Latenight Quickhits

Just stuff I didn't get to today.

I heard this report on NPR this morning and something about it caught me. (They've been doing some very good "day in the life" type stuff on Iraq lately.)

There are volunteers of local Iraqi men who line the river bank in Kadhimiya; they are volunteers on the lookout for the bodies that float downstream and sometimes get caught in the reeds. One man, 18-year-old Ali Ghanem, has been doing this every day since last winter. He's said to be the best swimmer of the group.

The Boston Globe had a piece today on the continued American "logistical support" for the Iraqi forces. Whenever you hear or see the phrase "logistical support," remember that it very often means that the Iraqis cannot supply food or water or gasoline or ammunition to their own forces. Whenever I hear talk of Iraqi "readiness" I think of stories like this.

In Stars and Stripes there is a frightening look at the strength of the resurgent Taleban in southern Afghanistan, massing in large numbers, advancing "within yards of defensive positions," surrounding positions, better armed, better equipped, with more support from locals.