MAHDI ARMY OFFENSIVE IS MAJOR DEFEAT FOR PETREAEUS STRATEGY

In recent days there has been a chorus of events pointing to the fact that the plan called "the surge" established by U.S. General David Petraeus is unraveling.


The fighting of the Mahdi Army in Basra is the latest indication "the surge" has had only limited success.


President Bush, Vice President Cheney and, of course, FOX NEWS keep trying to find little enclaves in Iraq where they can point with pride to how well things are going, but their tactics are nothing more than a smokescreen designed to confuse anyone who is dumb enough to take what they say at face value.


US/IRAQ:Sadr Offensive Shows Failure of Petraeus Strategy Analysis by Gareth Porter*

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41737

WASHINGTON, Mar 26 (IPS) - The escalation of fighting between Mahdi Army militiamen and their Shiite rivals, which could mark the end of Moqtada al-Sadr's self-imposed ceasefire, also exposes Gen. David Petraeus's strategy for controlling Sadr's forces as a failure.Petraeus reacted immediately to Sunday's rocket attacks on the Green Zone by blaming them on Iran.

He told the BBC the rockets were "Iranian provided, Iranian-made rockets", and that they were launched by groups that were funded and trained by the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Petraeus said this was "in complete violation of promises made by President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad and other most senior Iranian leaders to their Iraqi counterparts".

Petraeus statement was clearly intended to divert attention from a development that threatens one of the two main pillars of the administration's claim of progress in Iraq -- the willingness of Sadr to restrain the Mahdi Army, even in the face of systematic raids on its leadership by the U.S. military and its Iraqi allies. The rocket attacks appear to have been one of several actions by the Mahdi Army to warn the United States and the Iraqi government to halt their systematic raids aimed at driving the Sadrists out of key Shiite centres in the south. They were followed almost immediately by Mahdi Army clashes with rival Shiite militiamen in Basra, Sadr City and Kut and a call for a nationwide general strike to demand the release of Sadrist detainees.

Even more pointed was a strong warning from Sadr aide Abdul-Hadi al-Mohammedawi to the United States as well as to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), whose Badr Organisation militiamen, in the uniforms of Iraqi security forces, have targeted the Madhi Army throughout the south. "They don't seem to realise that the Sadrist trend is like a volcano," he told worshippers Friday in Kufa.

"If it explodes, it will crush their rotten heads." The signs that the Madhi Army will no longer remain passive mark a major defeat for the U.S. military command's strategy aimed at weakening the Mahdi Army.