Shiite Militias Cling to Swaths of Basra and Stage Raids (The Battle of Gettysburg as reported by the New York Times)

I picked up a copy of the NY Times while waiting for a coffee at Starbucks after church today and started to read the story about the battle in Basra. Click here to read the Timesmen’s report.

Note the fact that the people who supplied the information to the Times were Qais Mizher, Ahmad Fadam, Mudafer al-Husaini, Hosham Hussein and other Iraqi employees of The New York Times in Baghdad, Basra, Nasiriya and Diyala Province.

According to the Times, the initiative is on the part of the Shiite militias, with the Iraqi army simply the punching bag for the militia.

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

That's not the way it's being reported by other, more credible witnesses in Iraq.
Here's Bill Roggio Sadr orders followers to end fighting

Six days after the Iraqi government launched Operation Knights’ Charge in Basrah against the Mahdi Army and other Iranian-backed Shia terror groups, Muqtada al Sadr, the Leader of the Mahdi Army, has called for his fighters to lay down their weapons and cooperate with Iraqi security forces. Sadr’s call for an end to the fighting comes as his Mahdi Army has taken serious losses since the operation began.

So I thought I would have a little fun with it and see if we could substitute a few names and dates. Here’s the New York Times version of the battle of Gettysburg as reported by Times reporters:

July 1, 1863

WASHINGTON — Confederate troops in Pennsylvania openly controlled wide swaths of the State on Saturday and staged increasingly bold raids on Federal government forces sent five days ago to wrest control from the rebels witnesses said, as American political leaders grew increasingly critical of the stalled assault.

Witnesses in Gettysburg said members of the most powerful army in the Confederacy, the Army of Northern Virginia were setting up checkpoints and controlling traffic in many places ringing the central district controlled by some of the 90,000 Federal Army involved in the assault. Confederate cavalry under Jeb Stuart were regularly attacking the government forces, then quickly retreating.

Senior members of several political parties said the operation, ordered by President Lincoln, had been poorly planned. The growing discontent adds a new level of complication to the Federal effort to demonstrate that the Lincoln administration had made strides toward being able to operate a unified country and keep the peace without sacrificing thousands of American troops.

Mr. Lincoln has staked his reputation on the success of the Gettysburg assault, fulfilling a longstanding administration desire for him to boldly take on the Confederates.

But as criticism of the assault has risen, it has brought into question another American benchmark of progress in this struggle: political reconciliation.


After their brilliant victory, the Army of Northern Virginia left Pennsylvania.