The Wild Card

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But al-Sadr does have one potential trump card: his strident anti-Americanism has helped him broaden his support base, so that many Iraqi Sunnis regard him as the only Shi'ite leader they can trust. Sunni groups contributed men and material to support the Mahdi Army's uprisings against U.S. forces, and elements of the Mahdi Army fought alongside Sunni insurgents in the battle of Fallujah in fall 2004. "He is somebody who has fought against the occupying forces," says Abdul Salam al-Kubaisi, spokesman for the Association of Muslim Scholars, the leading Sunni clerical body. "All other Shi'ite leaders are seen as collaborators because they cooperate with the Americans." Al-Sadr stayed true to form after the Samarra bombing, lacing his statement with an angry condemnation of the "Crusaders" and demands for their withdrawal from Iraq. If al-Sadr can prevent the chaos in Iraq from turning into civil war, there's good reason the U.S. might even oblige.