I will follow the orders of Muqtada al-Sadr but I prefer to fight
Muqtada al Sadr is following a clear-eyed strategy of not eliciting a violent confrontation. He has even agreed to the takeover by the government of his movement's offices in Basra, Baghdad and Amarah
All the Mahdi Army must listen to this and follow this new office, which will have the name al-Mumahidoon ... Because Sayeed Muqtada al-Sadr sees that the occupation force is starting to find a formula to pull out troops from Iraq, we are also thinking that our work must focus on guiding and enlightening the people to serve Iraqi society.
Shiite militias, notably the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr, have lost their power bases in Baghdad, Basra and other major cities. An important step was the routing of Shiite extremists in the Sadr City slums of eastern Baghdad this spring.
Muqtada al-Sadr is the most important and surprising figure to emerge in Iraq since the U.S. invasion ... He is the Messianic leader of the religious and political movement of the impoverished Shia underclass whose lives were ruined by a quarter century of war, repression and sanctions.
I call upon the Iraqi government again not to sign this agreement and I inform them I am ready to support it popularly and politically if they do not sign it