. . . who needs victories?
Google “Basra” and “fiasco”, and you’ll get “about 128,000” hits. On Fox News, the network that lefties want to shut down for its right-wing bias, you can read the headline, “Iraqi Government Sacks 1,300 Soldiers, Police Following Basra Fiasco”. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson will inform you that “Basra fiasco shows war policy flaws”. As for the Senate Democratic leader –
While people of good will on both left and right were trying to figure out what the fighting in Basra meant, Reid needed no time to gather facts. Instead, he leapt to his usual conclusions, insisting that the Basra fighting foretold disaster and exposed Bush administration mendacity and incompetence. "Instead of making our own country safer," Reid droned, “we are greasing the pockets of corrupt Iraqi politicians and buying their temporary cooperation.”
Superficial hawks might contend that the outcome of the Basra operation, half-baked though its conception seemed to be, had hardly been dire. The bien-pensants knew better: The Madhi Army had “humiliated” the Iraqi government, then cleverly declared a cease-fire, in return for which Prime Minister Maliki had no doubt granted secret concessions.
Now time has passed, and this defeat has had a strange aftermath:
BASRA, Iraq (AFP) — Three weeks after Iraqi troops swarmed into the southern city of Basra to take on armed militiamen who had overrun the streets, many residents say they feel safer and that their lives have improved.
The fierce fighting which marked the first week of Operation Sawlat al-Fursan (Charge of the Knights) has given way to slower, more focused house-by-house searches by Iraqi troops, which led on Monday to the freeing of an abducted British journalist.
Residents say the streets have been cleared of gunmen, markets have reopened, basic services have been resumed and a measure of normality has returned to the oil-rich city.
The port of Umm Qasr is in the hands of the Iraqi forces who wrested control of the facility from Shiite militiamen, and according to the British military it is operational once again.
However, the city is flooded with troops, innumerable checkpoints constantly snarl the traffic, residents are scared to go out at night despite the curfew being relaxed, and the sound of sporadic gunfire can still be heard.
An AFP correspondent said three northwestern neighbourhoods once under the firm control of the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr – Al-Hayaniyah, Khamsamile and Garma – are now encircled by Iraqi troops who are carrying out door-to-door searches.
Two other neighbourhoods once dominated by the Mahdi Army, Al-Qiblah in the southwest and Al-Taymiyyah in the centre, have been cleared of weaponry and many people have been arrested, military officials say.
So the “defeated” army controls the battlefield, and the enemy is being strangled. Nor is that just the propaganda of military spokesmen. AFP (not, let’s remember, a notably pro-Iraqi source) quotes local residents:
“I am very happy about the situation right now. The deployment of the Iraqi army has made gunmen and gangsters disappear from the streets,” said court employee Mahdi Fallah, 42.
“The gangs were controlling the ports and smuggling oil. Now the ports are back in government hands. Everything in Basra is better than before.”
Taxi driver Samir Hashim, 35, said he now felt safer driving through the city’s streets and was willing to put up with the traffic jams caused by the many security checkpoints.
“We feel secure. Assassinations have ended, organised crime is finished and armed groups are no longer on the streets,” said Hashim.
“I think Basra will be the best city in Iraq,” he added optimistically. “We are finally beginning to feel there is law in Basra.”
“We feel comfortable and safe and secure,” said civil servant Alah Mustapha.
“The situation in Basra is stable. The Iraqi army controls the city and there are no longer armed groups on the streets.”
We can’t be sure that there won’t be relapses and crises in Basra. The enemy hasn’t given up, and why should then, when Harry Reid’s party may be dictating American policy next year? Still, if we suffer a few more defeats like this, the Mesopotamian mufsidun will be undone before President Obama or Clinton can bail them out.
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