Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

If the Pulitzer Prize Committee were on its toes, it might consider awarding “ The Long War Journal ” a Pulitzer for superior reporting from the war front: “Fighting in Sadr City has been heavy over the past four days. The largest engagements occurred on April 29 when a large force of Mahdi Army fighters ambushed a US patrol on the border area where the wall is being built. US forces responded and killed 28 Mahdi Army fighters while suffering six wounded. On April 27, 22 Mahdi Army fighters were killed as they massed to strike at a checkpoint in Sadr City. Sixteen more were killed in separate engagements that same day.’ That is not the sort of paragraph one sees in the usual reports in major newspapers, most of which spun off the operative premise that Muqtada al Sadr would be successful in his promised “uprising.” Nothing could be further from the truth . “US and Iraqi troops killed 173 Mahdi fighters from the period between March 25 and March 30, when the Basrah offensive began up un...