The fight for Basra has been the big story this week as the Iraqi government led by Nouri al-Malaki has vowed to take control of the city from Iranian back Shiite militias.  The Iraqi military operation in the city is in its third day and now for the first time US and British forces are aiding the Iraqis:

Anti-American Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers Saturday to defy government orders to surrender their weapons, as U.S. jets struck Shiite extremists near Basra to bolster a faltering Iraqi offensive against gunmen in the city.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged he may have miscalculated by failing to foresee the strong backlash that his offensive, which began Tuesday, provoked in areas of Baghdad and other cities where Shiite militias wield power.

Al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, nonetheless vowed to remain in Basra until government forces wrest control from militias, including al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army. He called the fight for control of Basra "a decisive and final battle."

British ground troops, who controlled the city until handing it over to the Iraqis last December, also joined the battle for Basra, firing artillery Saturday for the first time in support of Iraqi forces. [Robert Reid - AP]

Notice how the AP writer calls this a "faltering" operation.  How does Robert Reid know it is a faltering operation?  The Iraqi military is not the US Marines, so it is going to take longer to secure the city.  Basra is Iraq’s second largest city and it will take weeks at least to secure the city.  It took the US military weeks to secure Fallujah at much smaller city when the second Battle of Fallujah was waged and the US military had its own indigenous air power and artillery unlike the Iraqi military.  The bias of the media appears to be quite clear that they want to call this operation a failure as quickly as possible. 

If you need further evidence of the media bias just take the fact that the Washington Post has embedded a journalist with the Mahdi Army to report how well their operations to kill Americans is going:

As a heavy barrage erupted outside his parents’ house, Abu Mustafa al-Thahabi, a political and military adviser to the Mahdi Army of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, rushed through the purple gate and took shelter behind the thick walls. He had just spoken with a fighter by cellphone. "I told him not to use that weapon. It’s not effective," he said, referring to a rocket-propelled grenade. "I told him to use the IED, the Iranian one," he added, using the shorthand for an improvised explosive device. "This is more effective." [Sudarsan Raghavan - Washington Post]

Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive makes a good point when he compares this to the media embedding with the Nazi SS during World War II.  Read the rest of the Blackfive posting about how the Washington Post is trying to build up the Mahdi Army as being 10 feet tall and unstoppable. 

Herschel Smith at the Captain’s Journal has another good posting on Basra and the various opinions being offered about what is going on.  His summary of the failed British military operations in the city over the years is quite good and worth a read. 

Iraqi Mohammed Fadhil from Iraq the Model has a great posting up which speculates that the Iraqi government is going after Sadr in order to ensure fair and free election in the south of Iraq.  Many Shiite political parties were concerned that Sadr would use criminal methods to influence the election results and the political parties would not sign off on a election reform bill in the parliament until Sadr’s thugs were destroyed.  Fadhil also speculates that this operation has the full backing of Iran as well because they look at Sadr as a loose cannon and want to liquidate him now. 

Small Wars Journal has a listing of other views on the current Basra battle that are some how all missing in the mainstream media eager to declare defeat in Basra and the failure of the Surge even though Basra had nothing to do with the Surge. 

As far as I am concerned and I said this all the way back in October, that after Al Qaeda in Iraq was destroyed the next campaign to setting conditions for victory in Iraq would be to go after the rogue Shiite militias.  There will never be reconciliation in place in Iraq with the Sunnis if rogue Shiite militias like the Sadr movement is allowed to be heavily armed and control entire cities in Iraq.  If you were a Sunni in Iraq would you want to disarm and throw your lot in with the Baghdad government knowing that the Mahdi Army could come rolling into your community at anytime and wipe you out?  That is why the Mahdi Army and its off shoots has to be dismantled before the Sunnis fully reconcile with Baghdad. 

This current operation is a long overdue step in setting conditions for final victory in Iraq.