Headline reads: Muqtada al-Sadr extends Iraqi cease-fire!

Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced Friday that he has extended a cease-fire order to his Shiite Mahdi Army by another six months, giving Iraq a chance to continue its fragile recovery from brutal sectarian violence.

This is really great news. I can't stress this enough. You see the surge was partly responsible for a reduction in violence, but in my analysis of the timing of the first cease-fire by al-Sadr, it was his cease-fire announcement that stopped the majority of the violence 6 months ago. This gives the Iraqi government one more chance to get its act together, before we start pulling out our troops.

But this is very good news!

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