Meanwhile, in Pakistan

The United States has escalated its unilateral strikes against al-Qaeda members and fighters operating in Pakistan's tribal areas, partly because of anxieties that the country's new leaders will insist on a scaling back of military operations in that country, according to U.S. officials.

Washington is worried that pro-Western President Pervez Musharraf, who has generally supported the U.S. strikes, will almost certainly have reduced powers in the months ahead [ed: see this article], and so it wants to inflict as much damage as it can to al-Qaeda's network now, the officials said.

  WaPo

Which is probably the same reasoning al-Maliki is using in attacks on Basra. When Bush is gone, he can’t be sure he’ll get the same backing.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.