Like many others, I'm trying to piece together a coherent picture of recent events in southern Iraq and Baghdad. Certainly the assault on Basra and Baghdad shouldn't be viewed in isolation from General Petraeus' update to Congress tomorrow on the progress of the "surge."

In the meantime, I'll refer you to two earlier posts for some background on these events: Taking sides in a civil war (January 2007) in which an assault on Sadr City and the militia of Muqtada al-Sadr was initially contemplated by the U.S. just as the "surge" was getting underway, and Muqtada al-Sadr and a date to watch (February 2007) in which Muqtada's strategic retreat prior to the onslaught was considered. They were reasonably prescient.

Now that the U.S. has launched an attack in the heart of Baghdad, this interview with Lt. Col. Dan Barnett, commander of the operation, gives us some notion, from the American perspective, of its progress—

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4/8/08 - That video disappeared rather quickly from Youtube, so here it is again.

Tags: news and politics interview Dan Bartlett Iraq Sadr City Baghdad Muqtada al-Sadr video