Here is an interesting take on Sadr and his thugs from Rantingprofs.

A MISIMPRESSION CORRECTED
Newsweek's Baghdad Bureau Chief Rod Nordland was just on CNN's Newsnight, making the following argument: the upheaval caused by Sadr's forces looks worse than it is because he's been busing forces to various cities; they are in many cases not indigenous to the cities now seeing violence because of their presence. Certainly in some cities the militia forces are home grown, but in other places that simply isn't the case, but by busing them there it makes it look as if Shia from around Iraq support Sadr against the Coalition.


As he points out, Sadr has used this trick before to make the attendance at his sermons seem bigger than they are.