Sadr Ministers to Quit

And now Sadr turns the screws on us:

Political followers of Moktada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric, said today that their six cabinet ministers would quit their posts in government in protest at the refusal of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to set a timetable for American troops to withdraw from Iraq.

At a press conference, legislators loyal to Mr. Sadr read from a statement that they said they had received from Mr. Sadr ordering the withdrawal from the cabinet.

Mr. Sadr has issued threats to pull out of the government several times before but has not carried through on them until now. The lawmakers said they would not replace the ministers with their own members but wanted Mr. Maliki to make new independent and technocratic appointments.

It is not immediately clear what the effect of the move could be. But the withdrawal could seriously undermine Mr. Maliki’s already shaky administration.

I'd like to remind those who think that "victory" in Iraq is purely a matter of will, that the Iraqis themselves might also have an opinion about the future of their country, and when we should leave.