Merry Christmas to our troops!

Thank you for your sacrifice and your desire to service and protect this country.

Cheaper Robo Soldier

Under $50,000.

NBC rejects ad thanking the troops for their service

Because of the inclusion of Freedom's Watch's website address:

NBC has nixed holiday advertisements meant to thank troops for serving overseas in opposition to the inclusion of a non-profit's Web address

The ads, paid for by the non-profit Freedom's Watch, are a simple thank you, the group says, with people shown paying gratitude to members of the military and the final frame showing the group's Web address, www.freedomswatch.org.

[...]

NBC is refusing to air the ads as long as the address is included, according to an e-mail exchange between NBC and the group, which Freedom's Watch provided to FOX News.

"Per my previous email, the www.freedomswatch.org website will have to be redacted from the commercials for approval. This comes from Alan Wurtzel and Rick Cotton," according to one of the notes.

Wurtzel is president of research at NBC. Rick Cotton is general counsel for NBC Universal.

What a shame they won't make an exception to their policy for these ads because they really are quite lovely. See for yourself:

(via)

House Democrat on Iraq: "There is no question that the security situation has improved,"

Another Democrat notices that the military can actually do the job they are tasked to do. Shocking!

Rep. Earl Pomeroy says he saw significant security improvements in Iraq during his fifth trip to the country, but said much more is needed.

"I've never felt more hopeful about the success of the effort than coming back from this trip," Pomeroy, D-N.D., told reporters on Wednesday. "At the same time, we need to transition this now, so the United States no longer carries the principal combat and security functions."

[...]

He said he saw significant improvements since his last trip in July 2006. For the first time, he said, he and his congressional traveling companions were allowed out of the secure Green Zone in Baghdad.

[...]

Pomeroy said he believes the administration is not doing enough to end the war. He has voted with fellow Democrats several times this year to establish timetables for withdrawal from the country.

If the surge is working, then why not let the military determine when to leave instead of the defacto defunding that the cowards in the Democrat leadership are doing now.

Pelosi: let them eat cake

Well, that's what it sounded like to me:

On Thursday, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, said he and the White House Iraq coordinator Gen. Douglas Lute discussed a compromise in which Congress would provide additional funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan if the administration accepted readiness standards for the troops sent into battle and a ban on the use of torture.

The Democrats' part of the compromise would be to extend the time period in which they would demand that troops be withdrawn from Iraq, Murtha said.

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi showed no sign of accepting such a compromise and said the Democratic Congress would not pass a war funding bill other than the one that had already passed the House.

How long do you think her resolve will last once Bush and the military start publishing the layoffs and what the troops have to do without because of the lack of funds? She's got too many seats in red districts to gamble that the Democrats won't be portrayed as trying to undermine the success of the surge by playing politics. She may even have a mutiny of the more moderate Democrats.

Not only is she undermining the war in Iraq, she's cut off further funding for Afghanistan. How is that a winning position? I really don't think it's a great idea for the Democrats to be perceived as being on the side of the enemy.

Jack Murtha acknowledges that the surge is working

Bwahahahahahahahaha:

U.S. Rep. John Murtha today said he saw signs of military progress during a brief trip to Iraq last week, but he warned that Iraqis need to play a larger role in providing their own security and the Bush administration still must develop an exit strategy.

"I think the 'surge' is working," the Democrat said in a videoconference from his Johnstown office, describing the president's decision to commit more than 20,000 additional combat troops this year. But the Iraqis "have got to take care of themselves."

Violence has dropped significantly in recent months, but Mr. Murtha said he was most encouraged by changes in the once-volatile Anbar province, where locals have started working closely with U.S. forces to isolate insurgents linked to Al Qaeda.

Here's a blast from the past where he's caught on tape video saying that the progress was an "illusion" (btw, while you're there check out the bunny snuff film -- I think it went on too long).

But of course the borg would never allow him to get away with that:

War critic Rep. John Murtha on Friday clarified an earlier statement that seemingly expressed optimism about President Bush's plan that increased troops in Iraq. Murtha emphasized that he still thinks the war should end.

After making a trip to Iraq last week, Murtha, D-Pa., told reporters Thursday, "I think the surge is working." But he said that was just one element and the United States was still failing diplomatically in the country.

Sunni insurgent turns to Americans in the middle of a gun battle

Here's a back story of what happened when one of the Sunni insurgent leaders turned on al-Qaeda in May:

He hailed the car carrying the feared leader of Al Qaeda in the neighborhood, a man known as the White Lion, on one of Amariyah's main streets. "We want you to stop destroying our neighborhood," he told the man.

"Do you know who you are talking to?" said the White Lion, getting out of his car. "I am Al Qaeda. I will destroy even your own houses!"

He pulled out his pistol and shot at Abul Abed. The gun jammed. He reloaded and fired again. Again, the gun jammed.

By this time, Abul Abed said, he had pulled his own gun. He fired once, killing the White Lion.

"I walked over to him, stepped on his hand and took his gun," Abul Abed, which is a nom de guerre, said at his new, pink-painted headquarters in a renovated school in Amariyah, as an American Army captain seated in the corner nodded his head in affirmation of the account. "And then the fight started."

It was the beginning of the end for Al Qaeda in Amariyah. The next day, a firefight erupted. Al Qaeda fighters closed in on Abul Abed. Most of the 150 men who had joined him fled. Holed up in a mosque with fewer than a dozen supporters, Abul Abed thought the end was near.

"The blue carpet was soaked red with blood," he recalled. Then the imam of the mosque called in American help.

A friendship was born.

[...]

'Americans are our protectors'

Abul Abed said the Sunni revolution has gone too far for that.

"Americans are our protectors and saviors," he said.

The real enemy of Iraq, he says, now is Iran. He pulled out his mobile phone to show pictures he has saved of the bodies of his four brothers, who were kidnapped and murdered in 2005 by what he suspects was a Shiite death squad with ties to Iran. One of them had a nail driven into his head. Another was missing a hand.

"Even animals wouldn't do that," he said, his face darkening. "Iran is so deeply infiltrated in Iraq, the problem here still cannot be solved. Iran wants to demolish us. If the Americans leave, then you can count Iraq as a second Tehran."

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Supplemental Bill Needed to Fund Anti-IED Effort, Director Says

The military can thank Reid for it's shortage. I'm the sure the enemy appreciates his efforts.

If Congress does not come through with a supplemental bill President Bush will sign, money for defeating the largest killers of American personnel in the war on terror will run out Dec. 1, a senior official said here today.

Retired Army Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, told Pentagon reporters that the organization will have to stop funding new initiatives and just maintain operations.

“We’re out of (funding) new stuff now; we’re going to have trouble sustaining current contracts after the first of December,” Meigs said.

The anti-IED organization needs the funding to sustain operations and to pay for equipment fielded but not yet turned over to the services for funding, Meigs said. For example, he said, his organization funds the Guardian man-portable jammer, the contractors to service it, and the training in the system.

The organization tests new projects, ideas, ways of doing business and equipment against IEDs. If they prove effective, the organization is nimble enough to quickly can get the equipment to the hands of servicemembers. Meigs said the organization has enough money “to keep the lights on” through April. The organization is funded via supplemental spending bills.

“What I can’t fund today will not go into the field next summer or next fall,” Meigs said. “It’ll be delayed by the amount of time we wait for funding.”

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How will the left spin the victory in Iraq...

That is clearly unfolding before our eyes? After trying to stop Bush from sending extra troops, trying to pull all troops except for the ones who would stay on their bases and occasionally fight al-Qaeda and denying them the funds to fight the war not only in Iraq but in Afghanistan as well, how can they claim that they had any part in this victory? You know they'll find a way, just read the comments to this post to see just how they'll try to spin it.

The US military accomplished their job despite the dereliction of duty by Congress and the besmirching of Petraeus and his plan. They'll try to spin it but we all know the truth because we have witnessed the actions of the Democrats as they have fought very hard for an entire year to end this war. Thankfully, the Republicans in the Senate were able to defeat their attempts to surrender in Iraq and that allowed Petraeus the ability to fight the war and for the military to train enough Iraqis to takeover when they eventually leave (as has been the plan since this war began).

So, spin away you lefties! It won't do you any good, nobody's buying it

Sunni and Shia banding together to fight al-Qaeda

So much for that civil war that we've heard so much about:

Despite persistent sectarian tensions in the Iraqi government, war-weary Sunnis and Shiites are joining hands at the local level to protect their communities from militants on both sides, U.S. military officials say.

In the last two months, a U.S.-backed policing movement called Concerned Citizens, launched last year in Sunni-dominated Anbar province under the banner of the Awakening movement, has spread rapidly into the mixed Iraqi heartland.

Of the nearly 70,000 Iraqi men in the Awakening movement, started by Sunni Muslim sheiks who turned their followers against Al Qaeda in Iraq, there are now more in Baghdad and its environs than anywhere else, and a growing number of those are Shiite Muslims.

Commanders in the field think they have tapped into a genuine public expression of reconciliation that has outpaced the elected government's progress on mending the sectarian rift.

"What you find is these people have lived together for decades with no problem until the terrorists arrived and tried to instigate the problem," said Lt. Col. Valery Keaveny, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 509th Airborne unit in the Iskandariya area south of Baghdad. "So they are perfectly willing to work together to keep the terrorists out."

[...]

"Sunnis-Shiites, no problem," said Obede Ali Hussein, 22, who stood at a checkpoint built by the U.S. Army along the Diyala River. "We want to protect our neighborhood."

(via)

Eventually, the politicians will see that reconciliation is necessary because the people will demand it. And then where does that leave Reid and the rest of the Democrats who have desperately been trying to surrender?

4,000 new Iraqi troops ready

I guess this means that some of our troops will be coming home -- how will the Democrats spin it when that happens?

In the expanse of gray desert east of Baghdad, an Iraqi Army brigade marched Sunday in matching boots and uniforms with M-16 rifles slung over their shoulder, showing off their new formation to Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.

The ceremony marked the first time an Iraqi brigade had made it to graduation as a fully trained and equipped unit, and Iraqi officials called it a milestone.

When a second brigade completes training, about 4,000 Iraqi soldiers will be added to Baghdad, freeing four Iraqi battalions to return home and fill holes left by a nearly yearlong campaign to secure the capital.

''This will increase the combat strength of the Iraqi Army throughout the country,'' said Lt. Gen. James Dubik, commander of the Multi-National Security Transition
Command.

[...]

At the end of the ceremony, Maliki declared himself, the government and Iraq a success, but warned the recruits:

''You have been taught the importance of the chain of command, you are not to be influenced in any way by any who are outside your chain of command,'' he said. ``Leave politics to politicians . . . you as military men, as soldiers, as heroes have the responsibility to protect the state so that all may live in peace whether they are in harmony or have differences.''

The return of Baghdad's nightlife

Further proof that the surge is working. I bet Reid is kicking himself for saying that the war is lost. What the Republicans should do an run ad with Reid's infamous words of defeat intoned over shots of the improved conditions on the ground and the quotes from this article:

And then, suddenly, you've arrived and the mirage has become an oasis of generator-driven light; a colourful jumble of trendy juice bars, cosy restaurants, fruit shops, roadside eateries and fish vendors, where children play, families dine and lovers meet.

"Even two or three months ago we would have been afraid to come here at night," said 20-year-old Hussein Salah, an off-duty soldier, slurping a milkshake with his wife, Shihad, at the Mishmesha (apricot) juice bar in Baghdad's relatively safe Karrada suburb.

"Now we sometimes sit outside here till one or two in the morning. It is quite safe. The security situation is vastly improved," said Salah, the orange light from a nearby flashing palm alternatively brightening and dimming his clean-shaven face.

Declines in Iraqi civilian casualties and a sharp reduction in bomb and mortar attacks have sparked optimism that the capital is at last starting to revive.

[...]

"As you can see, things are normal here. It's after eight o'clock and the streets are still full," he added, pointing to the groups of people, families and even single women wearing headscarves strolling up and down the road.

"Six months ago we had to close up by 7 pm, now we stay open till 9 or even later," he said, as live carp flapped about in a tank inside his small stall plastered with pictures of Iraqi Shiite clerics.

[...]

Up the road butcher Halim Sayed Ahmed, an Egyptian with a round face and hint of a moustache, is counting his lucky stars he didn't follow the rest of his family to Cairo when the conflict began ripping Baghdad apart two years ago.

"The butchery is thriving. Sales are up 80 percent compared to the beginning of the year" when violence was at its peak, he said between mounds of freshly cut chicken pieces, mincemeat and mutton.

"I have been here 30 years and I love Baghdad," he said. "Now that the security situation is improving, my family can return."

[...]

"I was shocked when I returned to see how much things had changed," he said. "It's like a different city. Things are so good that I now think it would be possible for me to get married."

Reid to the troops: Make due with what you got until February

The troops are doing their job, they're putting their lives on the line and what does Reid do in return? Refuse to fund them and their efforts to fight our enemy. If anyone thought that the Democrats supported the troops, this should end that fantasy. The Democrats just told the military to get lost: "We are going home for a nice Thanksgiving dinner but you won't get your funding because we have to please our base, not do our duty. You'll just have to make due with the money you have until February when the risk of a primary challenger is less and then we'll fund the troops. Maybe, we'll have to see if we feel like it then"

Frustrated by Republican roadblocks, Democrats now plan to sit on President Bush's $196 billion request for war spending until next year—pushing the Pentagon toward an accounting nightmare and deepening their conflict with the White House on the war.

"We're going to continue to do the right thing for the American people by having limited accountability for the president and not a blank check," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Senate Republicans on Friday blocked a $50 billion bill by Democrats that would have paid for several months of combat but also would have ordered troop withdrawals from Iraq to begin within 30 days. The measure, narrowly passed this week by the House, also would have set a goal of ending combat in December 2008.

[...]

The Pentagon confirms the military will not run out of money until mid February, after which all Army bases would cease operations.

But Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this week that without the money now, drastic steps would have to be taken in anticipation of the shutdown, including plans to freeze contracts and to furlough about 100,000 government employees.

Notices to some union employees would start going out in mid-December, he said.

I hope these union members remember who lost them their job around Christmas time. While the elite enjoy Christmas at home, these workers and the troops will not.

As I wrote this I kept thinking of the line: "Let them eat cake." Same arrogance, same level of compassion, same understanding of the responsibility to those they govern.

Updated: Yeah, I know it should be "do" instead of "due" but someone linked to it and I hate to break the link.

Nevada, if you re-elect this man, you are doing a terrible service to your country.

While the Democrats refuse to fund the war, the military continues to do its job

The emergency spending bill that the House passed only funds the withdrawal of troops.

The bill represents about a quarter of the $196 billion Bush requested for combat operations in the 2008 budget year, which began Oct 1.

It would compel an unspecified number of troops to leave Iraq within 30 days, a requirement Bush is already on track to meet as he begins in coming weeks to reverse the 30,000 troop buildup he ordered earlier this year. It also sets a goal of ending combat by Dec. 15, 2008, and states that money included in the bill should be used to redeploy troops and “not to extend or prolong the war.”

The measure also would set government-wide standards on interrogation, effectively barring the CIA from using such harsh techniques as waterboarding, which simulates drowning.

The bill was on shaky ground this week, after some liberal Democrats said they were concerned it was too soft and would not force Bush to end the war. Conservative Democrats said they thought it went too far and would tie the hands of military commanders.

The bill’s prospects brightened somewhat after three leading anti-war Democrats announced they would support it. California Reps. Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters said they had agreed to swing behind it because the bill explicitly states the money should be used to bring troops home.

But still uncertain the bill would pass, Pelosi on Wednesday delayed a vote by several hours while she met with supporters and asked them to help her round up votes.

Fifteen Democrats broke ranks and joined 188 Republicans in opposing the measure. Four Republicans joined 214 Democrats in supporting it.

But the military still has al Qaeda to root out:

The same day Multinational Forces Iraq reported it had killed Tha’ir Malik, the emir of Tarmiyah, Coalition forces fought a major battle against the terror network in the city. Twenty-five al Qaeda in Iraq operatives were killed and 21 captured after Coalition forces conducted a series of raids west of the central Sunni city searching for senior al Qaeda leaders.

The term “Coalition forces” in Multinational Forces Iraq press releases usually is referring to Task Force 88 or 'The Task Force,' the special operations hunter-killer teams assigned to dismantle al Qaeda in Iraq's leadership. The scope of the battle and number of al Qaeda operatives killed and captured indicates the Task Force may have come close to its mark.

The battle was initiated after soldiers spotted fighters and called in close air support to attack. The al Qaeda teams engaged the Coalition aircraft with antiaircraft weapons then moved to a secondary fighting position and then other buildings. Also uncovered at one of the sites were “two substantially large weapons caches,” which “included numerous anti-aircraft machine guns, surface-to-surface missiles, rifles, pistols, grenades, mortar rounds and artillery shells. Coalition forces also found a large quantity of ammunition and components used to manufacture improvised explosive devices.” No Coalition casualties were reported.

The military does it's job but the House refuses to do their's. Why doesn't the House want the military to fight al Qaeda? Why are they siding with our enemy? When the surge is working and we are having so many successes, why won't the Democrats in the House fund the effort? (To see some of the successes go here).

Reid vows not to fund the war

Well, he might as well have vowed it because this comes close to doing it:

A budget dispute erupted into a full-scale battle Tuesday as President Bush vetoed the Democrats' top-priority domestic spending bill and the party's Senate leader threatened to withhold war funding if the president does not agree to pull out of Iraq.

The long-anticipated clash came to a head as Bush rejected a $606 billion bill to fund education, health and labor programs, complaining that it is too expensive and is larded with pork. Within hours, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) declared that Bush will not get more money to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year unless he accepts a plan to complete troop withdrawals by the end of next year.

(via)

Our troops are not a political football that our politicians use to get their pork. It is all kinds of wrong that he would use them in this way. I hope his phone is wringing off the hook. And our candidates better be quick to jump on this arrogant overreach and denounce it.

58 Votes on Iraq War This Year

And the Republicans in the House ask why? The answer is obvious: BDS. The BDS of both the members of the House and of their base. If Clinton was in charge of this war, you wouldn't have any votes in Congress for withdrawal:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Thursday that she will bring another troops-out-of-Iraq bill to the House floor on Friday.

It will be the 58th "politically motivated" bill on the Iraq war by the House and Senate this year, Republicans complained.

"We are restating the differentiation between us and the president of the United States," Pelosi said at a press conference. "This gives voice to the desires of the American people," she said of the bill, which ties war funding ($50 billion for four months) to an immediate troop withdrawal.

"This is not a blank check for the president," Pelosi said.

House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (Mo.) criticized Democrats for refusing to recognize the important of the U.S. military mission as well as the "tremendous progress we've made against all odds in capturing and killing agents of terror, and providing a level of security for political reconciliation to take place.

"This bill is deja-vu all over again," Blunt said. "The last time Democrats tried to tie funding for our troops to a date for surrender, they failed - and that was before the marked turn-around we've witnessed on the ground over the past several months."

On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that American forces have routed Al Qaeda in Iraq from every neighborhood of Baghdad, according to a top American general - "allowing American troops involved in the 'surge' to depart as planned."

The newspaper quoted Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Fil Jr., commander of United States forces in Baghdad, as saying, "there's just no question" that violence had declined since a spike in June.

I wonder when it will dawn on the Democrats that with each vote they look more ineffectual? It won't pass in the Senate and they know that, yet they take the time away from other legislation to pass a meaningless resolution that is purely symbolic. With each vote they look like a child holding his breath because he's mad at his dad. If I were a Democrat in the House I might be tempted to vote down the next resolution so that the leadership would stop offering these bills and would actually get some work done before the Christmas break (how embarrassing would it be for the resolutions to start losing votes -- with the surge working there is a real possibility that some might want to change their vote to be in support of the work the troops are doing).

Hoyer Credits Surge for 'Decrease in Violence' in Iraq

Now that the surge appears to be having its desired affect, I was beginning to wonder how long it would take for the Democrats to start claiming victory in Iraq. Evidently, not long:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said on Tuesday that the troop surge, which began in June, has had a significant impact on the situation in Iraq and noted that he had always been critical of the Bush administration for deploying an insufficient number of troops in previous years.

"Stability and a decrease in violence, they've done that - God bless them. I'm not surprised that they did," Hoyer told Cybercast News Service in response to a question about steadily declining U.S. casualty rates in Iraq.

[...]

"I am not surprised, therefore, that when we send 20,000 additional troops and put them in an area of consequence that those 20,000 troops from the best army in the world, the best trained, best equipped army in the world brings a very heightened security," he said.

(via)

Yes, he always knew the surge would work and maybe he did. I'm just waiting for Reid to say this (technically he was for the surge before Bush proposed it :-)

Here's the audio.

(via)

3,000 refugees return to Baghdad

I guess we all can agree now that the surge is working and making Iraq safer for the refugees to return. I wonder when Reid will apologize to the troops and admit he was wrong.

In a dramatic turnaround, more than 3,000 Iraqi families driven out of their Baghdad neighborhoods have returned to their homes in the past three months as sectarian violence has dropped, the government said Saturday.

Saad al-Azawi, his wife and four children are among them. They fled to Syria six months ago, leaving behind what had become one of the capital's more dangerous districts—west Baghdad's largely Sunni Khadra region.

The family had been living inside a vicious and bloody turf battle between al-Qaida in Iraq and Mahdi Army militiamen. But Azawi said things began changing, becoming more peaceful, in August when radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army fighters to stand down nationwide.

About the same time, the Khadra neighborhood Awakening Council rose up against brutal al-Qaida control—the imposition of its austere interpretation of Islam, along with the murder and torture of those who would not comply.

The uprising originated in Iraq's west and flowed into the capital. Earlier this year, the Sunni tribes and clans in the vast Anbar province began their own revolt and have successfully rid the largely desert region of al-Qaida control.

At one point the terrorist group virtually controlled Anbar, often with the complicity of the vast Sunni majority who welcomed the outsiders in their fight against American forces.

But, U.S. officials say, al-Qaida overplayed its hand with Iraq's Sunnis, who practice a moderate version of Islam. American forces were quick to capitalize on the upheaval, welcoming former Sunni enemies as colleagues in securing what was once the most dangerous region of the country.

And as 30,000 additional U.S. forces arrived for the crackdown in Baghdad and central Iraq, the American commander, Gen. David Petraeus, began stationing many of them in neighborhood outposts. The mission was not only to take back control but to foster neighborhood groups like the one in Khadra to shake off al-Qaida's grip.

The 40-year-old al-Azawi, who has gone back to work managing a car service, said relatives and friends persuaded him to bring his family home.

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TNR internal documents disprove Beauchamp's story

Drudge has the evidence.

It's evident that The New Republic learned nothing from the Glass episode. Why would anyone believe anything they report? Obviously their fact checkers stink!

Petraeus Shiite Militias

Wow! This demonstrates that the surge has been successful and they're able to move on to other targets. This also demonstrates that even though America and our leaders in Congress are ready to raise the white flag, our military is able to do it's job.

Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker have concluded that Shiite extremists pose a rising threat to the U.S. effort in Iraq, as the relative influence of Sunni insurgent groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq has diminished drastically because of ongoing U.S. operations.

This judgment forms part of the changes that Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, approved last week to their classified campaign strategy for the country, which covers the period through summer 2009. The updated plan anticipates shifting the U.S. military effort to focus more on countering Shiite militias -- some backed by Iran -- that have generated new violence as they battle for power in the south and elsewhere in Iraq, said senior military and diplomatic officials familiar with the plan.

"As the Sunni insurgents quit fighting us, the problems we have with criminality and other militia, many of them Shia, become relatively more important," said a U.S. Embassy official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan is not finalized.

[...]

The campaign plan's recognition that Shiite extremists pose a relatively greater threat comes as rival Shiite militias have increased their attacks throughout southern Iraq in recent months, including the assassination of two provincial governors. A quarterly Pentagon report on Iraq released last month concluded that the instability in some southern provinces reflected the growing strength of the Mahdi Army, the militia of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Even so, officials said, the targeting of Shiite militias is far more sensitive for the Shiite-led Iraqi government than is the U.S. effort against the Sunni group al-Qaeda in Iraq. "When hitting on these militias, you are getting close to home for these Shia politicians . . . so it's a lot more delicate," said one military official.

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When I saw that they were hit the Shiites I figured that Maliki wouldn't be too happy. I hope that they continue even if he tries to stop them.