The Zong

It seemed like some of the reports coming out of Iraq yesterday might actually be good news. We learned that hundreds of Shiite militiamen were killed in a battle led by Iraqi forces who prevented a plan to assassinate a number of clerics during the climax of the observance of Ashura, an anniversary marking (ironically enough) a battle which consolidated “the schism between Shi’ite and Sunni Islam.”

The President wasted no time in seizing on a political opportunity, even before most details of the battle were fully available to the public (They still aren’t).

Bush was asked in a National Public Radio interview about an Iraqi raid Sunday, backed by U.S. helicopters, on a heavily armed Shiite cult that Iraqi officials said was poised to assassinate the country’s Shiite religious leadership. “This fight is an indication of what is taking place, and that is the Iraqis are beginning to take the lead,” Bush said. “So my first reaction on this report from the battlefield is that the Iraqis are beginning to show me something.”

My first thought was, right on! No matter how you look at it, Iraqis defending their own country from a bunch of evil bastards is good news for everyone (except the bastards). Today, however, the New York Times has some real details about the battle, and so we say “There’s the rub” for about the brazillionth time.

Iraqi forces were surprised and nearly overwhelmed by the ferocity of an obscure renegade militia in a weekend battle near the holy city of Najaf and needed far more help from American forces than previously disclosed, American and Iraqi officials said Monday.

OK, that kind of sucks. I wish I hadn’t gotten my hopes up.

They said American ground troops — and not just air support as reported Sunday — were mobilized to help the Iraqi soldiers, who appeared to have dangerously underestimated the strength of the militia, which calls itself the Soldiers of Heaven and had amassed hundreds of heavily armed fighters.

So this is the second time in two weeks that the military has “mischaracterized” their operations in initial dispatches. I can understand why they might do that while things are still going down, but damn, it really sucks to keep finding out what really happened.

A number of disconcerting questions arise from these development, not the least of which is “Are the Iraqis capable of defending themselves without American troops?” (a core principle behind the New Way Forward) Personally, I want to know how hundreds of heavily-armed fighters were able to get their shit together in such a way that an entire Iraqi battalion was beat back and pinned down, according to the Times.

The Iraqis initially sent a battalion from their Eighth Army Division, along with police forces, but they were quickly overwhelmed, according to an Iraqi commander at the scene. The battalion began to retreat but was soon surrounded and pinned down, and had to call in American air support to keep the enemy from overrunning its position.

Early accounts suggest that these fighters were basically a half-assed cult that nobody had ever heard of or knew existed until yesterday. This doesn’t bode well for Iraqi security.

Among the troubling questions raised is how hundreds of armed men were able to set up such an elaborate encampment, which Iraqi officials said included tunnels, trenches and a series of blockades, only 10 miles northeast of Najaf. After the fight was over, Iraqi officials said they discovered at least two antiaircraft weapons as well as 40 heavy machine guns.

Troubling indeed. Think about all the other little cults the Iraqis don’t know about. Were they there before we invaded and completely dismantled the Iraqi Army?

It’s still pretty early in the life of this news story, and perhaps details will emerge that will make this look better for the Iraqi forces. The destruction of this cult may be a positive development in that it prevented another sectarian attack, but it rings as a setback for the Iraqi Security Forces, who are charged with living up to what seem to be unrealistic expectations laid out by a clueless American Commander-In-Chief.

- M.G.