The talks to form a unity government in Iraq are on hold again after a raid by Iraqi/U.S. forces against a Shiite militia that was holding a hostage and allegedly had participated in revenge killings. The Sadr people are saying the raid was against a mosque. The U.S. military is denying the charge, saying that the bodies were moved into a mosque after the raid. Jack Kelly thinks the raid is significant in two ways...

If the Shia militias have become the number one security problem in Iraq, it is less because the threat they pose has grown than because that posed by Sunni "insurgents" has receded.
If Sunday's moves marked a concerted campaign against radical militias, "this indicates the U.S. and Iraqi army are calculating there is enough space to open a second front," said military blogger Bill Roggio.

Back on March 18th, StrategyPage reported that: "the U.S. has told Iran that the Iraqi Shia militias being supported by Iran (the Badr and Sadr organizations) are going to get taken apart soon, and Iran is well advised to back off when this happens."

"Al Qaida is beaten, and running for cover," StrategyPage said Sunday. "The Sunni Arab groups that financed thousands of attacks against the government and coalition groups are now battling al Qaida, each other, and Shia death squads."...

The Iraqi officials who criticized Sunday's raids are allies of al Jaafari. The incidents may break the deadlock over the formation of a new Iraqi government, by causing the single largest group in the UIA, the SCIRI, to break away and join Kurds, Sunnis, and secular Shia parties in making SCIRI leader Abdel Mahdi prime minister.

"One has to wonder if that wasn't by design," Bill Roggio said. "The Coalition has been telegraphing this move for some time."

Read the whole thing.

Michael Ledeen says that President Hindenburg...er...Ayatollah Khamenei is dying of cancer. Will President Ahmadinejad step up after his death?

Abdul Rahman has been released. His case has at least one Liberal columnist considering the implications of world-wide public reaction, and the silence of the Muslim world.

Robert Samuelson sees a case of denial in the latest French demonstrations against economic reform.