Iraq News (20 April)

The Good: Iraqi operations have seized control of Mahdi Army strongholds in Basra. Even the New York Times is picking up on the story. While the operations could hardly be called a "smashing success", they are ultimately necessary to clear the militia stranglehold on the population. Even the Iranians support the Iraqi-led operation in Basra. The same goes for Sadr City, where militia fighters have taken heavy casualties, but Iran doesn't like that one too much. Most likely due to all their buddies in the Special Groups being there.

The Bad: Sadr has threatened an "open war", while the mosques have blared out the call to arms in Sadr City. and Al-Masri, head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, has called for a 1-month offensive against the US. Sadr seems to be backed up against the wall, and defeating the US military or Iraqi Security Forces in any sort of a conventional sense is highly dubious. But, an escalation of violence is in no one's interest, and will ensure things get much worse before they get better. The Iraqi government has repeatedly stated that it will only target outlaws, and it would behoove the Sadrists to come back to the negotiating table.

The Ugly: The NY Times has a huge front page piece on the propaganda-like use of retired military analysts. Man, you gotta love the Bush Administration and their handling of...everything! This is an embarrassment to the credibility of the military, but too bad it's true. I will always have a bad taste in my mouth about how the neo-conservatives used the military as cover for their political maneuverings. Ultimately, it denigrates the uniform.

Power Comes From the Barrel of a Gun (Photo From NYT)