The myth of the Iraqi military's abilities.

I just heard Guy Raz, NPR's defense correspondent, say on TOTN that al-Maliki's defeat isn't all bad. He says Pentagon officials tell him the offensive showed large numbers of Iraqi security forces can operate independently, without US help.

Judging by the outcome of the fighting, I'd say they really can't.

Only three days into the fighting the WaPo reported:

"U.S. forces in armored vehicles battled Mahdi Army fighters Thursday in Sadr City . . . Iraqi army and police units appeared to be largely holding to the outskirts of the area as American troops took the lead in the fighting. Four U.S. Stryker armored vehicles were seen in Sadr City by a Washington Post correspondent, one of them engaging Mahdi Army militiamen with heavy fire. The din of American weapons, along with the Mahdi Army's AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, was heard through much of the day. U.S. helicopters and drones buzzed overhead."

Last Friday AP reported:

"U.S. forces stepped deeper Friday into the Iraqi government's fight to cripple Shiite militias, launching air strikes in the southern city of Basra and firing a Hellfire missile in the main Shiite stronghold in Baghdad."

The NYT reports:

"At about 5 p.m. on Sunday, an American soldier was killed just north of the capital when the vehicle he was riding in was hit by a roadside bomb. In Sadr City, witnesses said an American armored vehicle was blown up by a homemade bomb on Falah Street, in the center of the neighborhood. Ali Khayon, who lives on the street, said the blast occurred about 1:30. 'The American soldiers opened fire randomly in a crazy way and shot many people,' he said. 'I started taking the wounded people in my truck in order to move them to the hospital, and on the way I saw the American tank still burning.'

A police officer in Sadr City said a second armored vehicle that came to tow away the one that was bombed was hit by another explosion. . . An aircraft called in to support the soldiers killed 25 people, according to the statement. American forces also conducted air strikes in the New Baghdad neighborhood, just south of Sadr City, in Kadhimiya, in Ghazaliya in eastern Baghdad and in the northern part of the city, according to the American military. At least 21 people were killed."

And Reuters reported yesterday:

"The United States confirmed on Sunday that U.S. special forces units were operating alongside Iraqi government troops in Basra. . . A U.S. military statement described a joint raid by Iraqi and U.S. special forces units which killed 22 suspected militants, including '16 criminal fighters' strafed in an air strike on three houses." [Or just civilians who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's so hard to tell.]

And Newsweek reporter Michael Hirsh says this extensive US help for Iraqi forces, especially air support, is a long term deal.

Michael Hirsh reported in Newsweek last year:

"Despite all the political debate in Washington about a quick U.S. pullout from Iraq, the vast Balad Air Base, a 15-square-mile mini-city of thousands of trailers and vehicle depots located 43 miles north of Baghdad, is hard evidence that the Pentagon is planning to stay in Iraq for a long time-at least a decade or so, according to military strategists. . . . With 27,500 landings and takeoffs a month, Balad is second only to London's Heathrow Airport in traffic worldwide, Brig. Gen. Frank Gorenc, the base commander."

So, don't believe the hype about the abilities of the Iraqi army to wipe their own asses without massive US aid.

Extra note:

I count at Icasualties.org 7 US casualties listed in Baghdad since al-Maliki launched his offensive. More than likely these deaths can be attributed to al-Maliki "taking the lead."

Operation "Saulat al-Fursan:" Retreat of the Knights instead?

The BBC reports:

"A curfew has been imposed on Baghdad to contain the violence between Mehdi Army militants, and Iraqi security forces. The curfew will last from 2300 (2000 GMT) on Thursday, until 0500 (0200 GMT) on Sunday. A spokesman for the security forces, Major-General Qassim Moussawi, said: 'This is because of the clashes in Baghdad. We want to protect civilians.'"

W., who was speaking at the Air Force museum in Dayton, Ohio, said "normalcy" was returning to Iraq. For once I agree with him, it sure is starting to look like the Iraq we're all used to.

Time Online reports:

"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. With the threat of a civil war looming in the south, Nouri al-Maliki’s police chief in Basra narrowly escaped assassination in the crucial port city, while in Baghdad, the spokesman for the Iraqi side of the US military surge was kidnapped by gunmen and his house burnt to the ground.

Saboteurs also blew up one of Iraq's two main oil pipelines from Basra, cutting at least a third of the exports from the city which provides 80 per cent of government revenue, a clear sign that the militias — who siphon significant sums off the oil smuggling trade — would not stop at mere insurrection. . . . Rockets from Sadr City slammed into the governmental Green Zone compound in the city centre, killing one person and wounding several more."

Wasn't al-Maliki from his battlefield HQ just threatening if Madhi army fighters didn't give up their weapons in 72 hours "the law will follow its course'? The clock has almost run out, so what now Nouri?

Since when, btw, has Nouri al-Maliki become a battlefield general? Who does he think he is, a war president?

What I'm real curious about is how much the US military had to do with the planning of this offensive against Mutada al-Sadr? I mean, they're still blaming the fighting in Basra, and Baghdad, and Kut, and Diwanya, ect. on "rogue elements" of the jaish i-Mahdi, as if they're trying to give Sadr an out. Of course, it's gone way beyond that by now, Maliki just blew up the ceasefire that was making the surgeon look like it was really working and now all bets are off.

At some point, or another, the US is going to have to move in to clean up Maliki's mess and possibly to save his neck. Oh yes, and at the some time try to maintain our presence in the green Zone, which is looking more and more precarious everyday.

AP reports:

"A U.S. government employee was killed and four others were wounded in Baghdad this week by rocket attacks on the Green Zone diplomatic and government compound, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday. . . Mortar bombs and rockets have exploded across the capital for days. A strike near the U.S. Embassy in the fortified Green Zone on Thursday sent a column of black smoke into the sky. [State Department spokesman Sean] McCormack said Green Zone rocket attacks occurred on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. He blamed the attacks on 'extremist criminal elements.'"