Baghdad in the Midwest cornfields
What an outing to a market in Indiana would look like if a congressman's observations were correct.

The delegation arrived at the market [in Baghdad], which is called Shorja, on Sunday with more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees … and attack helicopters…. Sharpshooters were posted on the roofs. The congressmen wore bulletproof vests…. At a news conference shortly after their outing, Mr. McCain … and his three congressional colleagues described Shorja as a safe, bustling place full of hopeful and warmly welcoming Iraqis — "like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime," offered Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican. — New York Times --- MY WIFE came into the living room wearing a Kevlar vest, helmet and night-vision goggles. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Have you completely forgotten, silly head? We're going to the market." I placed my hand at my head. I'd been so caught up in stitching a minor wound I'd received earlier in the day after going to an outdoor fruit stand that I had completely forgotten. "I'm a dope, aren't I?" I said, chuckling, slowly shaking my head back and forth. She chuckled too, also shaking her head. We both chuckled. Then I winced from where a stitch popped. Carol helped the boys get ready, putting on their sneakers and body armor. I phoned the Indiana National Guard so that they could radio the 434th Special Air Wing at Grissom Air Force Base, which in turn scrambled two F-14 Tomcats. Then we hopped in the wagon.

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  thanks to daily KOS

Insurgents transform US military jails into ‘terror training camps’

America’s high-security prisons in Iraq have become “terrorist academies” for the most dangerous militant groups, according to former inmates and Iraqi government officials.

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Pentagon Extends Iraq Service
Active-Duty Tours to Go to 15 Months Instead of 12 Months

The Pentagon will extend the tours of duty for every active-duty soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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This one hits close to home. My son-in-law was due back from Baghdad in October. Now it's January. If we are lucky.

Divide and rule - America's plan for Baghdad
Revealed: a new counter-insurgency strategy to carve up the city into sealed areas. The tactic failed in Vietnam. So what chance does it have in Iraq?
by Robert Fisk

Faced with an ever-more ruthless insurgency in Baghdad - despite President George Bush's "surge" in troops - US forces in the city are now planning a massive and highly controversial counter-insurgency operation that will seal off vast areas of the city, enclosing whole neighbourhoods with barricades and allowing only Iraqis with newly issued ID cards to enter.

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Tomgram: Hiro, Can Sadr and Sistani Handle Bush?

Mortar attacks on the Green Zone, the American controlled and massively fortified citadel in the heart of Baghdad, were already on the rise when, late last week, a suicide bomber managed to penetrate the Parliament building inside the Zone and kill at least one legislator, while wounding others, in its cafeteria. Some parliamentary representatives were soon declaring the still unfolding American "surge" plan in the capital a dismal failure.

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Why I Declined To Serve

The day-to-day work of the White House implementation manager overseeing Iraq and Afghanistan would require a great deal of emotional and intellectual energy resolving critical resource issues in a bureaucracy that, to date, has not functioned well. Activities such as the current surge operations should fit into an overall strategic framework. There has to be linkage between short-term operations and strategic objectives that represent long-term U.S. and regional interests, such as assured access to energy resources and support for stable, Western-oriented countries. These interests will require a serious dialogue and partnership with countries that live in an increasingly dangerous neighborhood. We cannot "shorthand" this issue with concepts such as the "democratization of the region" or the constant refrain by a small but powerful group that we are going to "win," even as "victory" is not defined or is frequently redefined.

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US national command authority in disarray?
by Helena Cobban

Okay, I know I'm a little late writing about the news that came out last week (here and here) that (1) the Bush administration had decided to hire a new "Iraq war czar" (also briefly, and quite infelicitously, titled an "execution manager") who would sit in the White House and provide a direct operational link between the Prez and David Petraeus, the US commanding general in Iraq; and (2) no fewer than five retired generals have now turned down an invitation to take up this post. But I actually think this new plan is a more serious sign of disarray in the highest levels of the US chain of command than most people have so far realized.

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Incarcerations in Iraq, in context
by Helena Cobban

The WaPo's Walter Pincus has a very disturbing piece in today's paper in which he writes that the US forces in Iraq are currently holding about 18,000 detainees, the vast majority of them Iraqis. Pincus also mentions almost as an afterthought that "As of last month, the Iraqi detention [by which I assume he means the separate archipelago of prison-camps that is run by the Iraqi 'government'] contained about 34,000 detainees." For a total of 52,000? This is truly horrendous.

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