Written by: Beck

I share the concerns about the precedents set in the negotiated withdrawal from the Imam Ali mosque of the Mehdi army & al-Sadr expressed by Dave in an earlier post. My misgivings only increased upon reading the latest headline at CNN.com: Al-Sadr militiamen swap prisoners with Iraq.

The thing is, under the negotiated settlement with the Mehdi Army & al-Sadr, the insurgents have given up their arms in exchange for political recognition. As such, it logically follows that the two sides would release their prisoners. Just because a former militiaman had the poor judgment to be captured and imprisoned doesn't make him any less a member of the militia. And if the militia has morphed into a political party, keeping them behind bars would be a form of political imprisonment. Releasing them, thus, is the next logical step.

So why does that one little step make me so damned nervous?