Basra

What's going on? I sure can't tell, though I feel like I've been holding my breath for two days. Something from al Jazeera here. How crazy is it to hope for something good coming from this? Sounded like al Sadr was at least making comforting noises for awhile, but apparently no longer. Violence apparently spreading to other cities. One line of speculation, as you probably know, has it that Maliki is just trying to take out a rival thug. I'd give lots and lots of money to hear what Petraeus really thinks about all this. Here's Juan Cole with some translations from Arabic reports--consider the source.