Battle for Basra

[Dinner]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89271749

NPR is reporting that the Iraqi Army wasn't just defeated in Basra but was routed. I noticed the Iraqi government was trying to play up that it was able to transport 10k soldiers to Basra like it was some sort of victory but I'm not seeing it. As long as you have trucks and cars you can make the 5-6 drive from Baghdad to Basra.

[Dinner]

Part of an Asia Times article on the subject. Fact is the Mahdi Army is actually better trained and better equipped then the Iraqi Army because the Iranians are pouring in everything they can while Bush keeps doing half measures WRT training and equipment for the Iraqi Army. It doesn't help that the Iraqi government is barely functional.

That assumption ignored the evidence that Muqtada had been avoiding major combat because he was reorganizing and rebuilding the Mahdi Army into a more effective force. Thousands of Mahdi Army fighters, including top commanders, were sent to Iran for training - not as "rogue elements", as suggested by the US command, but with Muqtada's full support. One veteran Mahdi Army fighter who had undergone such training told The Independent last April that the retraining was "part of a new strategy. We know we are against a strong enemy and we must learn proper methods and techniques."

Last week, a Mahdi Army commander in Sadr City in Baghdad was quoted by The Canadian Press as saying, "We are now better organized, have better weapons, command centers and easy access to logistical and financial support."

The ability of Mahdi Army units in Basra to stop in its tracks the biggest operation mounted against it since 2004 suggests that Shi'ite military resistance to the occupation is only beginning. Through the strength of the Mahdi Army's response just before Petraeus' testimony, Muqtada has posed a major challenge to the Bush narrative of military success in Iraq.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JD02Ak02.html

Reading the AT article it becomes clear how deeply involved the US was in planning and supporting this attack but the average Iraqi soldier just didn't believe in the cause enough, just wasn't trained well enough, and just wasn't equipped well enough so the offensive got stopped in its tracks. The US and the Mahdi Army seem to be the only well organized forces in the country.

[Wezil]

That's okay. They turned another corner in Iraq last week.