How high-minded of Moqtada al-Sadr

National Review, Sept 1, 2008

How high-minded of Moqtada al-Sadr. After his forces were routed by American troops and the Iraqi army in Basra, Sadr City, and Amarah, he decided to disband his militia--or most of it--and make it a social-services organization. This is a declaration of surrender, and another blow against thuggery in Iraq.

Since the Iraqi army took control of the key southern port city of Basra from Sadr, according to the Wall Street Journal, mortar attacks have dropped by roughly 90 percent, and only one or two bodies a day have shown up in the morgue (as opposed to 30 beforehand). Sadr was the cat's-paw of Iran, where he fled as soon as the surge was announced in January 2007. His permanent diminution on the Iraqi scene would be a boon to the country's future.