BAGHDAD, March 24 — Followers of influential Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr launched a civil strike Monday to protest raids and mass arrests by Iraq’s security forces, underscoring the growing frustrations of Sadr’s group, which U.S. military officials say is playing a key role in keeping down violence in Iraq.

In some Baghdad neighborhoods, Sadrist leaders called on shopkeepers to shut their stores and for bus and taxi drivers to cease operations. Fadhil al-Bahadli, head of Sadr’s office in the al-Amil district in southwest Baghdad, said followers were planning demonstrations over the next three days.

“We want security and we want to release detainees,” said Qais al-Karbalaie, a spokesman for Sadr’s office in Baghdad’s Kadhimiyah enclave. “Our major reasons for this civil strike are the release of detainees and to stop random arrests.”

A cease-fire imposed by Sadr on his Mahdi Army militia is widely viewed as a major reason for the drop in violence across Iraq in recent months, along with a U.S. troop buildup and the rise of a Sunni movement that has turned against Islamist extremists. But in recent weeks, Iraqi security forces have clashed with Mahdi Army militiamen and conducted large raids and arrests of Sadr followers in southern Iraqi towns such as Kut and Diwaniyah. Sadrist leaders in Baghdad said that they were still obeying the cease-fire and that the demonstrations would be peaceful.

Washington Post

Letting this man live in the name of trying to fight a politically correct war may very well go down as one of Bush’s greatest blunders. Although, some would consider that honor to belong exclusively to the war itself.