Al Sadr’s militia can take on the central government forces in an open, large-scale gun battle, not just in Sadr City, but in an outlying city such as Diwaniyah.

Competing angle: Iraqi troops are finally confronting Sadr’s militia.

The Mehdi Army was assessed as having 10,000 permanent members in 2003 (probably bigger now) and as having the support of up to 15% of the Shia. That’s a big recruiting pool.

That’s my perspective. It’s a good sign that Iraqi troops are taking part in a significant operation and apparently are willing to engage Sadr’s forces.

“Al Sadr–just another example of “diplomacy” letting a thug survive to fight another day.”

Yes. A prime example of U.S. bungling in Iraq. He should have been killed the moment he first declared himself an enemy of the U.S.

Sadr’s forces are militia. The Iraqi Army is, for now, little more than militia — and has less unit cohesion than Sadr’s forces, who have a coherent ideology and identity.

However, the Iraqi Army has US military training and air support. An army that has never seen battle before, and that is made up of regionally-recruited and disparate volunteers, will need a little experience in battle to compete. Once it has that experience, though, the professional training and support will show forth. Washington had similar experiences early in his own campaigns, using forces likewise ‘transported from scenes of domestic tranquility’ to sudden battle. With experience, the training will come into its own.

They’ve got to run their hazards to transition from green trainees to veterans. This wasn’t a bad first outing: though they ended up withdrawing, if gov’t numbers are accurate they managed a 2-1 kill ratio. If gov’t numbers are wildly exaggerated, a rate of 1-1, given the enemy’s superior morale and cohesion, and familiarity with the terrain, would have been a victory.

One of the things the US has done in Iraq, which shows that we’re setting up a serious independent military and not just a puppet machine, is that we established an independent Iraqi TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command). They’ll be looking at the after action reports (another thing militia don’t really do), examining strategies, and refining tactics. The next time the army will be less green, and more able to shoot like they were taught, since it won’t be the first time they’ve been shot at.

This is the beginning of something, not the end of it. Have faith, man. We taught these people. They volunteered for this, though mostly they’re looking over the sight at fellow Shi’ites. This is how an army is made — by running its chances. If you want to take a hard look at how green forces have fared against determined, ideologically-driven opponents, this wasn’t out of line. The difference is that the IA will get better fast — it just needs experience to bring out the training. Sadr’s forces are more or less as good as they’ll ever be.

Agree that we should have killed Sadr long ago.