Iraq News (29 March)

The Good: US air assets and ground forces have rolled into Sadr City to take care of business. Washington Post has a pretty good article on the offensive here. Lots of enemy KIA. As folks wiser than me say, some people can't be reconciled and just have to get blowed up. Stay safe guys. Thanks for watching out for us. The militia-sympathizers in the mainstream media might cite some "civilians" killed from "medical sources", but keep in mind that those sources are Mahdi Army infested and are generally bullshit. Civilians that shoot AK-47s and RPGs at US forces lose their "civilian" status very quickly.

The Bad: Details in Basrah remain sketchy, but apparently things aren't going very well. PM Maliki launched this operation on his cognizance and Bush has hailed it as a "defining moment". I'm still remaining skeptical of that sort of optimism.

The Ugly: Don't know who the Badr Corps or SIIC (Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council) is? Well check out this piece by a gentleman from the CFR, very insightful. Shi'ite politics and power struggles in Iraq are complex, but now it is more important to understand than ever. The Egyptian perspective is here as well.