Heavy Fighting In Iraq, Baghdad A Ghost Town

I have to hand it to President Bush, the surge seems to have worked…in exactly the wrong way!

Today, Baghdad is a ghost town. Shiite militias have laid siege to the city as well as the southern city of Basra and the Prime Minister has issued an ultimatum. It seems that Moktada al-Sadr either will not or cannot control his groups and they are fighting regardless of a cease fire. The government is mounting a counterattack and things look like they are about to blow up big time.

So exactly how does this make things better? There seems to be no explanation from Washington on the latest dramatic events and their relationship to our surge. Indeed, though the surge had a limited effect, it did nothing to address the root cause of the violence. The Iraq government is still a mess and the Iraqi congress seems impotent.

Sure looks like a civil war to me.