The Guardian, the Surge, Democrats and Iran

The Guardian is the leading far left newspaper in Iraq and is no way friend of conservatives in general nor Bush in particular. Regardless, their factual reporting is very often first rate. This is an excellent article on the surge in Iraq and the strategy of Iran and its proxy, Sadr.

Senior commanders of the Mahdi army, the militia loyal to the radical Shia
cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, have been spirited away to Iran to avoid being targeted
in the new security push in Baghdad, a high-level Iraqi official told the
Guardian yesterday.

On the day the Iraqi government formally launched its crackdown
on insurgents and amid disputed claims about the whereabouts of Mr Sadr, the
official said the Mahdi army leadership had withdrawn across the border into
Iran to regroup and retrain.

"Over the last three weeks, they [Iran] have taken away from Baghdad the
first and second-tier military leaders of the Mahdi army," he said. The aim of
the Iranians was to "prevent the dismantling of the infrastructure of the Shia
militias" in the Iraqi capital - one of the chief aims of the US-backed security
drive.

"The strategy is to lie low until the storm passes, and then let them
return and fill the vacuum," said the official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity. The Tehran authorities were "playing a waiting game" until the
commanders could return to Baghdad and resume their activities. "All indications
are that Moqtada is in Iran, but that is not really the point," he added.
.
. . .

"They [the Iranians] are calculating that the security operation will
continue for a certain period of time, and that it will do serious damage to the
Sunni jihadists and the insurgents," the official said. "While in Iran they will
be able to get more training and then once the Sunnis have been pacified, they
plan to return."

Juxtapose against this the Democrats claims that the surge will not work -- a claim made with no reference to the facts on the ground apparently. If the Democrats are successul in hamstringing the U.S. in Iraq, then the Iranian stragegy will work perfectly.