Criticism Dogs Basra Battle

As US troops are drawn deeper into the four-day-old Iraqi crackdown on militants in Basra,  critics see a long and difficult road ahead. While President Bush praised the operation as a "defining moment in the history of a free Iraq," military officials murmured that the battle "is going to go on for a while," CNN reports.

Iraqi security forces control less than a quarter of Basra, and militants have deeply infiltrated the city's police. US officials told the Washington Post they distrust the motives of Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki in launching the offensive, and fear this "precarious situation" will tip Iraq back into the chaotic violence of 2006 and early 2007.