My own analysis of the 'al-Sadr insurrection' was influenced heavily by that of Empire Notes' Rahul Mahajan. He is currently in Iraq and a recent article analyses the upsurge in violence against the Anglo-American occupation. His thoughts on the causes of the insurrection are of particular import in the light of the typically useless coverage of the matter in the corporate media:

Whatever al-Sadr's views about democracy may be, Bush's claim that he started this violence to derail democracy is ridiculous. First of all, for all of al-Sadr's firebrand rhetoric, he and his followers had always stopped short of overt violence against the occupying forces. Second, the incident that precipitated this whole round of violence was the closing of his newspaper, al-Hawza, a blatantly undemocratic act. In fact, the paper was not closed for directly advocating violence, but simply for reporting one eyewitness claim that a supposed car bombing that killed numerous volunteers for the New Iraqi defense forces was actually done by plane (and therefore by the United States).

Where we go next remains to be seen.