Another Sign That Basra Was a Failure Posted by Ilan Goldenberg

From the beginning most experts thought that Basra was essentially a failure for the Iraqi government and specifically Prime Minster Maliki.  But President Bush has called it a success and a sign that the Iraqi government is stepping up.  Ambassador Crocker painted a rosy picture  last week, and John McCain claimed that it was Sadr who lost. 

Since then there have been reports of more then 1,000 Iraqi security forces who refused to fight.  And now comes pretty definitive proof that the Iraqi Government itself viewed this operations as a failure.

Iraq's government removed the top military and police commanders in Basra on Wednesday, weeks after a botched crackdown on militia fighters there triggered the country's worst fighting in months.

Iraqi army Lieutenant-General Mohan al-Furaiji and police Major-General Abdul-Jalil Khalaf were among the country's most senior commanders and were widely respected by U.S. and British military leaders.

The Iraqi Government is claiming that this is a reward for their great performance and that they are being brought back to Baghdad.  That seems pretty absurd.  It's one thing to reward good performance with a promotion, but if you have a massively successful military campaign you don't remove the people in charge two weeks later. 

To me this is just another sign that despite the rosy rhetoric, inside the Iraqi Government there is a feeling that this was a failure.  Even more so, there was apparently a need for a political scapegoat, which means that the Iraqi public also perceived the operation as a failure and wanted some heads to roll.  But don't tell John McCain or George Bush.

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[PacificGatePost]

WHY FEAR WITHDRAWAL?

It is time to give Iraqis their nation back before too few are left to remember that most Shiite, Sunni or Kurd Iraqis described themselves as Iraqis above all else and religious or sectarian group members second…..

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-fear-withdrawal-from-iraq.html