It looks like the US is backing down on al Sadr and Najaf. it's not clear if there is any change in Fallujah.

Muqtada Agrees to Dissolve Militia, May go into temporary exile in Iran
by Juan Cole

az-Zaman reports that Muqtada al-Sadr has accepted a solution of the problems between him and the Coalition on the basis of a deal. It would provide for the senior ayatollahs to issue a ruling or fatwa dissolving the Army of the Mahdi, Muqtada's militia. Muqtada surrender to the grand ayatollahs and agree to have Abdul Karim al-Unzi (an official of the Da`wa Party) negotiate for him with the Americans, in the name of the top religious leaders. Muqtada would accept the outcome of those negotiations without condition. Iran would offer him temporary asylum, until June 30 and the formation of a sovereign Iraqi government, at which time he could report to Najaf for his trial. In return, the US would withdraw its forces from the environs of Najaf.

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Steve Gillard's take on this...

Sadr wins

Our friend Sadr gets to have his militia kill Americans, avoid arrest and according to the NY Times, may well get to live in Tehran for a month or two. The Iranians, eager to avoid the near-apocalyptic bloodbath which would come from an attack on Najaf, have tried to negotiate a settlement where Sadr escapes martyrdom and the US escapes engraging the Muslim world. This is, without question, a complete and total victory for Sadr and a humilating defeat for the US. Our big talk strategy has ended with US forces looking impotent and ineffective. US forces are effectively stalemated in Fallujah, taking casualities and unable to control the city. Now, after demanding Sadr surrender, not only will his militia be "disbanded", which is semantics for sent home with their guns, he'll be allowed to escape. He's been turned from a pest into a major player in Iraqi politics. His willingness to fight the Americans, force Sistani to defend him and serve as a voice for the poor, as well as having his militia kill Americans without sanction, has allowed him to win respect that he didn't have before. He may have been fading before two weeks ago, but now, no deal in Iraq can happen without him.

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April 15, 11:15 am EST.
by Rahul Mahajan

At the same time as their existence in Iraq provokes violence and as their brutal methods provoke violence, U.S. forces do nothing to provide security. Kidnappings of Iraqis for ransom are rife -- nobody ever investigates. Leading academics are being killed -- ditto. People are afraid to walk the streets after 9 or 10 -- nobody does anything about this. Women are far more constricted in getting around than they used to be. The list goes on and on. The U.S. military does nothing, absolutely nothing, about these security problems. Anyone who swallows any of this propaganda about "providing security" should spend one day talking to people in Iraq. I'm against the occupation for what I consider to be deep-lying structural reasons that would be valid even if it were conducted more humanely (I've written on this before, but I do have to collect all my scattered thoughts here and write about it again). But I have to say, from all of my experience interviewing Iraqis, one conclusion stands out clearly: had this occupation been carried out by British, Dutch, Bulgarians, Ukrainians, Spanish, everyone but the United States, the level of resentment would be far lower, as would the level of violence. It is the arrogance and brutality of the Americans here that is the primary grievance of Iraqis (and second is the negligence and the fact that nothing works).

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Rahul Mahajan has blogged about this but now has a separate piece up. A must read...

Report from Baghdad -- Winning Hearts and Minds

The mosque of Abu Hanifa, built around the tomb of the founder of the mainstream Hanafi school of Islamist jurisprudence, has stood for 1250 years in the Aadhamiya quarter of Baghdad. When Hulagu sacked Baghdad in 1257, he used it to stable his horses, but otherwise it has escaped indignities from the many invaders and foreign overlords to which Baghdad has been subject. It is the most important (though not the largest) Sunni mosque in Baghdad, and a site of pilgrimage for Muslims the world over.

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Helena Cobban points us to another Iraqi blog that is a must read...

Thursday, 15/4

Good morning... Silence in Baghdad means that its flaming out in other cities, my face is pale and my eyes look tierd, yesterday was a tough day, the accident near Azzam's car, and then a cousin of mine came to visit me in the shop, I was surprised and I cried when I saw him, and I remembered the days we spent together in our early childhood after his mother died and he came to live in my family's house, he lives in Germany since along time, and he is married to a German women, and he got the German citizenship too. Bosh and Sharon made a press conference in the evening; they buy and sell other people's countries and ignoring the struggle of Palestinian people that lasted for the last fifty years. The powerful evil always stand in front of the camera smiling, and forget that there is a god in the skies up there, who has rules and justice, that he implements it in his way, and defeats the stupid evil when he wants. "Let them play till they face the promised day" God says in Quran. * I checked my mail, and I found a long email from my friend who lives in Chicago, telling me about the American states, the details about their history, traditions and habits, it made me smile, I felt that I made a tour all over the states, north to south and east to west, and she attached an article that she took from a newspaper, talking about how the city of Indiana is torn about the war in Iraq, and that there is a hi-schools that is sinking in sadness, where they held the pictures of young people who graduated from that school, and were killed in Iraq this month, and about yellow ribbon people are hanging on trees to express their hope that their beloved ones will go back home safe, and about the memories their colleges have about them, playing football in the school field. At night, I went out to the garden in the darkness, the electricity was off, and the generator was on and making a loud noise, I sat on a chair and I though of those who die here everyday, Iraqi people, and about the Americans and others who died and the yellow ribbons wasn’t much useful for them, and they went home dead bodies, for what? I wondered, and I cried and grieved all the lives that we, Iraqi and American people, have lost, I cried a lot, and I felt angry with everyone who lied and made this war for his personal benefit, a bunch of criminals who have no mercy, who accomplish their evil dreams and destroy the whole world from far east to far west, while we, the rest of people, sink in our questions and sadness.

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