President Sadr, Supreme Commander of Iraq

[fushigi]

Have a nice ring to it?

According to this article from Time's Charles Crain, that's what we can expect after the US ends its SURGE and pulls out. After all, he's already withdrawn from the parliament and isn't playing by the rules; nevertheless, he hasn't become politically/militarily active yet, and has sat by and watches as Sunni death squads blow up hundreds of Shi'ites a day.

According to Crain, he's just biding his time:

The major reason that the sectarian violence levels are down may be that the Shi'ite Mahdi Army, perpetrator of much of the worst sectarian killing, has decided for tactical reasons to lie low. Its leader, Moqtada al-Sadr, and his allies in Iraq's government appear to have decided that they're better off waiting out the U.S. surge rather than trying to fight it head-on. After all, they dominate several of Iraq's key ministries and many of its military and police units. If and when the Americans leave, they hope to be well positioned to pursue their goals both politically and militarily.

Furthermore, while the Sunnis may be living it up in sectarian violence for the time being, their hopes for a return to the bad old Saddam days is unlikely:

But the Sunni insurgency has neither a stake in the government nor a single, top-down leadership structure. And, while death squad violence against Sunnis has declined, there is no sign of a corresponding rise in Sunni participation in the political process. The national government and its ministries are still dominated by Shi'ites, who vastly outnumber Sunnis in the Iraqi security forces. For many Sunnis, the Baghdad security plan simply raises the specter of Shi'ite harassment, oppression and murder.