Blooding

The recent clashed in Iraq between Al-Sadr's goons and US and Iraqi troops sounds like a major training exercise to me, but a live fire one. It makes me think this is an effort to "blood" the Iraqi troops, to give them the taste of combat, and most especially, to give them a taste of winning, so as to build their confidence. They will need it when it comes time to clean up places like Fallujah once and for all. Sadr's goons are second rate compared to the Sunni fighters, hence it makes sense to deal with them first, in order to teach your troops the ropes so that they can handle the tougher troops later. It will be interesting to see if this effort is to merely de-nude Sadr of his personal militia, or to actually deal with him once and for all.