Muqtada's Return to Najaf

Muqtada al-Sadr's return to Iraq after years of exile in Iran has strengthened the hand of Prime Minister Maliki and of the Shi‘ite parties, and with Muqtada's visit to his old power base in Najaf today he seems to be sending a message of "I'm back, and I'm back in the game." The clips I've seen of his return suggest he is totally surrounded by bodyguards, buy when your father, two brothers, and father-in-law were all either assassinated or executed, I guess that's to be expected.

Since just a few years ago Muqtada and his Mahdi Army were seen by the US occupation as hostile elements, I think it's a clear sign of the US disengagement in Iraq that he's back, and is a major pillar of Maliki's coalition.

A Few Items Worthy of Attention

I'm working on some posts of my own but thought I'd offer a couple of links in the meantime:

• An interesting collection of observations on Pakistan over at National Journal. I tend not to post on Pakisitan because a) I don't know much about it and b) we have two real Pakistan experts here at MEI, former Ambassador to Pakistan Wendy Chamberlin and Marvin Weinbaum. But given the current campaign and all the alarm about the Taliban being close to Islamabad, I think the observations collected by National Journal are a good offsetting balance. I particularly think Paul Pillar's are worthy of note. There's cause for concern but let's not write the obituary for Pakistan yet.
• Why did Muqtada al-Sadr go to Turkey? Marc Lynch reflected on it yesterday without reaching a firm conclusion, but it's obviously a sign that Sadr's extended absence from the Iraqi scene may be coming to an end as the US presence starts to wind down.

More to come in a little while.