One of the purposes - if not the main purpose - of the surge was to give the Maliki government time to be able to stand up and control the country. It does not seem as though that has happened in Basra and other places as most observers feel that the Mahdi Army won; clearly Maliki is not a military planner or executor.
It is looking like the civil war is not only a three-ring circus - Shia, Sunni, Kurd -, but within the Shia there are major disagreements And it looks as though Iran is playing all sides of the Shia street and exerting more and more control.
For an up-to-the-minute listing of the deaths and injuries that went on today in Iraq, go to Iraq Today. I counted 36 incidents today.
Who said "we'll stand down as the Iraqis stand up"? This certainly is looking more and more unlikely.
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