Once a Foe, US Now Hopes Iraqi Firebrand Shi’ite Cleric Becomes a Friend

The prospect of firebrand Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr wielding the greatest influence of any Iraqi leader over the formation of a government in Baghdad would have prompted panic in Washington years ago. In the wake of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and ouster of Saddam Hussein, al-Sadr’s Mahdi army butchered Sunni Muslims in Baghdad and resisted Coalition forces. In inflammatory sermons, Al-Sadr urged his followers to attack American soldiers and to throw out “foreign occupiers.” But...

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