CNN: Fighting In Basra Not Going Well
CNN reports that several US officials told it that “[t]he 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.” “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.”
One US military official said: “This is going to go on for a while.” President Bush called the operation in Basra “a defining moment in the history of a free Iraq,” saying that the government is taking on criminals there. “It was just a matter of time before the government was going to have to deal with it,” he said.
About Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki Bush said: “It was his military planning; it was his causing the troops to go from point A to point B,” Bush said. “And it’s exactly what a lot of folks here in America were wondering whether or not Iraq would even be able to do it in the first place. And it’s happening.”
Vodkapundit comments:
Seriously, given the nature of city fighting, the constraints of local politics and religious loyalties, ever-present age-old Arab corruption, and every other Middle East pathology, the miracle here is that the Iraqis are fighting — and winning! — at all.
Next time, skip the lurid headlines. Hell, most times you might as well skip the MSM’s story.
I basically have to agree with that. It’s clear that the fighting isn’t going as good as we all hope, if it did, the US didn’t have to help out the Iraqi military, but the facts that Maliki is taking on Shiite militias and that the Iraqi army isn’t backing down are quite good signs indeed. Sure, it means that the US can’t withdraw yet, but Iraq – it seems – is on the right path.
For now.
This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.
Comments are closed.
PoliGazette Comments Policy
PoliGazette encourages comments from all viewpoints, especially those that disagree.
Comments submitted must, however, adhere to the following standards. Comments that violate
these standards may be edited or deleted without notice at the sole discretion of the editors.
Commenters who repeatedly or egregiously violate these standards or who attempt to argue
publicly with editors regarding the comments policy may be banned from commenting further.
(1) Comments should address the substantive content of the post. Comments that repeatedly
or blatantly misrepresent the content of the post or of others' comments are not welcome. Comments that
respond to something other than which the contributor or commenter may have said are irrelevant and should
not be posted.
(2) Comments should avoid vulgarity as well as racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual bigotry.
(3) Comments should not personally attack the character, personal integrity, or professional
reputation of any PoliGazette contributor or of other commenters.
(4) Comments should reflect the contributions of the commenters themselves and should not
include extensive cut-and-paste reproductions of others' words except insofar as necessary to supplement
the commenter's own arguments. Link spam, trackback spam, and propaganda spam will be instantly deleted.
(5) Public figures are considered open to all substantive criticism of their policies and statements.
Comments that present objectively false factual information about public figures (i.e. "Obama is a Muslim") or
that attack public figures by attacking their families are not welcome. Comments that merely repeat
slogans for or against a candidate without engaging in substantive comment are not welcome.
Questions or challenges to these policies or their application should be directed to the editors
by email only.
Get a bit of a grip. It has been a week – How are you going to move in and control the city in a week?
I also have seen that CNN, like the WaPo and other outlets that are reporting – are not even there.
Having spent time in Iraq, and especially Basra area, I can tell you that the local scene there is extremely complicated – how the army knows who to even go after there – criminal gangs, gypsies, Mehdi Army, corrupt police, etc is amazing, but better the Iraqis doing it than the Brits or US. They will have an easier time of sorting it out.
Meant to add to the 2nd paragraph – these outlets are so eager for bad news that they could not wait to rush out the story that this is failing- without any proof.