Sadr's position has been viewed as one of the reasons that the spiraling violence that followed the 2006 bombing was not immediately repeated. His Al Mahdi militia was largely blamed for much of the 2006 violence but it has followed his line in blaming US and Israeli agents for the 2007 bombing. One of Sadr's spokesmen Salman Fraiji repeated such claims of conspiracy, saying "To split the and Shiite Muslims is a card that the occupation is playing. The ill-intentioned colonizers have an old saying: 'divide and conquer.'" Many experts see Sadr's increase of anti-American rhetoric as "an effort to position himself for a powerful political role when U.S. forces leave Iraq." Vali Nasr, a Middle East expert at the Naval Postgraduate School expanded on this saying "Since the start in February of the U.S. military crackdown in Baghdad and environs, Sadr has been uncharacteristically subdued, an indication that he is waiting for U.S. forces to leave before reclaiming a prominent role. Definitely there is a sort of strategy in play, which is 'wait and see.' Sadr, unlike the U.S. troops, faces no deadline pressure."