Al-Sadr, it should be noted, is alive and in the field because the appeasers in this country, beginning with the Democratic Party but extending into the Bush State Department, stymied the first battle of Fallujah when al-Sadr was trapped and could have been killed and his militia destroyed. The Bush administration had to delay the attack until after Kerrys defeat in the November 2004 elections in order to avoid the political complications that would have attended the battle in the midst of an election campaign.