The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan (May 12, 2008)

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12 May 2008 03:09 pm

Basra

An immensely encouraging story in the NYT. "Immensely" because the Iraqi army seems to be the major force here. "Encouraging" because the pushback against Islamism is part of it:

At the College of Fine Arts, female students said they felt more, but not entirely, free to wear the clothes they liked.

“I used to be challenged for what I wear,” said Athari, a 19-year-old student wearing heavy makeup and a bright orange headscarf pushed high back on her head in the liberal fashion disapproved of by Islamic radicals. “Makeup was forbidden; short skirts were forbidden. I will not mention their name, but they were extremists. They are still here, but quieter now.”

Qais, a music student, spoke of his relief at no longer having to hide his violin in a sack of rice in his trunk.

Most of the students were Shiite, but one youth named Alaa said that he was a Sunni and that 95 percent of his relatives had fled Basra after sectarian killings, including that of his uncle. “I want to thank Mr. Nuri al-Maliki, because he cleaned Basra of murderers, hijackers and thieves,” Alaa said.

This last comment from a Sunni could be in the counter-insurgency handbook. Yes: the gains are obviously fragile and reversible. Yes: Basra is much easier than, say, Mosul or Baghdad because of its relative Shiite homogeneity. But that this calm has come with the Iraqi army, that is reflects on Maliki as much as the British and Americans: these are good things. If we are to leave Iraq, this is surely the best way out.

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