Iraq (And the US)

In the Basra operation, Juan Cole notices that Maliki rapidly sanctioned 10,000 ISCI and Dawa militia members to the Iraqi governmental forces to compensate for the thousands of defections.

(McClatchy) "The failure of Iraqi forces to defeat rogue fighters in Basra has some in the military fearing they can no longer predict when it might be possible to reduce the number of troops to pre-surge levels."

(WaPo) "Senior Army and Marine Corps leaders said yesterday that the increase of more than 30,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has put unsustainable levels of stress on U.S. ground forces and has put their readiness to fight other conflicts at the lowest level in years."

(Reuters) An IED "exploded near" the Iraqi generals in Basra.

And, Greg Mitchell at the HuffPo digs into the June 2005 suicide of Army colonel Ted Westhusing. The new news is that he was found with a note/memo addressed to Petraeus and Fil,

"You are only interested in your career and provide no support to your staff--no msn [mission] support and you don't care. I cannot support a msn that leads to corruption, human right abuses and liars. I am sullied--no more. I didn't volunteer to support corrupt, money grubbing contractors, nor work for commanders only interested in themselves."

This story is very murky so treat with caution.