EVERY year, on the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad in 2003, the streets of Iraq fill with people baying for American troops to go. This year, the most virulent demands came from the Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, who said he would revive his Mahdi Army militias if American troops stayed on after the agreed deadline for their withdrawal at the end of this year. His militias killed thousands of Iraqis and Western soldiers in 2006 and 2007, the bloodiest years of the American occupation, so the prospect of their resurgence frightens Iraqis (especially Sunnis) and Westerners alike. Most of the militiamen are still armed and zealous but ill-trained; today's spruced-up Iraqi security forces could probably crush them. Still, whatever their military deficiencies, the Sadrists have grown into Iraq's most visible and disciplined social, political and religious movement. They have regained much of their power.
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