Well Said Muqtada al-Sadr

Whilst US and Iraqi leaders have urged the public
to be patient, warning that it will take months
before the security operation now under way
has a tangible effect, and president Bush has
ordered 21,500 more US troops to Baghdad and
Anbar (although the last units are not due until
May), - the leader of the Mehdi Army, Iraq's
largest Shia militia, Muqtada al-Sadr, has issued
a statement which was read to his followers in
Baghdad's Sadr City, and it is likely to add to the
tremendous pressure already on US and Iraqi
forces to show results in the nearly two-week-old
crackdown.

Here are a few excerpts of what he had to say:
"I'm certain, just like all oppressed Iraqis are
certain, that no security plan will work and no
good will come of any occupier. Here we are,
watching booby trapped cars exploding to
harvest thousands of innocent lives from our
beloved people in the middle of a security plan
that is controlled by an occupier who does as
he pleases", he urged Iraq's mainly Shia security
forces to "make your own Iraqi plans independent
of the Americans" and he called on both Sunnis
and Shias to "scorn sectarianism and hoist the
banner of unity".
And what can you say to that, other than Ameen!