This is a good post by Steve Gilliard referencing Juan Cole on the subject of the Spanish refusal to accept the suicide mission to bring al Sadr in “dead or alive,” which was what the Bushie Americans asked them to do. Steve points out that the US military is acting as a de facto proxy force for the Shi`a clerics opposed to al Sadr, and how stupid it is to be in that position. Next up watch for the US to use SCIRI, which most Shi`a think of as Iranian tools, against al Sadr, unleashing a Shi`a-Shi`a civil war.