The Good: Despite the media's best initial attempts to make operations in Basra look bad, military forces are in control of the Hayania district, which was a Mahdi Army stronghold. Also, it seems like some of Basra's citizens are pretty ecstatic about the crackdown on militia thugs, as they are now free to sell alcohol and movies which don't contain testaments to "Teh Awesomeness" of Sadr. Sadr City operations continue, and portions of it are still being walled to keep rocket attacks out of range of the Green Zone and to increase security measures. This is good news for yours truly, but a massive reconstruction/humanitarian campaign is going to have to take shape to prevent this place from becoming Gaza Part II.
The Bad: US deaths in Iraq are now at 4,037 as one soldier has been killed north of Baghdad. Forget about the whole intra-Shi'ite troubles that have gripped Iraq the last few weeks, there's also an article from Patrick Cockburn about intra-Sunni problems. With the increase in civilian deaths from suicide bombings seen this week in the Sunni provinces of Diyala, Anbar, and Ninawa, I'm not going to try and refute that.
The Ugly: More shenanigans from Iran's leaders as they continue to denounce the reality of their nefarious agenda in Iraq. They are also not so keen on the Sadr City operations. Sounds like their Special Group proxies are feeling the squeeze. Also, Iraq wants neighboring Arab nations to forgive their Saddam-era debt. The way OPEC takes us to the cleaners on oil, I don't see that happening any time soon.
Sadr City by Night Vision (Combat Camera from The Tension)
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2 comments:
I keep meaning to direct people to this News post you do and then I get caught up with other things and forget until I see it the next week. This time I remembered!
You got me reading him Hope...
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