However I don’t think the US military should have to clean it up. I don’t think US soldiers and Marines should give their lives to clean up an intra-Shiite fight that the Iraqi government has the resources to handle themselves. Hopefully the US commanders in Iraq are making that very clear to the Iraqi government.

By the way Mohammed Fadhil has a great posting about the politics of this intra-Shiite fight that is worth reading:

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/iraqs-charge-of-the-knights/

I don’t think the Shi’a gangs are as well organized or united as the Sunni insurgency was, and they aren’t back by AQ. So we have a situation where a weak Iraqi army is taking on a militia that is weaker than they were in Anbar.

The most remarkable thing is that we are talking about Basra looking like Fallujah, and the British have had “responsibility” for Basra since the beginning.

Very telling, isn’t it?

I really think something that is missing in the media coverage about Basra is that the Iraqi forces fighting in the city are not the US military. It is going to take the Iraqi forces longer to clear out the city then the US military could. It took the US military weeks to clear out Fallujah a much smaller city then Basra after the second Battle of Fallujah.

How can it be expected that Iraqi forces without their own internal artillery and air support can take Basra in a matter of a few days? It is going to take time but it appears the media is eager to declare defeat.