When President Bush said Friday that the Iraqi government's unprecedented offensive against Shiite militias would be a "defining moment in the history of a free Iraq," he surely didn't have in mind the results evident today.
Despite strong backing from U.S. forces, the week-long offensive failed, leaving militias holding the port city of Basra, which controls 80% of Iraqi oil. That failure appears to have weakened Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his government, which are central to U.S. hopes for Iraq.
Just as discouraging, the setback strengthened the hand of Muqtada al-Sadr, the firebrand cleric whose forces were the primary target of the attack and who the United States has long seen as a primary threat to stability. Not only did al-Sadr beat back government troops, he managed to portray himself as a peacemaker and al-Maliki and America as not-very-competent aggressors.
In another piece of bad news, all this helped Iran, where al-Sadr's representatives met emissaries of the Iraqi government seeking to broker a cease-fire. >>>>snip
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20080401/cm_usatoday/iraqoffensivebackfiresstrengtheningradicalcleric;_ylt=AtnuW725wBCKgohI0pz4sQ6s0NUE----------------
I'm glad this news is being handled by USA today because of its circulation