Reply #12: There is no risk of a civil war while foreign troops are still there.

[bemildred]

There is an ongoing anti-colonial war to repel foreign invaders.

At present we seem to be doing an execellent job of uniting the
place against us, and al Sadr seems to be the primary beneficiary
of that.

I have to assume at this point - since we have failed to capture
or kill him - that we are not on top of that problem. I have
no doubt at all that that was the intent of this last little
fandango. We would be looking at gritty pictures of him getting
his teeth inspected just like Saddam if things had worked out.