It has begun:

Thousands of U.S. troops and Iraqi soldiers launched a major assault Thursday on militiamen loyal to a radical Shiite cleric in Najaf, with explosions and gunfire echoing around the holy city's revered Imam Ali shrine and its vast cemetery.

..."Major operations to destroy the militia have begun," said U.S. Marine Maj. David Holahan, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines Regiment. He said thousands of U.S. troops were taking part.

Action is taking place in Kufa, as well. The Imam Ali and Kufa Mosques will not be targeted, but rather surrounded. Pay attention to Central Command; the Western media will likely continue to plod through its misconceptions. Zeyad, thankfully, dispels some of the Western myths surrounding Shiite order. Is it too much to suggest that people who tolerate the use of their shrine as a command center and weapons depot for men who intimidate, kidnap, torture and kill the local population — and yet would be "enraged" if its threshold were crossed by troops come to free the population of fear — are phony Muslims?

Let's look forward to total victory. Remember: this is the final stage of a proxy war against Iran, by whom Muqtada al-Sadr's street thugs and foreign fighters are bought and paid for. Iraqis want al-Sadr out — for their new lives to truly begin.

GOOD NEWS, BAD REPORTING: I meant what I said about sticking to Central Command. I've already found one Canadian report completely misinterpreting of the Marines' and Iraqis' intention to avoid the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, calling it a "halt of operations." Sorry, no. Centcom chastised agencies for incorrectly reporting a mass exodus from Najaf when there has been none, and added information that most journalists have missed: Mahdi thugs are firing at whatever moves from inside Imam Ali, including innocent Iraqis. So much for popularity. A Reuters report threw up a slightly misleading headline, all based on the accounts of "witnesses." Finally, the "Arab street" spectre is in full illumination, a return of the turnip ghost we haven't seen since major military operations in March and April of 2003. As I said above: anyone who accepts outlaws and Islamists terrorizing neighborhoods, making a fuss only when they're brought to justice, is a brittle hypocrite. Or a Near Easterner whose totalitarian government is doing the talking for him.

Can we agree that combat operations are going to be inherently confusing, and that initial appearances will be deceptive if taken out of the larger context of operations? Most press agencies won't, and that is pathetic. The trick is to find reports with the least amount of editorial-weeding necessary: the Washington Times, Telegraph and John Burns of the New York Times should be passable.