Iraq

Two articles on the problems with the Iraqi security forces: A massive article in the NYTimes magazine on the Iraqi forces in Anbar, a 700 troop Iraqi regiment fighting with 270. But what got me were the "whack a mole" descriptions in both of an undermanned US force.

For all this, Anbar has long been what the military calls an “economy of force” operation, which is a polite way of saying that troop requirements elsewhere in Iraq have led American commanders to employ fewer forces in the province than the situation warrants. As a consequence, counterinsurgency operations have taken on the quality of a whack-a-mole arcade game. Every time the Americans have massed force to put out one fire, they have created a vacuum elsewhere that the insurgents have rushed to fill.

And McClatchy's Nancy Youssef travels with the 172nd Stryker Brigade in Baghdad.

In the end, the three days netted what seemed like a small haul amid Baghdad's violence: nine suspected insurgents and 37 weapons, most notably two 250-pound bombs.

Some residents pointed out where snipers and fighters usually are stationed. They told the soldiers that if they come back next week, they can find the attackers.

Imagine how that must feel on the ground. You've been in Iraq a few months (a few tours,) and you keep going back to the same neighborhoods time and time again fighting the same invisible enemy.

Laura Rozen has this frustrating one line post up: Has Bush called some people to inquire if they would be willing to replace Rumsfeld? In the past ten days?

Frustratingly, there's no more, nothing else there.

Fear is keeping Iraqis from attending mosque.

The "denunciation" of Iran by two Shia groups is largely internal politics within the Shia bloc. The IAP led by al-Hasani, sometimes described as "cultlike," has been combating the Sadr affiliated groups for territory, while Fadhila has been long involved in a turf war with the Maliki government over oil revenues. So, read this within context. This is gangs fighting over turf, influence, and money.

This quote from an article about people being killed for reading/selling the wrong news sources,

Saif Muhsin, a 33-year-old government employee, who lives in the Adhamiya neighborhood, is dismayed at the situation.

"I never expected that the country would reach this low point of freedom where people get killed for reading or even carrying this or that paper," he said, adding, "If only the government and the security forces granted citizens as much freedom to read different opinions as militias have to roam the streets."

"But the government sits safely in the Green Zone and the militants rule the streets," he said.

And, from that other war we don't talk about,

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Less than a year ago, this was a city on the rebound after years of conflict, drought and political isolation. Business was booming with an influx of international development aid, shops stayed open late, markets burst with locally grown fruit and traffic snarled hopelessly much of the time.

Today Kandahar is a ghost town, braced for the next suicide bomb and full of refugees from rural districts where Taliban insurgents are battling Afghan and NATO forces. Streets are all but empty of vehicles, foreign aid offices are reduced to skeleton crews and shoppers hurry home before dark instead of lingering at tea shops.