The fall of the Shia militia

NY Times:

The militia that was once the biggest defender of poor Shiites in Iraq, the Mahdi Army, has been profoundly weakened in a number of neighborhoods across Baghdad, in an important, if tentative, milestone for stability in Iraq.

It is a remarkable change from years past, when the militia, led by the anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr, controlled a broad swath of Baghdad, including local governments and police forces. But its use of extortion and violence began alienating much of the Shiite population to the point that many quietly supported American military sweeps against the group.

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki struck another blow this spring, when he led a military operation against it in Baghdad and in several southern cities.

The shift, if it holds, would solidify a transfer of power from Mr. Sadr, who had lorded his once broad political support over the government, to Mr. Maliki, who is increasingly seen as a true national leader.

It is part of a general decline in violence that is resonating in American as well as Iraqi politics: Senator John McCain argues that the advances in Iraq would have been impossible without the increase in American troops known as the surge, while Senator Barack Obama, who opposed the increase, says the security improvements should allow a faster withdrawal of combat troops.

...

One of the canards of the anti war left and many Democrats held hat the militia's truce was what made the surge successful. They get it exactly backwards. The militias stood down for two reasons. First they knew they could not stand up to US forces who were surging into the area and if they tried they would be killed. Second, the success of the surge took away their excuse for existence. Their original claim was that they were needed because the government was incapable of protecting the Shia from Sunni attacks. With the surge the attacks fell precipitously.

What we are left with is that the Democrats are just making an excuse for not crediting the winning strategy that they made the mistake of opposing. As is their want, Democrats never admit mistakes and they are scrambling to avoid paying a political price for being wrong about the war.