The current official Information Operation campaign on Iraq tells us that Maliki and the Iraqi army are fighting criminals in Basra, Sadr city and elsewhere.
A TIME piece gives some doubts:
[A]t least one American soldier said he was angry that the role of Iraqi troops was exaggerated after the battle. "A gunfight broke out and we were fighting [the Mahdi Army] for about four hours," the soldier told TIME. "The army article made it sound like we were just there supporting the Iraqi Army, but we did all the work. We just had four humvees out there with some Iraqi [troops]."
The BBC adds:
US and UK special forces are carrying out operations in Basra in southern Iraq against Shia militiamen, a Western military source has told the BBC.
…
Basra was the scene of intense fighting some three weeks ago, after Iraqi forces made an attempt to disarm militias operating in the city.At that time, the BBC understands that 550 US troops embedded with the Iraqi army also joined in the battle.
…
There are understood to be about 150 British troops from the Royal Regiment of Scotland embedded with Iraqi units in Basra.Some are mentoring Iraqi soldiers while others are protecting local personnel engaged in combat operations.
U.S. and British soldiers "protecting local personnel engaged in combat." Now that is a fine expression for "covering their ass." But are they really doing that? To me this sounds more like the U.S.u.k. is taking the lead in all of this:
The United States army on Wednesday said its forces killed 15 gunmen overnight in the capital, Baghdad.
"Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers engaged and killed 15 criminals in separate engagements in Baghdad April 22," read a U.S. army statement quoted by the voices of Iraq (VOI).
All the talk of the "Iraqi army is taking on Sadr" seems to be at least exaggerated.
The real tale might be more along this line.
Cheney came to Baghdad because some success was needed before the Petraeus/Crocker testimony in Congress. He ordered the "they stand up, so we can stand down" assault on Basra.
That went wrong when the Sadr resistance was more powerful than expected and the Badr militia in Iraqi army uniforms cracked even though U.S. troops were embedded with them.
This was blamed on the puppet. "Maliki ordered this and didn’t inform us." Bullshit – 550 embeds and the U.S. didn’t know? For lack of intelligence, the U.S. had miscalculated.
But with that fight failed any draw back would have been seen as a U.S. defeat so this had to be carried through. So the U.S. started to bomb and shoot its way into Basra and Sadr city.
The problem now is to hold that space. With at the same time increased AQI action in Anbar and the "surge" draw down there ain’t enough troops to cover those places.
The answer is bombing. Here is a raw movie of a U.S. air attack on some car in Sadr city.
But what about those kids on the stretchers? Hearts and minds?