Unqualified Offerings

Finally come to Iraq:

The mood was quite different in Amarah, where jubilant residents flocked to Sadr’s office to offer their congratulations. Drivers in the street honked their car horns in celebration. Some prepared to take to the streets to rejoice.

“Today is a holiday in our province,” said Abu Mustaffa, an unemployed 45-year-old from the city’s al-Hussein district. “Thanks be to God!”

The occasion?

Burbridge acknowledged that constant shelling of the base in Amarah by militia forces, including 17 mortar rounds fired in recent days that wounded three people, were part of the reason the camp closed.

“By no longer presenting a static target, we reduce the ability of the militias to strike us,” he said. But he rejected Sadr’s claim that the British had been defeated and pushed out of Amarah. “It’s very difficult to claim a victory without causing significant casualties.”

The British unit is going to live mobile, take resupply by air drop and head for the border:

“The Americans believe there is an inflow of IEDs and weapons across the border with Iran,” said Burbridge, referring to improvised explosive devices, in a telephone interview from Basra. “Our first objective is to go and find out if that is the case. If that is true, we’ll be able to disrupt the flow.” He said the second goal was to train Iraqi border guards.

This latter, as a strategy, has its ups and downs:

The volatile situation worsened when the 2nd Battalion of the Iraqi army’s 4th Brigade mutinied and attacked a local military outpost, said the official, who spoke on condition that his name not be used.

One more war ought to do it. And if that doesn’t work, there’s always another.

Fair notice: In other reports on the move, British officials argue that the attacks were “a factor” in the redeployment, but vehemently dispute the idea that they’ve been forced out. The Scotsman says

“We understand the militias in Maysan province are using this as an example that we have been pushed out of Abu Naji, but that is not true. It was very rare for us to take casualties.”

Politically, what matters here is not just the local perception that the Mahdi Army ran the Brits off the base, but the celebration. The Iraqis the invasion most helped – Iraq’s Shiite population and politicians, are showing none of that gratitude the President so wants to see. Also from the Scotsman, this important passage:

“The Americans are concerned with the inflow of weapons across the border. We are not saying it is state-controlled but there is a large tribal area that straddles the border and weapons are a very lucrative trade at the moment,” he said.

All along, US rhetoric has maintained that the Iranian and Syrian goverments were responsible for anything coming across either border – money, weapons or materiel, on the theory that the two countries could stop the smuggling if they wanted to. But since we’ve demonstrably failed to seal the borders from our side, there’s no evidence that Iran and Syria could do it from theirs.