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A US soldier has gone missing in Sadr City. Checkpoints were set up in an effort to get him back. Iraqi PM al-Maliki ordered the checkpoints removed, and the US capitulated. Why? They don't want a high profile conflict before election.

Support the troops... unless it gets in the way of an election, apparently.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Exploiting GOP vulnerability in the Nov. 7 elections, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki flexed his political muscle Tuesday and won U.S. agreement to lift military blockades on Sadr City and another Shiite enclave where an American soldier was abducted.

U.S. forces, who had set up the checkpoints in Baghdad last week as part of an unsuccessful search for the soldier, drove away in Humvees and armored personnel carriers at the 5 p.m. deadline set by al-Maliki. Iraqi troops, who had manned the checkpoints with the Americans, loaded coils of razor wire and red traffic cones onto pickup trucks.

Their departure set off celebrations among civilians and armed men in Sadr City, the sprawling Shiite district controlled by the Mahdi Army militia loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Small groups of men and children danced in circles chanting slogans praising and declaring victory for al-Sadr, whose political support is crucial to the prime minister's governing coalition[...]

Al-Maliki's move Tuesday came three days after his closest aide, Hassan al-Suneid, said unabashedly that the prime minister was trying to capitalize on American voter discontent with the war and White House reluctance to open a public fight with the Iraqi leader just before the midterm election. Much of the discontent is fueled by soaring death tolls among U.S. troops and their inability to contain raging sectarian violence 3 1/2 years after the ouster of Saddam Hussein[...]

Defense Ministry spokesman Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi said the U.S. military was consulted, but only after al-Maliki made the decision at a meeting Tuesday with his ministers of defense and interior and the national security adviser.

Al-Suneid said the prime minister acted without checking first with the Americans because the blockades had "backfired and made the security situation in Baghdad worse. It is not important that such decisions always be made jointly."

U.S. troops have increased their presence on Baghdad streets as part of a 3-month-old security crackdown, but they had rarely set up checkpoints in the city until the U.S. soldier was abducted a week ago in the Karradah district in central Baghdad. American forces sealed the neighborhood Oct. 23 and closed Sadr City two days later, apparently believing the missing man was being held there. U.S. forces lifted the blockades in both areas Tuesday.
Al-Maliki's order came just hours after al-Sadr announced a campaign of civil disobedience in Sadr City, a district of 2.5 million people in the northeast corner of Baghdad. Armed men forced shops to close, hustled children out of schools and blocked residents from going to jobs in other parts of the capital.