What Really Happened in Basra?

Someone with inside information writes about the situation in Basra. Who wants to bet that the Left is going to ignore this positive analysis?

Family Security Matters: "Churchill once quipped that “a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on.” On the whole, the international press has done much to advance this remark over the course of the last few weeks, telling tales of misconception as to what recently happened in Iraq’s southern port city of Basra. (James Hider, Juan Cole, and Reuters were among the worst transgressors.)

As some would have us see it, the story apparently goes something like this: Iraqi premier Nouri Maliki reluctantly sent his security forces south to reestablish control of Basra in the wake of the British withdrawal, and was humiliated and politically weakened when the insurrectionists of Muqtada al Sadr’s Jaish al Mahdi militia (or JAM) fought the Iraqi security forces to a standstill, forcing the central Iraqi government to accept a ceasefire on terms it deemed unfavorable.

Thankfully, there is more to the story. Some of these misconceptions about Mr. Maliki and Mr. Sadr should be countered."