Analysis: Iraqis' Basra fight not going well

[Nitrogenica]

Source: CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Iraqi military push into the southern city of Basra is not going as well as American officials had hoped, despite President Bush's high praise for the operation, several U.S. officials said Friday.

A closely held U.S. military intelligence analysis of the fighting in Basra shows that Iraqi security forces control less than a quarter of the city, according to officials in both the United States and Iraq, and Basra's police units are deeply infiltrated by members of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army.

"This is going to go on for a while," one U.S. military official said.

Iraqi forces launched their offensive in Basra this week. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was personally overseeing operations in the southern city against what government officials called "rogue" or "outlaw" militia elements, most loyal to al-Sadr.



Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/28/bush.basra/

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Of course, * has to spin all Iraq news because of our coming election.

Since * took office he has made decisions as a right wing election campaign from the White House, instead of accurately, intelligently assessing any situation.

[Wetzelbill]

1. This is a bad deal

And this is just a small sampling of al-Sadr's militia. Also the 80, 000 strong Sunni militia that we were paying off to help us is getting pissed off and walking away from us too. You're looking at a situation where a reloaded Mahdi army and a U.S. armed and funded Sunni militia are sitting around simmering in a pressure cooker. When they both blow, they are going to blow. It looks to be worse than the levels of violence we've seen in 2005 and 2006.

[Botany]

2. Iraq is Vietnam w/ sand

When the forces loyal to the Govt. get called on to fight
they don't or can not get the job done. Stories of troops
getting out of tanks and walking away were on Olbermann
the other night. Maliki is being shown not to be the leader
and we are getting sucked further into a fight we should be
not part of. F***ing bush did not know the difference between
Shi and Sunni before he started this war.

[Wetzelbill]

3. that's right, the Iraqi professor who

said we'd be offered sweets when we rolled into the country was at a Superbowl Party with Bush about a month and a half before we went into Iraq and he said Bush didn't even know the difference. This is all so ridiculous it's tough to believe. I still can't understand how anybody in their right mind would have that the Iraq was was even necessary let alone a good idea.

[wordpix]

5. in '04 the Iraqi gov. + US offered al Sadr $300M + $200M for "reconstruction"---wonder what

happened to all that money? Probably being used to arm the Mehdi army.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1220/p01s03-woiq.html

[leftchick]

4. PEPE ESCOBAR, THE REAL NEWS ANALYST:

PEPE ESCOBAR, THE REAL NEWS ANALYST:

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1223&thisview=item

Why the battle of Basra? And why now? The most important thing about the battle of Basra relates to the truce declared by Muqtada al-Sadr and the Mahdi Army last summer. The truce still holds, but the truce applies basically to the official Mahdi Army. When you talk about Mahdi Army, there are at least three or four different Mahdi Army. There are splinter groups. This means commanders that do not report directly to Muqtada al-Sadr anymore. What's happening with these three or four Mahdi Armies? They are being attacked by Iraqi government forces. Who are these forces? They basically are Badr Organization, which is the armed wing of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq. This is part of the government, along with the Dawa party and the Kurdish parties, and they are American allies. So these Iraqi government forces, they have been planning an attack against especially Sadrists and the Mahdi Army for months. Now it's like they had the go-ahead to do it with American air power support. We could speculate—and if you read the Arab and Persian press, there's a lot of speculation of this could have been a deal between Dick Cheney in his latest visit to Baghdad and the al-Hakim family. The al-Hakim family controls the Supreme Islamic Council and the Badr Organization. They're part of the government. Their main rivals are the Sadr family, Muqtada al-Sadr's family, Mahdi Army. So this is a family feud. It's very, very vicious, and it's the two most important religious families in Iraq battling for political and religious power at the same time. But the problem is what was Muqtada al-Sadr's reaction to this attack of the Iraqi government forces against its fighters? In fact, the Mahdi Army, they don't have weapons. They have basically Kalashnikovs. So when you see these pictures, these international pictures of fighters with Kalashnikovs, they're acting in self-defense. They're not attacking anybody. They're being attacked by Iraqi government forces. This plays as well—this is crucial—into the US presidential campaign. It is by all means a war escalation. It could have been a gift by Dick Cheney to the al-Hakim family, but it could go way beyond that. It could be part of a deal between Cheney and the Iraqi government. When Cheney said, “Look, I'll support the crackdown that you want against the Mahdi Army and you want this for a month, okay. We'll support you with this. But you have to back off from your close ties that you have with Iran.” You know, the essence of this battle of Basra, which is spilling over into the battle of Baghdad, is that it plays directly into the US presidential election. You may bet that John McCain is going to use this as cover for his assertion that US needs to stay in Iraq for 100 years to fight terrorists. And who are these terrorists? The Mahdi Army.

[ladywnch]

6. Not going well??? Not going well!!!!!! how dare they say that!!!

everything is going swimmingly!!!! jr says so! how dare they suggest otherwise. Blasphemy! Unpatriotic Bastards! They should be sent to Gitmo or at least caught in a 'friendly fire' incident for saying such things! Our glorious president knows all and sees the good in all things. he is the one we should wait to hear from about this.....not no stinking lying analysts! I just pray these lies don't damage our efforts there!




****once agian, for those who don't speak sarcasm as a firt language: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: