Iraq Round-Up
A number of news stories and posts on Iraq caught my eye this morning.
Attack on Green Zone
A volley of mortars has struck the Green Zone in Baghdad:
A number of mortars have hit Baghdad’s Green Zone, with eyewitnesses reporting smoke rising from the area around the US embassy.
About 10 mortars landed in the heavily fortified district where the government and parliament are based, and which is also home to many foreign embassies.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
It comes a week after Prime Minister Nouri Maliki warned militants against attacks on the Green Zone.
US military helicopters took to the air moments later from the Green Zone apparently searching for the firing positions
I first got wind of this story several hours ago while preparing the Carnival of the Liberated from the Iraqi blog The Truth About Iraqis.
Directions on Iraq
Sally Marks has an excellent, excellent op-ed at H-DIPLO that I commend to your attention. That her position tracks my own pretty closely may only be coincidental to my liking for her thoughts here. Here’s a snippet:
What can we do? Recognize the gravity of the situation and that there are no good solutions. Do not confuse the “war on terror” with the war in Iraq, though we have allowed them to become entwined. Be patient, hard as that is. Accept that Iraqi politicians, unimpressive as many are, face difficult tasks in unfamiliar seas. Recognize that while Congressman Murtha is correct in saying that our ground forces are strained to the utmost and that is a factor, it is unfortunately not the only factor and we can do only a limited amount about it just now.
Hat tip: Mark Safranski
The Biden Plan to Partition Iraq
24 Steps to Liberty has fairly harsh words about Senator Joseph Biden’s plan to partition Iraq.
IraqPundit on Sharansky and the NYT
IraqPundit has some terse comments about Natan Sharansky’s op-ed in the Washington Post and the NYT editorial urging immediate withdrawal of U. S. forces from Iraq. BTW I think that Glenn Reynolds has it about right: what they say on the stump and what they’ll actually do as president probably don’t bear much resemblance to one another. The Democratic presidential hopefuls may even believe what they’re saying but running for president and actually being president are different things. What concerns me is the harm that’s likely to be done to the U. S. political scene when the discrepancy between what they’ve promised and what they can actually deliver becomes apparent.
The Iraqis’ Guide to Dangerous Baghdad
I found this translation of an email that’s been making the rounds among Iraqis about the situation in various districts of Baghdad pretty darned interesting.
CotL
The latest edition of the Carnival of the Liberated, a sampler of some of the best posts of the week from Iraqi and Afghan bloggers, is now available at Dean’s World. This week we’ve got an attack on the Green Zone, an encounter with the police, bloody beginnings, and much more.
You forgot to mention the mendacious Tony Snow’s assertion that Bush’s recent troop escalation was “part of Baker-Hamilton for heaven’s sake.”
It appears that Snow is either lying, hasn’t read the actual Iraq Study Group report, or is unable to comprehend their analysis.
Dave,
I presume the ‘they’ above is a reference to the democrats, and while such a discrepancy would be a concern, so long as what they propose is smart and the thought process behind it honest as well as transparent, the American people will welcome it.
Our ‘political scene’ has rarely been as unhealthy as it is at the present moment, and the republican front runners have yet to articulate any position on Iraq that even vaguely resembles the reality both on the ground in Iraq or here at home.
The Dems may not get to deliver all they promise, but please God Romney (double the size of GITMO) McCain (‘send more troops) and Giuliani (who knows what he thinks) never get the chance to deliver any of theirs.
Petraeus and the other generals are turning out to be as mendacious as the politicians. They simply haven’t been honest with the public about the costs and the time frames for our involvement.