Basra residents expressed gratitude for the actions of Nouri al-Maliki in clearing out the armed militia from the most critical city in the south, according to Agence France Presse. Far from a disaster, the military action has restored order to the city and made it safer for the residents. Residents in Umm Qasr echoed these sentiments after their liberation from the Mahdi Army: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.
Once again, the American media got caught with its pants down and their, er, aspirations showing. They wanted the military operation to represent a breakdown of the government so badly that they reported it as a defeat even as the Iraqi Army adapted and prevailed against the militia members. They still have yet to acknowledge that the Basra and Umm Qasr operations have largely met their goals, and have driven Moqtada al-Sadr even further outside the political arena.
It does not take a military expert to figure out that the army that stops fighting and lays down its arms is not the winner. But for some reason, the MSM were too "stupid?" to figure this out? Or were they blinded by the same kind of superior wisdom that infects Obama?
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