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All 6 of the ministers loyal to al-Sadr have withdrawn from the Iraq cabinet, which contains 38 ministers in total. From the NY Times:
BAGHDAD, April 16 - Moktada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric, withdrew six ministers loyal to him from the Iraqi cabinet today, in the first major shake-up of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's government since it was installed a year ago.
Legislators working for Mr. Sadr said that Mr. Sadr was withdrawing his ministers from the 38-member cabinet because the Iraqi government had refused to set a timetable for pulling American troops out of the country.
These 6 ministers were all of al-Sadr's ministers in the cabinet. From a Media Line article published immediately prior to the resignations:
The Muqtada A-'Sadr Current holds six ministerial posts and 30 out of 275 seats in the parliament.
This is a significant development. For years Sadr's goal has been to substitute Sharia law for the current Democratic government of Iraq. From a 2004 Washington Post article:
...Sadr's goal was at least in part to hijack Shiite leadership and the nation's political process just as Iraqis are beginning to take control of it. His uprising challenges both religious moderates like Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and secularists like Allawi. Sadr's vague but virulent platform seeks rigid Islamic governance. It capitalizes on opposition to U.S. troops.
MSM is trying to present this as a blow to the Iraq government. From the NY Times (same link as above):
The move is the first time Mr. Sadr has followed through with a threat to cut some of his ties with the government and with Mr. Maliki, a conservative Shiite whose grip on authority largely rests on Mr. Sadr's political support.
From AP: (same link):
The departure of the six ministers, while unlikely to topple Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government, deals a significant blow to the U.S.-backed leader, who relied on support from the Sadrists to gain office.
But to have had, in the Iraqi cabinet, such a large group that was dedicated to the destruction of Democracy, was inevitably dangerous to that government.
Both the NY Times article and the AP article present info contradicting the premise that the departure of the ministers was a blow to the government.
From the NY Times article:
Mr. Sadr's ministers are generally seen by Iraqi and American officials as at best incompetent, so replacing them could bring long-term benefits to the ministries.
From the AP article:
The White House said al-Sadr's decision to pull out his ministers does not mean that al-Maliki loses his majority.
"I'd remind you that Iraq's system of government is a parliamentary democracy and it's different from our system. So coalitions and those types of parliamentary democracies can come and go," said Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman.
In fact, this drastic curtailment of al-Sadr's influence on the Iraqi government, is such a favorable development, that one wonders exactly how it came about. The Times speculates that al-Sadr purposely cut off his ability to control ministers in the Iraqi government:
The move by Mr. Sadr, who went underground at the start of the new Baghdad security plan in February, appeared to be an attempt by the young cleric to shore up his reputation as the leading opposition figure in Iraq's fragmented and acrimonious political landscape.
He wanted to "shore up his reputation as the leading opposition figure" by destroying his own ability to control government ministers? That seems unlikely.
