So many armchair experts (or propaganda artists in the fashion of Nazi Joseph Goebbels) have been claiming al-Sadr’s capitulation in the fighting in Iraq was a blow to Maliki. Strange logic there, but one indication of a Sadr win would be dancing in the streets of Basra and Sadr City in Baghdad. Where is it? I see reporting that shows government supporters in the streets marching in Basra:

But where is the victory celebrations? Here is what the NY Times reported:

Militiamen with the Mahdi Army, the followers of the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, mostly vanished from the streets of Basra on Monday, a day after he ordered them to lay down their arms and also insisted that the Iraqi government grant a general amnesty for his followers, and made other demands.

Iraqi Army and police forces immediately moved into Basra neighborhoods abandoned by the Mahdi Army, which is the armed wing of Mr. Sadr’s political movement, setting up checkpoints and searching for roadside bombs. As helicopters continued buzzing overhead, shops began to reopen and residents ventured out into the streets.

…

The streets remained extremely tense on Monday in both Basra and Baghdad.

As a dark Toyota sedan approached an Iraqi Army checkpoint on Monday afternoon just outside Sadr City, the huge Baghdad slum that is Mr. Sadr’s power base, a soldier in fatigues and a mask that covered most of his face pointed his weapon and shouted, “Get out of the car!”

The occupants, including a reporter for The New York Times, quickly complied. It turned out that the soldier suspected them of being members of the Mahdi Army, which tends to prefer black Toyotas.

Is that the picture of victory for Sadr – Iraq security patrols taking over again? The media is so invested in Iraq going bad they have turned from reporting to conjecture and speculation. At best this is a stand off. Sadr is hold up in Iran in exile and there doesn’t appear to be a lot of celebrating in the streets that violence has returned to Iraq.

People here in the West forget that Iraq is full of, well … people. And while there are some excited young men with rifles and a lot of testosterone flowing, the majority of the people don’t want any more gun battles. They want to raise their families. You think Americans are tired of watching the bloodshed in Iraq? Trust me, the people of Iraq are tired of living through it.

There was a reason Sadr stood down and cried for conditions to his surrender. And it was not because he was winning anything.