battle in Najaf - 2004 — US was afraid of Shia backlash - even though he ordered his Militia to attack our compound there...we didn’t follow through...
The Mahdi Army didn’t even exist until June 2003 - he had relatively few followers and there had been plans to get rid of him. Then, as he started to gain more followers, some U.S. advisers (fools) said killing him would make him a martyr, so we didn’t.