Some were dismissive of the attempts of the Iraqi government to exert control in Basra:

The negative sum nature of war is most obvious when, as predictably happened in Basra, the stage of bloody stalemate is reached. At this point, both sides typically want to come out of the fight with some gains to show for the exercise. Fighting on, they sometimes achieve this and sometimes do not. But the losses incurred in the process ensure that both sides are worse than they would have been with an immediate ceasefire.

In this respect, Basra is a microcosm of the whole Iraq war.

However, the negative sum appears less negative than it did. Basra, in relative terms, appears to be blooming.

three years of being terrified of kidnap, rape and murder – a fate that befell scores of other women – Nadyia Ahmed, 22, is among those enjoying a sense of normality, happy for the first time to attend her science course at Basra University. “I now have the university life that I heard of at high school before the war and always dreamt about,” she told The Times. “It was a nightmare because of these militiamen. I only attended class three days a week but now I look forward to going every day.”

She also no longer has to wear a headscarf. Under the strict Islamic rules imposed by the militias, women had to cover their hair, could not wear jeans or bright clothes and were strictly forbidden from sitting next to male colleagues on pain of death.

“All these men in black [who imposed the laws] just vanished from the university after this operation,” said Ms Ahmed. “Things have completely changed over the past week.”

In addition, the Iraqi government seems to be increasing its monopoly of violence, and their hold on the streets of Basra. Sadr has also decided not to fight. If Basra is a microcosm of the whole Iraq war, then we should all hope that this fragile and hard-won (by Iraqis) security is replicated throughout the rest of the country suffering persecution at the hands of terrorists and undesirable foreign infiltrators.