Sweet Vindication

The media are finally forced to admit the Iraqi Army did in fact succeed in Basra.

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.

“I am very happy about the situation right now. The deployment of the Iraqi army has made gunmen and gangsters disappear from the streets,” said court employee Mahdi Fallah, 42.

“The gangs were controlling the ports and smuggling oil. Now the ports are back in government hands. Everything in Basra is better than before.”

And to think, it was only yesterday they were still calling it a “failed” offensive.  May we have many more such failures!

This episode demonstates the other kind of typical media bias: not so much deliberately ideological as just overly pessimistic (bad news sells).  Of course, given that conservative/libertarian points of view tend to be more optimistic, that slant ends up being ideologically unfavorable to them as well.