Finally, this was also a considerable propaganda victory for the attackers.
...And when coupled with reports of large forces trying to seize holy sites in Najaf, gets my spidey senses tingling that the bad guys are going into overdrive.

I suspect that we'll see a shrine/mosque bombed within the next 30 days, while the surge is debated over and over. We've telegraphed the "surge" so poorly that I fear our right hook will be a whiff and leave us with nothing more than a dislocated shoulder.