Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Good News from Iraq
The Mighty Mahdi Army has vacated Basra and is being rooted out block by block from the sprawling slum called Sadr City in Baghdad by Iraqi troops. Or so say the Strategy Page. Money quote:
It doesn't get any better than that.
The dozen or so factions of the Mahdi Army vary in their loyalty to Sadr, or to political solutions. Several of the Mahdi Army factions are basically criminal gangs masquerading as religious zealots. Sadr denies he is a pawn of Iran, but as Mahdi Army houses are captured, more Iranian weapons and equipment show up, as well as religious propaganda from Iran. Iraqi president Maliki has told Sadr that the offensive would halt if the Mahdi Army surrenders all its weapons, stops attacking, or trying to infiltrate (by joining) the security forces, and hands over members wanted for crimes. So far, Sadr refuses, probably because many of his followers would turn on him if he tried. But Sadr also realizes that the Iraqi soldiers and police are capable, eventually, of grinding the Mahdi Army into nothingness. Another month or so of fighting and the Mahdi Army will be no more.
It doesn't get any better than that.
Labels: Iraq Successes
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 7:46 PM 
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Not door to door. Close air support and perhaps security of the places where the Iraqi forces are gathering before the block by block attacks. Or so I've been told. What is your source, T, for us doing the 'heavy lifting'?
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