelling case of what's going on...

My reading is that the US faced a dilemma in Iraq. It needed to have new provincial elections in an attempt to mollify the Sunni Arabs, especially in Sunni-majority provinces like Diyala, which has nevertheless been ruled by the Shiite Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. But if they have provincial elections, their chief ally, the Islamic Supreme Council, might well lose southern provinces to the Sadr Movement. In turn, the Sadrists are demanding a timetable for US withdrawal, whereas ISCI wants US troops to remain. So the setting of October, 2008, as the date for provincial elections provoked this crisis. I think Cheney probably told ISCI and Prime Minister al-Maliki that the way to fix this problem and forestall the Sadrists coming to power in Iraq, was to destroy the Mahdi Army, the Sadrists' paramilitary. Without that coercive power, the Sadrists might not remain so important, is probably their thinking. I believe them to be wrong, and suspect that if the elections are fair, the Sadrists will sweep to power and may even get a sympathy vote.

As Cole alludes to, Maliki is a tool of Darth's and advocates for a long term presence and the soft partitioning of Iraq... Which is not in the best interests of Iraq, nor our troops...