This is not the first time al- Sadr has called for the end of the occupation and it won't be the last.

In fact it was he who sponsored the recent draft bill voted on in Parliament:

144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.

"Lawmakers demanding an end to the occupation now have the upper hand in the Iraqi legislature for the first time; previous attempts at a similar resolution fell just short of the 138 votes needed to pass (there are 275 members of the Iraqi parliament..."

Of course this is a non-binding resolution and although it can be forced to be brought to the floor there are ways for the PM to sidetack it. But still it represents 65% of the populations desire to see us leave. Which just might make Bush want to eat his words in the Rose Garden press conference on Thursday someday.

We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the polls to approve a constitution. It's their government's choice. If they were to say, leave, we would leave.

It is sounding like we won't have an invitation for long Chimpy.

Tough decision [To speak out]. As you said, both grandfathers served. My father served multiple times, career infantry officer. Myself, a West Point graduate, thirty-one years in the military. Decision was made in my quarters in Germany in the summer of 2005.

You see, we got this war terribly wrong. I'm not antiwar at all. I don't support MoveOn.org. That's the reason I joined Vote Vets. This is all about getting it right. This is all about recognizing that it's not about timelines and deadlines. It's more about recognizing that this administration got the national strategy so wrong in Iraq, wrong in March 2003, wrong today in May 2007. This administration failed to mobilize this country in any way, shape or form to complete the important task of defeating worldwide Islamic extremism, global terrorism.

...For a moment, I had doubts. Remember where I came from: West Point graduate, thirty-one years in the Army. We take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and to obey the orders of the President and the officers appointed over us when we're commissioned. That's the reason I chose to get out of the Army, before I started to speak out.

But any moment of doubt was quickly eclipsed with absolute certainty that I knew what I was doing, it was the right thing to do, and it is important to keep speaking out for our country, for our incredible military and their families, who are bearing the brunt of this war. The military is the only element of our national strategy that this administration is focused on. It seems to me they've all but forgotten about the diplomatic, political and economic hard work that needs to be done before the military is even committed and concurrently to accomplish what needs to be done. It's absolutely outrageous.

He may as well be working for the WH.

The cleric had left for Iran after the Bush administration announced its new security push in January, and his militia immediately went underground, in an apparent effort to outwait the Americans and avoid a head-on clash. Members of his political party, however, say he never left.

al-Sadr in Iran? Where did he get that info?

According to American officials familiar with intelligence reports, Mr. Sadr slipped into Iraq almost a week ago and was recently at Kufa, his home base near Najaf.

Oh, anonymous government officials. The same ones that told you about the Aluminum tubes, Mr. Gordon?

Despite his efforts to present himself as an Iraqi nationalist....

Recently, Mr. Sadr has been taking a different tack. His supporters have met with Sunni Arab tribal leaders from Anbar Province who have been feuding with the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.

American officials presume that Mr. Sadr, in returning to Iraq, has been assured by the Maliki government that he will not be detained. The United States appears to be taking a wait-and-see attitude, hoping that he will be more flexible in practice than his fiery speeches would suggest. While some American officials expect him to rally support for an American departure from Iraq, others say they hope he may seek some sort of accommodation.

Translation: will he also turn his back on the Iraqi people and ask the US to stay longer. Absurd.

Still, not even American officials privy to classified intelligence on Mr. Sadr's return pretend to be certain what he has in mind.....

.....One matter of speculation concerns how long Mr. Sadr intends to remain in Iraq. One theory is that he may make an appearance to impress his supporters, condemn the American occupation in a Friday sermon and then head back to Iran

More BS and innuendo. The only reason al-Sadr went into hiding was that the Americans have desperately been trying to assisinate him. His message has always been crystal clear so there should be no doubt what "he has on his mind".

US forces out of Iraq and Sunnis, Shia's and Kurds come to the table and reclaim their great country.  Simple as that.

"I say to our Sunni brothers in Iraq that we are brothers and the occupier divided us in order to weaken the Iraqi people," he said.

"In unity is strength, and in division weakness. We say to them, welcome at any time.

"I am ready to cooperate with them at all levels. This is my hand I stretch out to them - in so doing, I seek only God's satisfaction."