I will start with the Stupid SurrenderMedia trick of the week as they take a minor setback with a small group of Iraqi troops and try and extrapolate it into a representation of the entire Iraq war. The so called debacle is about one small group of Iraqi troops who acted like liberal democrats and ran from the terrorists, who were then replaced with troops less liberal and more stalwart:

A company of Iraqi soldiers abandoned their positions on Tuesday night in Sadr City, defying American soldiers who implored them to hold the line against Shiite militias.

The retreat left a crucial stretch of road on the front lines undefended for hours and led to a tense series of exchanges between American soldiers and about 50 Iraqi troops who were fleeing.

Oh my God! A stretch of road in Sadr City was left undefended for hours! How can we win a war when this kind of thing happens! Quick, run and hide and whimper. Pullease.

“If you turn around and go back up the street those soldiers will follow you,” Captain Veath said. “If you tuck tail and cowardly run away they will follow up that way, too.”

Captain Veath’s pleas failed, and senior American and Iraqi commanders mounted an urgent effort to regain the lost ground. An elite Iraqi unit was rushed in and with the support of the Americans began to fight its way north.

This episode was a blow to the American effort to push the Iraqis into the lead in the struggle to wrest control of parts of Sadr City from the Mahdi Army militia and what Americans and Iraqis say are Iranian-backed groups.

What a crock of SurrenderMedia garbage. There was no blow to American efforts. And in fact the fight against the Mahdi Army is going quite well (more on that in a moment). Some cowards collapsed in fear, some seasoned fighters took over, and we lost not an inch of ground. The fact this was so well covered with cameras and embeds would make me first wonder if it was another staged act for the clueless and easily duped media. I have no proof – except a string of numerous fake stories planted by the enemy in the news media ever since 9-11. Other than that well known (and well worn) pattern there is nothing to suspect the SurrenderMedia is just producing pro-terrorist propaganda since defeat in Iraq is slipping away from them.

The NY Times, being in the forefront of the SurrenderMedia, had to ignore a lot of other stories and events to create the delusion that we are losing to the Mahdi Army. If you look outside the NY Times and across a range of reporting you find the opposite is true. Take Bill Roggio’s reporting on how the battle for Sadr City and Basra is proceeding as planned (generally) and in measured steps (so as to not get killed or have innocents killed):

Iraqi and Coalition forces are pressing the fight against the Mahdi Army in northeastern Baghdad and the southern port city of Basrah. Iraqi troops have cleared two Mahdi Army strongholds in Basrah and reportedly have surrounded three others as they prepare to press the operation. In Baghdad, the Iraqi Army and US forces continue to clash with the Mahdi Army while forces have moved into southwestern Sadr City and set up a “demonstration area” to distribute aid and provide local security.

Or how about the reporting by AFP from Basra and the sea change in conditions there since the Mahdi were purged:

Three weeks after Iraqi troops swarmed into the southern city of Basra to take on armed militiamen who had overrun the streets, many residents say they feel safer and that their lives have improved.

The fierce fighting which marked the first week of Operation Sawlat al-Fursan (Charge of the Knights) has given way to slower, more focused house-by-house searches by Iraqi troops, which led on Monday to the freeing of an abducted British journalist.

Residents say the streets have been cleared of gunmen, markets have reopened, basic services have been resumed and a measure of normality has returned to the oil-rich city.

The port of Umm Qasr is in the hands of the Iraqi forces who wrested control of the facility from Shiite militiamen, and according to the British military it is operational once again.

However, the city is flooded with troops, innumerable checkpoints constantly snarl the traffic, residents are scared to go out at night despite the curfew being relaxed, and the sound of sporadic gunfire can still be heard.

An AFP correspondent said three northwestern neighbourhoods once under the firm control of the Mahdi Army militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr — Al-Hayaniyah, Khamsamile and Garma — are now encircled by Iraqi troops who are carrying out door-to-door searches.

Two other neighbourhoods once dominated by the Mahdi Army, Al-Qiblah in the southwest and Al-Taymiyyah in the centre, have been cleared of weaponry and many people have been arrested, military officials say.

Residents expressed relief at the improved security.

Doesn’t sound like we are back on our heels, it sounds like the Mahdi are contained and being rounded up and the locals are damn glad to be rid of them. There will always be some who don’t get, can’t do it or just don’t agree with what happens. Fact of life. But the media cannot expect to be taken seriously when they try and hoist these rare exceptions as the symbol of the greater populace. It is a joke and those who employ such propaganda are jokes.

Here is a bizarre story which I could exaggerate into something more than it is, if I had to concoct facts to make believe I had a clue what is going on. It is an interesting one, because it is (a) from a severely anti-American, pro-terrorist site and (b) it signals a change in Sadr City towards our success:

After a week of intensive bombing and embargo, Sadr-City accepted the American deal to form an “Awakening Council”, alrafedain reported that Abdallah Jasim al-Ali head of “Sadr-City Tribal Council” announced today of forming a militia in Sadr-City to counter the Mahdi Army.

He gave instructions to hang Mahdi Army members from light-masts if they fight against the government forces or innocents as the MA did with the Sunnis before.

I don’t read Arabic so I cannot validate the linked article. I don’t trust the site to report honestly, it is mostly propaganda. But I would not it as a possible signal of big changes coming. If the people of Sadr City and Basra have their own Awakening and start killing (or more likely turning in intelligence on) the Mahdi Forces amongst them this will end quickly and be another blow to extremism in Islam. The people know who is hiding weapons amongst their families. At some point they will want them gone, no matter what it takes.

Some other interesting reads about the pounding the Mahdi are taken can be found here and here. Never rely on one source of news to get the big picture, they are very informative reads.