As with all declarations of defeat in Iraq coming from the SurrenderMeida, the results of Maliki’s efforts to take on (and take out) the Mahdi Army thugs working for Sadr (and apparently Iran) has reaped huge benefits for Iraq. Some of the news the SurrenderMedia is afraid to highlight is still out there as the ever dwindling number of true journalists attempt to do their job – informing the West on all aspects of the situation in Iraq.

Let’s start with the overall result from the Basra crack down – a stronger and more unified Iraqi government:

A top Iraqi official said the political situation in Iraq favors reconciliation as the Iraqi Accordance Front agrees to return to the central government.

Montaser al-Emareh, the head of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, said a new political environment came out of the conflict in Basra.

He said Basra gave Iraqi politicians a renewed sense of confidence in the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Al-Alam reported Wednesday.

This new unity crosses sectarian lines and is a sign that once the Mahdi are eliminated or controlled there is the chance for a very bright future in Iraq:

Iraq’s main Sunni Muslim political bloc has agreed in principle to return to the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki nearly nine months after quitting the Cabinet, lawmakers from the group said Thursday.

A return of the Sunnis would be a boost to al-Maliki, who has struggled to keep together the disparate factions of his government and attempt to reconcile Iraq’s feuding Shiite and Sunni politicians.

Salim Abdullah, a lawmaker and chief spokesman for the Sunni Accordance Front, said that after “positive negotiations” with al-Maliki’s government, a deal in principle was reached under which the Front would hold five Cabinet posts, in addition to a deputy prime minister position.

The Front agreed to return in part because of the security offensive that al-Maliki launched last month against Shiite militiamen in the southern port city of Basra, said Omar Abdul-Sattar, another Accordance lawmaker.

And there is reconciliation breaking out with the Kurds as well:

Iraq’s central government and the Kurdish region have reached a deal on an oil law, including a method for weighing the validity of the oil deals the Kurds have signed with foreign firms, the top government spokesman said yesterday.

Ali al-Dabbagh said an agreement also has been reached on the classification and funding for the Kurds’ security forces, the Peshmerga, which will become a battalion within the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. And he said the sides agreed to allow the U.N. process for determining the future of oil-rich Kirkuk and other disputed territories to play out.

This agreement illustrates the differences (for those with the intellect to keep and open mind) that the Mahdi Army is not the same as other militias that have been integrated into the national security forces. Many naive leftists still think the militias will form the bases of a civil war, when in fact they have formed the elements of the national security resources that are making Iraq more secure.

Yes, there will be horrible acts by terrorists on their fellow Muslims, but all that does create an even larger divide between the emerging Democracy of Iraq and the Islamo Fascists inflicting the atrocities to gain news headlines. Too bad the SurrenderMedia cannot give equal time and space to all these enormous steps in progress as they do to their ghoulish body bag counts.

And let’s be clear about those national security forces and their loyalty to the new Iraq. Contrary to the hyperventilating SurrenderMedia. Not that many Iraqis left their posts or folded at the prospect of gaining control of the southern regions of Iraq from the thugs in the Mahdi Army:

The recent fighting in Basra and Baghdad exposed the divided loyalties within the Iraqi police and Iraqi army. The Iraqi government announced Sunday that it had fired more than 1,300 policemen and soldiers who refused to fight Shiite militias in the south, and in some cases, even switched sides.

By contrast, the Iraqi National Police had just 50 out of their brigade of more than 1,000 leave, despite suffering the highest percentage of casualties among the Iraqi security forces, according to Col. David Boslego, an adviser in the headquarters of the National Police Transition Team. The overwhelming reason they left was because their families had been threatened, he said.

“The model of the national police is loyalty to country and that idea is what is the motivating factor for the program,” Boslego said.

Iraqi National Police soldiers, unlike their U.S. Army counterparts, can leave freely, much as civilians are allowed to quit their jobs, Boslego said, noting that those who left are not technically deserters.

Media ignorance or media lies and disinformation? Americans are going to have to figure that out as we sift through the ‘news’ from both journalists and propagandists – all with the same credentials. As I noted before, Basra is now a much better place after Maliki took action. The failure of Basra is another media myth that is being busted. Now we need to understand why the media got it so wrong, and whether there was some nefarious motivations behind their failures.