Times of London: Parts of Baghdad Fall to Militias

by: Brandon Friedman

Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 15:24:23 PM EDT

Iraq's Prime Minister was staring into the abyss today after his operation to crush militia strongholds in Basra stalled, members of his own security forces defected, and district after district of his own capital fell to Shia militia gunmen.

The Times of London has reported this in such a way as to make it sound as though the Mahdi Army is literally taking over Baghdad.  If these reports are true, then there is no excuse for this not to be broadcast on every channel.

In Baghdad, the Mahdi Army took over neighbourhood after neighbourhood, some amid heavy fighting, others without firing a shot.

In New Baghdad, militiamen simply ordered the police to leave their checkpoints: the officers complied en masse and the guerrillas stepped out of the shadows to take over their checkpoints.

In Jihad, a mixed Sunni and Shia area of west Baghdad that had been one of the worst battlefields of Iraq's dirty sectarian war in 2006, Mahdi units moved in and residents started moving out to avoid the lethal crossfire that erupted.

One witness saw Iraqi Shia policemen rip off their uniform shirts and run for shelter with local Sunni neighbourhood patrols, most of them made up of former insurgents wooed by the US military into fighting al-Qaeda.

In Baghdad, thousands of people marched in demonstrations in Shia areas demanding an end to the Basra operation, burning effigies of Mr al-Maliki, whom they branded a new dictator, and carrying coffins with his image on it.

The important point to take away here is that during the summer of 2007--the bloodiest summer of the war for American forces--the Mahdi Army inflicted more casualties on U.S. troops than any other individual group through the use of Iranian-made EFPs.  In fact, in July 2007, these Shi'ite militants were responsible for 73 percent of the attacks on Americans.  Only when Muqtada al-Sadr called the ceasefire at the end of August did the casualty rate drop.

And now, those same Shia fighters--the enemies of the U.S. military--have ended their ceasefire and are purportedly taking up positions all over Baghdad, many uncontested.  At the same time, the U.S. military seems to be taking no action to prevent this from occurring.  

Of course, this casts serious doubt on the theory that the "surge" of U.S. forces into Baghdad had anything to do with the relative calm witnessed between September 2007 and now.  

The U.S. military is designed to fight and win in combat.  If it is not going to engage the Mahdi Army as it replaces the Iraqi police force this week, then there is clearly no point in keeping America involved in this internal Iraqi political problem.