Posts Tagged ‘Sadr’

The last goalpost

Thursday, April 10th, 2008

UPDATE # 3 The London Times acknowledges that the Iraqi Army has cleared Bsra of militias and wonders why Maliki won when the British Army couldn’t.

UPDATE #2: The Iraqi Army has now rescued a kidnapped British journalist who had had been held two months by Shia gangs. It looks like they are still cleaning out Basra and Kevin got his hopes for defeat up too soon. This report also contradicts the defeat lobby.

UPDATE: Mickey Kaus Fisks that NYT report that got Kevin Drum so excited and it looks like the Times was wishing too much and reporting too little. Poor Kevin.

This could be the last goalpost in Iraq. If Sadr disbands the Mahdi Army, the civil war may be over. Maliki has stood up to the militias and the Sunnis are ready to join the government in earnest. Kevin Drum will be terribly disappointed.

Good news from Basra

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

UPDATE #2 In spite of Kevin Drum and the NY Times certainty that Maliki has lost this battle,  others have a different opinion. Why is the Left so eager for defeat ?

UPDATE: Here is more on the situation in Iraq with the Iraqi Army and Sadr. Lots of mixed messages and reluctant optimism from a press that does not want us to win.

You would not know it from this New York Times story but the fighting in Basra this week is good news. The Shiite majority Iraqi government is cracking down on Shiite militias that have taken over Basra, with Iranian assistance and are hampering operations of Iraq’s massive port facilities.

In Basra, American and British jets roared through the skies, providing air support for the Iraqi military. A British Army spokesman for southern Iraq, Maj. Tom Holloway, said that while Western forces had not entered Basra, the operation already involved nearly 30,000 Iraqi troops and police forces, with more arriving. “They are clearing the city block by block,” Major Holloway said.

This is what skeptics have been saying the al Maliki government would never do. They are doing it and, of course, the skeptics are not reporting the crucial facts. This is the next “milestone” in the march to Iraqi self-government.

The Times reporter contacted Mahdi Army leaders who say:  “They are trying to finish us,” the commander said. “They want power for the Iraqi government and Sciri.”

OF COURSE they want power for the Iraqi government !   It looks as though Sadr has figured out that he had better keep the truce since the Iraqi Army is holding together. He would be smashed if he chose to fight and he knows it. This is the end game.