Add one more item to the list of incorrect predictions of failure and quagmire from the Left.

U.S. Military Says Shiite Rebels Seem to Have Ceded Karbala

From Elanor Clift to cite an example:

The Iraqi police are fleeing and militias loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are tightening their grip in cities that are the center of the country’s religious life. Umm...not any more.

Just two days ago, the Times was suggesting that U.S forces were forced to retreat from Karbala due to Iraqi anger at the prison abuse problems and the supposed bombing of a wedding party.

The decision to withdraw from downtown Karbala might have been influenced by the intense scrutiny given to the American military in recent days. On Wednesday, in a closely watched trial in Baghdad, a soldier pleaded guilty to charges related to the abuse of prisoners in Abu Ghraib. The same day, some Iraqis accused the American military of killing more than 40 people in an airstrike on a wedding party near the Syrian border, though military officials have said the aircraft were attacking suspected insurgent safehouses.