Ping
Sadr city has been a headache since the initial invasion. In 2003, the guidance was to not go into (then) Saddam City unless you were more heavily armed than normal and had a very good reason. Does anyone know the rationale for allowing that cancer to continue festering and allowing a powerful, lawless thug like Al-Sadr to live and remain free? I don't buy the argument of taking the known evil over the unknown evil or of keeping him around to play him against other Shia factions. He's caused way too much trouble to justify any such tactics.
I hope that you've got some inside information in regard to Allawi, as I recall you raising that possibility more than once. And, by "strong man," I hope you mean that he will ruthlessly crush terrorists/insurgents (even by means of - gasp - killing). When I was in Baghdad in 03, one of my interpreters was a well-educated Sunni, but not a high level Ba'athist. After a particularly frustrating day of rounding up dozens of looters, he let loose some steam about how we were doing business. "Whenever you find people looting, you must kill every 5th man in the neighborhood. It's the only way that you will restore order. These people don't understand any other way." I thought that to be a little naive and explained why that was a decision that had to be made at a pay grade far higher than mine. He was clearly frustrated, as he was more concerned with doing what works rather than what was legal. In hindsight, perhaps his approach would have resulted in less bloodshed, overall.