All right. So we have 4000 troops–a brigade plus–searching for the missing American soldiers south of Baghdad. We have another brigade diverted north from Baghdad to Diyala, where the war has escalated and the situation is a dangerous mess. The question is, who’s minding the surge? And while some neighborhoods in Baghdad may be–marginally, temporarily–safer now, the essential nature of the Iraq war hasn’t changed: whack-a-mole. Very depressing.
Another View: David Ignatius on the ground in Baghdad. I read this as the military commanders trying to put on a good face–some progress on the ground–but essentially pessimistic about the prospect of a political deal among the Iraqis. Which meanas the essential nature of the political situation in Iraq hassn’t changed, either: sectarian stalemate.
Heartbreaking: via Josh Marshall.
And then there’s this: Huge news from our own Bobby Ghosh in Baghdad. Two years ago, US intel officers told me that organizational meetings for many of the indigenous Sunni insurgent groups were being held in Harith al-Dhari’s mosque. His son was arrested for possession of bomb-making equipment–and released, because we were trying to launch a dialogue with the Sunnis. This is not a sign that al-Dhari is ready to play ball with the Maliki government. But it is a sign that the indigenous Sunnis have had quite enough of their foreign extremist partners.