Good News From Iraq!

[Dave From Canada]

Beyond the four-day cease-fire, it looks like major concessions were made. They recognize the elected government as the sole legitimate authority in Sadr City and everywhere else in Iraq, Iraqi forces will take over security in Sadr City, attacks from the there are now prohibited, and the Iraqi government now can impose the law and pursue illegal situations. Hopefully this is a step toward large-scale reductions in American troops. I think it should be.

Iraqi lawmakers, Sadrists sign four-day cease-fire

“We have signed the agreement today,” said Khalid al-Attiyah, the deputy parliamentary speaker from the main Shiite political bloc, United Iraqi Alliance.

Al-Attiyah said the cease-fire went into effect on Sunday and Iraqi forces will be allowed to enter the area as early as Wednesday and “take over the security there.”

The statement said “the government will decide on the number of Iraqi forces to be deployed in Sadr City to achieve security, in order to refrain from asking help from foreign forces,” a reference to the U.S. military.

“Any attack against residential areas, government offices and the Green Zone are prohibited from Sadr City or from another area,” the agreement said.

The cease-fire stipulates that Iraqi forces have the right to “impose the law and to pursue illegal situations.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080512/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

And


Drive in Basra by Iraqi Army Makes Gains

BASRA, Iraq — Three hundred miles south of Baghdad, the oil-saturated city of Basra has been transformed by its own surge, now seven weeks old.

In a rare success, forces loyal to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki have largely quieted the city, to the initial surprise and growing delight of many inhabitants who only a month ago shuddered under deadly clashes between Iraqi troops and Shiite militias.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/world/middleeast/12basra.html