Shiite Militias Cling to Basra and Stage Raids

[spanone]

the 'bad guys' are winning....

BAGHDAD — Shiite militias in Basra openly controlled wide swathes of the city on Saturday and staged increasingly bold raids on Iraqi government forces sent in five days ago to wrest control from the gunmen, witnesses said, as Iraqi political leaders grew increasingly critical of the stalled assault.

Witnesses in Basra said that members of the most powerful militia in the city, the Mahdi Army, were setting up checkpoints and controlling traffic in many places ringing the central district controlled by some of the 30,000 Iraqi Army and police forces involved in the assault. Fighters were regularly attacking the government forces, then quickly retreating.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/world/middleeast/30iraq.html?_r=1&hp=&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

[TwilightGardener]

1. If the Iraqi Army loses this battle, Iraq is in trouble--and the GOP will

use their military's weakness as an excuse to stay forever, as if they don't want to already.

[spanone]

2. you're right about the gop, but the world will see it for what it is....

a quagmire, fucked up, illegal invasion

[kirby]

3. Actually I wonder...

I think this is shit or get off the pot time. If this fails, I think this will be portrayed
as a failure in the MSM and even more of the public will turn against this war. I think McCain's entire presidential campaigns is predicated on the 'surge' working and this will show that the surge and 'training' has been a failure.

[Amonester]

4. when history is (wilfully) ignored (for cash):