Patrick Cockburn is the author of Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq (Scribner).
An Iraqi government desperate for credibility could receive no better gift than Obama's exit plan.
To the humiliation of the US and Iraqi governments, the cleric's forces
have faced down the Iraqi Army and are in control of Basra and half of
Baghdad.


