Showdown With The Rebel

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That may have encouraged the sides to step back for a moment from a climactic confrontation. But al-Sadr has a proven track record of standing up to the U.S. by exploiting American reluctance to storm a holy place. "The shrine," says British Major General Andrew Graham, deputy commander of the Multinational Corps-Iraq, "is an invisible shield. He's picked a battlefield where he knows we won't go." That is why both sides have repeated the pattern of go-no-go set in Fallujah. "Tell me," says Graham, "what are the alternatives?" --With reporting by Christopher Allbritton, Brian Bennett, Aparisim Ghosh and staff reporters/Baghdad; Scott MacLeod/Cairo; and Mark Thompson/Washington