Iraq v. Mahdi Army - The Real Story

Sphere: Related Content

The recent stories about the battles between Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and the Iraqi Army, in which al-Sadr was declared the victor despite calling for a ceasefire are starting to fall apart. Intuitively it just seemed wrong that al-Sadr was laying down his arms when he was supposedly giving the Iraqi government a shellacking. Well chalk one up for intuition. According to a Center for Threat Awareness symposium Iraq v. Mahdi Army (hat tip to NRO's The Tank) the media (surprise!) got it wrong.

Bill Roggio, Military Operations analyst of The Long War Journal: On March 25, the Iraqi security forces, under the command of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, launched Operation Knights Assault against the Mahdi Army and other Iranian-back Shia terror groups in the port city of Basrah. The Iraqi forces met stiff resistance in Basrah as the whole of Muqtada al Sadr’s Mahdi Army rushed to fight the security forces. A brigade from the Iraqi Army apparently cracked under the offensive, and about 500 soldiers “underperformed or defected” along with about 400 police. The Iraqi brigade was only five weeks out of training; it is the Army’s newest formation.

The Iraqi military immediately began rushing forces into Basrah; about 7,000 soldiers, special forces, and SWAT units were moved to Basrah to join the fight. Meanwhile Mahdi Army forces attacked in Baghdad and the wider South. US and Iraqi forces killed nearly 200 Mahdi fighters in Baghdad The Iraqi security forces quickly restored security in the cities of Najaf, Karbala, Hillah, Diwaniyah, Nasiriyah, Al Kut, and Amarah with minimal US assistance.

Just as the new Iraqi forces began to arrive in Basrah and US and British forces were gearing up to augment the Iraqi military, Muqtada al Sadr, under orders from Iran’s Qods Force, called for his fighters to withdraw from the streets. Sadr issued a nine-point list of demands, which included that operations cease. Maliki refused and Iraqi and US forces continued to move into Basrah and conduct pinpoint raids against Shia terror groups. More than 200 Mahdi Army fighters were killed, 700 were wounded, and 300 captured during the six days of fighting in Basrah alone.

Maliki has said the military will continue to operate against the Mahdi Army, and US and Iraqi forces have kept Sadr City and Shula in Baghdad under curfew. Forces have been reported to be slowly moving into the Mahdi Army stronghold.

In other words, despite taking some punishment from al-Sadr's army the Iraqi forces pressed (and continue to press) onward. They now have control of the valuable Basran seaports. It seems that the press was too willing to buy the rather unlikely scenario that at the moment when he was looking victory in the eye al-Sadr was choosing negotiations instead.

It would be easy to blame this very large error on journalistic bias against the war and no doubt this played a part. But even more evenhanded outlets (Fox News) seemed to buy the erroneous interpretation of what happened. The Center for Threat Awareness (CTA) makes a reasonable suggestion about how to prevent or at least lessen such poor reporting in the future:

“Do we want to lose?” That is a question believed by many to unfortunately be perhaps less than rhetorical in nature. We at the Center for Threat Awareness have long held that the American public would be much better served and more accurately informed if we had more military veterans in a journalistic operation rather than journalism veterans in a military operation.

The media no doubt is looking forward to General Petraeus' testimony before Congress this week to watch members of that body slam the General on the recent escalation of violence in Iraq. Petraeus has a better story to tell than Democrats would like to hear. It will be interesting to see how honestly that story is told by the press.

Brief Thoughts On Another Long Night

Sphere: Related Content

• From The Center for Media and Public Affairs via Fox News (as was predicted here and other places), as soon as John McCain became the presumptive Republican nominee he ceased to be a media darling. As reported by Brit Hume this evening... "the percentage of McCain coverage it deemed positive was 46 percent from mid-December through mid-February. But look at the contrast between his 97 percent positive number before the New Hampshire primary on January eighth — and just 30 percent positive since." After tonight's results which are likely to give McCain enough delegates to make the nomination a lock, don't expect the press to ever fall back in love with the Senator again, any time soon.

• At this hour 8:40 PM EST Obama has already taken Vermont (no big surprise) and the initial numbers are looking good for him in Texas with Ohio looking good for Hillary (way too early to call either) there don't seem to be any surprises yet. If, as appears likely Hillary was able to firm up her support over the last few days, due in large part to Obama's numerous stumbles it is very likely the Dem contest could go all the way to the convention; Obama having more delegates going in but Hillary having evil on her side. LOL This one could remain a mystery for quite some time to come.

Update: 9:10 PM EST

• Those aforementioned Obama gaffes highlight how media bias can sometimes blow up in the media's face and in the face of their infatuation; you treat a normal person like the Second Coming and, fawning coverage or not, reality is eventually going to come knocking. Obama, bright fellow that he is, just isn't very experienced and suave will only carry you so far. When things go wrong no amount of charm can cover the fact that the suit remains empty.

• Apparently John McCain has now surpassed the 1,191 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination. Where are the cheers? I'm not hearing cheers.

Update: 9:20 PM EST

• It took Harold Stassen a number of elections to become that-ridiculous-guy-who-doesn't-know-when-to-quit but Mike Huckabee's in-the-nick-of-time decision to call it quits tonight has saved him from becoming the new Harold Stassen, in just this one election cycle. Congratulations to The Huck for not quite becoming Harold Stassen. Impressive.

Update: 9:50 PM EST

• Hillary won Rhode Island. Anybody have anything interesting or clever to say about this? Yeah. Me neither.

• Rush Limbaugh's call for Republican's to go out and vote for Hillary probably contributed to Hillary's probably having a ok night tonight. Not really having any dog in this fight his reasoning is that the longer Obama and Clinton remain at each other's throats the better. But Rush is in the same predicament many of us are in here: sure its great that the two Dems are damaging each other but considering that it will probably benefit John McCain, it is hard to get all that excited. Whatever else politics is and can be it is often fun. Not so much this year.
  

Update: 9:15 PM EST

• For all the huffing and puffing about the possible results of this evening's voting it looks like the night will end with things looking pretty much the same as yesterday. Hill and Barack are still nipping away at each other and McCain is still going to be the Republican nominee. And so it goes...
• Good night!

Bush And Africa: Where Did Everybody Go?

Sphere: Related Content

George W. Bush is the most powerful and controversial man in the world. His every move is watched and critiqued and his every word is avidly transcribed, broadcast, analyzed, mocked and once in a long while even praised. He lives in what could reasonably be considered one of the most all-encompassing media bubbles in the world. But George W. Bush has found a way to get away from it all. He went to Africa.

The Bush Administration's Africa policy, its ambitiousness, its comprehensiveness and its extraordinary success in saving lives is one of the great, neglected stories of our time and the degree and quality of the coverage of his current visit to that most troubled continent shows that this media disinterest is unlikely to end anytime soon.

Bush's attention to Africa has been complex and multilayered and its most remarkable accomplishment has been the saving of millions of African lives. In 2003 the administration introduced the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a five-year plan with a $15 billion price tag, concentrated primarily on Africa. It is the largest, costliest program ever targeted at a single disease and its beneficiaries are the millions currently afflicted with HIV as well as those who, but for the program would be its next victims. Since its inception PEPFAR has been responsible for 1.4 million Africans receiving treatment for the disease. Not satisfied with this accomplishment President Bush has proposed the doubling of the program's budget over the next five years.

But AIDS is not the only disease that the President has put in his sights. The President's Malaria Initiative, whose objective is to cut the mortality rate of that disease in half in five years, has also been a great success, benefiting an estimated 25 million people via the distribution of 6 million bed-nets treated with insecticide.

But the administration has not concentrated on disease while ignoring Africa's other large and complicated problems. Realizing merely distributing money and care-packages is not likely to address the larger issues causing misery to millions the administration created the Millennium Challenge Corporation which ties assistance to adoption of free-market principles, thereby promoting fiscally sound policies in an effort to improve standards of living.

Africa has been a breeding ground for Muslim extremism and the disaster that is Darfur is an ongoing human tragedy and the president is attempting to address that situation (which is proving even more intractable than AIDS or malaria) with an increase of sanctions against the Sudanese government responsible for Darfur and the creation of AFRICOM, a security command that the President is attempting to launch.

These and other efforts are realistic, conservative (the Heritage Foundation has written glowingly about them), humane and have proven to be largely effective. Sadly their success is inversely proportional to the attention they have drawn in America and the world outside of Africa.

No president in American history has ever lavished such concern and largesse on Africa, certainly not President Bill Clinton, who until this presidential season was often touted as being America's first "Black President'. (After his recent race-baiting tactics however Clinton seems to be turning whiter with each passing day.) One might think that the man who had been accused in the 2000 campaign of being responsible for a Black man being dragged to his death by a group of racists and accused by the Left and their friends in the media as neglecting the victims of Hurricane Katrina because of the color of their skin might get a little recognition for the success of his African humanitarian efforts. But one would be wrong. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Julian Bond are not to be found grabbing media face-time touting these great accomplishments. And the msm coverage has been perfunctory at best.

No so in Africa itself where Bush has largely been hailed as a hero. Tanzanian President Jakay Kikwete says that, "Of course, people talk with excitement of Obama....The US is going to get a new president, whoever that is. For us, the most important thing is, let him be as good a friend of Africa as President Bush has been." And "We feel proud because it's recognition of our contribution towards bringing security and stability not only to Darfur but also our region. The U.S government has been our strong partner in this," army spokeswoman Jill Rutaremara told Reuters. Traveling with Bush has been former Live Aid promoter and Boomtown Rat,

Bob Geldof hardly a natural ally of the President's, who said Mr. Bush, "has done more than any other president so far.""This is the triumph of American policy really," he said. "It was probably unexpected of the man. It was expected of the nation, but not of the man, but both rose to the occasion...What's in it for [Mr. Bush]? Absolutely nothing," Mr. Geldof said.

It may not be surprising that the msm hasn't paid much attention to Mr. Bush's superlative record here. What is surprising that the conservative press and blogosphere has reacted with not much more than a shrug, as well. The msm undoubtedly finds that the President's efforts in Africa don't match their template for him on one level (he's an uncaring fascist) and where it does (the President's humanitarianism is inseparable from his deep Christian faith) it turns out that the template itself works against them. Conservatism's neglect may be due to the President's poor pr on the issue or the fact that Africa has appeared to be such a basket case for so long it is hard to recognize true progress when it occurs.

This is all quite unfortunate but the lack of accolades the President has received makes his actions that much more notable. While the President's African policies may not make large headlines today when the history books are written on the Bush years it is likely they may finally get the attention they deserve.