If you think about it, the continuation of US military actions in Iraq will wind up helping Muqtada As-Sadr, even if he is eventually killed or captured. Not all Shi`ites support his movement, and articles about areas in Southern Iraq under his control point to a very extremist and sexist vision of the social/cultural realms. I saw some of his female supporters the other day dressed in Iranian style (very strict) chadors, that were not common in Iraq. And many middle class Shi`ites (even the ones who are believing and not necesarrily secular) do not share As-Sadr's political recipe (and my friend Abbas reported that some Shi`ites view As-Sadr's supporters as thuggish), but events could move too fast, and the movement could spread. I always feared before the war that fundamentalist rule(s) will become the eventual outcome of the Iraq war. Let us hope when the dust settles that we do not have Iraqi Taliban government.